Chattanooga rapper Charles Toney, shown in a viral video in December 2018 being punched and kicked in handcuffs by a Hamilton County Sheriff's Office detective, is now jailed in Catoosa County, Georgia.
Toney was arrested around noon Aug. 26 after several detectives responded to a home on Colony Circle in Fort Oglethorpe in response to a narcotics complaint, according to a Catoosa County Sheriff's Office incident report. A Black woman, later identified as 19-year-old Arione Matthews, answered the door to detectives when they arrived, the report stated. The detectives introduced themselves and, according to the report, they could smell marijuana coming from inside the residence and asked Matthews to step outside of the home for questioning.
Matthews told officers the home belonged to her mother, April Parks, and that Parks and her fiance, Toney, lived at the residence with three children. She said she was there to babysit two of the children.
Officers asked where Parks was, to which Matthews responded that she was at court with Toney. At this point, law enforcement requested permission to search the residence. Matthews said she could not consent because it was not her home.
Detectives then asked if Matthews needed to check on the kids. She said she did, and they entered the residence together to check on the children. The report said that officers did not see anyone else in the residence at that time, other than the children, who were asleep.
Officers then exited the residence and obtained a search warrant, due to the strong odor of marijuana they reported coming from the home. Parks was contacted by Matthews, the report said, and said she was on her way home. Upon her arrival, the report said officers served her with the search warrant and re-entered the residence with both Matthews and Parks.
At that point, officers reported that the back door of the residence, which had been closed earlier in the day, was open.
"Detectives then heard a loud banging noise coming from the attic. Detectives located the attic access in the garage area of the residence and opened the access panel," the report said.
A detective stuck his head inside the access panel and saw a Black man, later identified as Toney, standing on the far side. The report said detectives requested that he come out of the attic for "approximately ten minutes" before he did so.
When asked, Toney would not give officers his name. He did, however, have a debit card in his pocket with the name "Charles Toney" on it, according to the report. He was arrested.
On the way to the patrol vehicle, the report said that Toney began to resist arrest by "trying to pull away and by winging his shoulders side to side."
"[Detectives] gained control of the male by pushing him up against a parked vehicle so he could not break free," the report said. After this, the report stated that Toney grabbed a detective's hand and "pinned it inside the handcuffs" he was wearing, causing them to cut the detective's hand.
After Toney was taken to Catoosa County Jail, a neighbor reported seeing Parks drop Toney off inside the apartment complex behind the residence. The witness said Toney then climbed the fence and entered through the backdoor, which had been shut.
During the search of the residence, officers found a plastic bag containing greater than an ounce of a green leafy substance consistent with marijuana in the master bedroom shared by Parks and Toney, the report said. Multiple digital weight scales, a money counting machine, a large number of baggies and a Taurus model 85 .38 caliber revolver were also found in the bedroom.
A purse belonging to Matthews was also found in the home and contained "clumps of a leafy green substance consistent with marijuana."
All of the items were taken into evidence, and Matthews and Parks were also arrested.
(READ MORE: Chattanooga rapper sues Hamilton County, sheriff's office and deputy for 2018 beating)
Matthews was charged with possession of marijuana in an amount less than one ounce, while Parks was charged with purchase, possession, manufacture, distribution or sale of marijuana, possession of tools for commission of crime and possession of firearm or knife during crime, according to the report. Toney was charged with possession of tools for commission of crime, purchase, possession, manufacture, distribution or sale of marijuana, tampering with evidence, possession of firearm or knife during crime, possession of firearms by convicted felons and first offender probationers and obstruction of officers.
Catoosa County Sheriff Gary Sisk told the Times Free Press during a phone call that Toney awaits entrance into a probation detention program and confirmed that he is still in jail.
Ringgold attorney Larry Stagg, who represents Toney, could not be reached for comment on Wednesday or Thursday.
In December 2018, a Hamilton County sheriff's deputy was shown in a viral video punching and kicking Toney, a local rapper known as "Interstate Tax," during an arrest. Several weeks after the incident, the state dropped charges of assault, resisting arrest and tampering with evidence against Toney.
A year later, in December 2019, Toney sued the county for $750,000. Court filings said the incident collapsed Toney's lung and broke several ribs and his finger. That case is ongoing and a jury trial in the case was set for June 6, 2022.
Contact Kelcey Caulder at kcaulder@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6327. Follow her on Twitter @kelceycaulder.