A Rhea County, Tennessee, citizen says Graysville police officers arrested him on warrants that hadn’t been approved by a judge in connection with a property dispute, and he’s suing for $1 million in damages.
Gary Doss, who owns a trailer park, said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that a woman from Rhea County Animal Control came to his property on June 15, 2018, with two trustees from the nearby jail hoping to set up cat traps. Soon after, the lawsuit alleges, a Graysville Police Department officer named Kenneth Wayne Post arrived, told Doss to leave his property, and when Doss refused to leave, went and sought warrants for his arrest on disorderly conduct and other charges that same day.
But Doss’ lawsuit, filed by Chattanooga attorney Robin Flores, alleges several problems. First, the suit says, no judicial officer had approved the warrants at the time of the arrest; that came three days later. Second, the suit says, officers did not meet the requirements under state law for one of the charges – “obedience to officer.” Third, the suit says, Post was not approved by the Peace Officers Standards and Training Council at the time. And fourth, the suit says, a local district attorney had already warned the town mayor in 2017 that prosecutors wouldn’t pursue any cases involving Post’s boss, Graysville Chief of Police Julie Tanksley, as “either the prosecuting or evidentiary witness.” According to the suit, Tanksley helped Post prepare the unapproved arrest warrants and was overheard saying she wanted to “get” Doss.
Reached Friday morning, Tanksley said she hadn’t seen the allegations against her yet and declined to comment.
Flores and Doss’ suit alleges a history of impropriety among police leaders in Graysville, a town of roughly 1,500 within Rhea County. With regard to Tanksley, the suit says, District Attorney General Mike Taylor wrote then-City Mayor Ted Doss a letter in May 2017 saying his attorneys would no longer prosecute her cases. Specifically, the suit says, Taylor cited the fact that Tanksley had previously been indicted by a grand jury in McMinn County, Tennessee, on two counts of extortion “growing from her official position with the Calhoun (TN) Police Department.”
Prior to that, the suit alleges, Graysville employed Jason Redden as police chief in 2008. Redden was previously a Chattanooga Police Department officer who resigned in 2005 after five separate internal affairs investigations related to misconduct, two of which were unfounded, the suit says. Redden was later indicted on 10 counts of official misconduct after a citizen alleged in 2013 that money had been improperly seized from her that wasn’t involved in any unlawful activity. Redden eventually pleaded guilty to two counts of official misconduct and was “no longer employed by the city,” the suit says.
Contact Zack Peterson at zpeterson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow him on Twitter @zackpeterson918.