Nearly four months after his charges were sent to a grand jury, former Chattanooga police officer Benjamin Dessalines has been indicted on a sexual battery charge.
Dessalines was arrested on Nov. 29 and charged with felony kidnapping and felony sexual battery after allegedly taking a woman caught shoplifting to his apartment, fondling her and telling her he wanted to have sex with her.
The kidnapping charge was dismissed during his preliminary hearing because Hamilton County General Sessions Court Judge Lila Statom didn’t believe prosecutors met certain criteria to charge Dessalines with kidnapping.
Her decision was based on part of the woman’s testimony, she said. The woman testified that Dessalines didn’t physically force her to go inside his apartment or get into his car, something Dessalines’ defense attorney, former Criminal Court Judge Rebecca Stern, elicited during a cross-examination. As a result, only the sexual battery charge was sent to the grand jury.
The grand jury could “review my decision as well and [could] decide my decision was in error,” Statom said at the time.