The federal lawsuit filed by the man wrongfully convicted in Grundy County for a 2006 beating death has a new trial date after a revised, 11-count complaint naming the county and county officials was filed in U.S. District Court in Winchester, Tennessee.
Adam Clyde Braseel, now 40, spent more than 11 years in a state prison for a crime — the beating death of Malcolm Burrows — he didn't commit until new evidence led to his release from prison in 2019. In December 2021, Braseel became the first convicted murderer in Tennessee to be exonerated.
A new complaint filed in Braseel's federal case over alleged violations of his civil rights seeks a jury trial now set for Nov. 19, according to documents filed Feb. 13 by Braseel's attorney in the case, Illinois-based lawyer Kathleen T. Zellner. The trial was originally set for April, then August, before being reset again, according to court documents.
The trial will be before U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan in Knoxville, documents state.
Document
As defendants, the new version of the suit names Grundy County government, the estate of former Sheriff Brent Myers and former Chief Deputy Lonnie Cleek. Myers died in January 2020. Two previous defendants — former Grundy County Sheriff's Office Deputy Andrew West and former Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent Larry Davis — were dropped from the suit in the February filing, according to court documents.
The revised suit still seeks an unspecified award of nominal, punitive, compensatory and presumed damages and accuses officials in Grundy County in charge in 2006 of malicious prosecution, suppressing evidence, fabricating evidence, conspiracy to deprive Braseel of his civil rights, a failure to intervene to prevent civil rights violations, having supervisory responsibility over officials in the investigation, negligence and civil conspiracy under Tennessee law. The suit accuses Myers and Cleek of conspiring to frame Braseel.
Zellner did not respond to a phone message and email seeking comment on the case.
Grundy County Mayor Michael Brady declined to comment specifically on the suit.
"The legal system is going to take its course, and we're just going to let our representation on the county level take the reins on it," Brady said by phone.
(READ MORE: Woman's son sues Meigs County over Feb. 14 drowning, seeking $10 million)
Under federal court rules, defendants generally have 21 days to file an answer after they are served with a complaint, according to the U.S. District Court website. However, the order resetting the trial date says all deadlines have been extended 90 days.
Based on December 2021 clemency hearing testimony from former Sheriff Clint Shrum, who defeated Myers in a 2014 Democratic primary, the new complaint accuses Grundy officials of "suppressing and/or destroying" a report and crime scene photos filed at the Sheriff's Office by Sgt. Michael Brown, an officer at the scene prosecutors didn't call to testify in Braseel's 2007 trial, according to court documents.
"I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but what I do think is this was some of the worst police work that I have ever seen in my life," Shrum testified at the clemency hearing, the suit states.
In an affidavit that accompanied one of Braseel's petitions, Shrum said the department's case file on the homicide was missing when he took office.
"When I took office on Sept. 1, 2014, there was not even a single case file on the Braseel case at the Sheriff's Office," Shrum said up, according to the suit. "The question is this: Was there something the past administration did not want me to see?"
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New trial date set in federal suit against Grundy County over man’s wrongful 2007 conviction
The road so far
Braseel, who had no criminal history or connection to the Burrows family, was charged by the Grundy County Sheriff's Office and the TBI with first-degree murder, robbery and aggravated assault in the 2006 beating death of Burrows and the attack on his sister, Becky Hill, and her son, Kirk Braden. Hill and Braden have since died.
In November 2007, Braseel was found guilty of first-degree murder, first-degree felony murder, especially aggravated robbery, attempt to commit first-degree murder, aggravated assault and assault, according to court records. He was sentenced to life in prison.
A 2011 appeal was denied. But in December 2015 Braseel's convictions were vacated and he was granted a new trial in a ruling by Circuit Court Judge Justin Angel. Angel ruled at the time that Braseel didn't receive effective legal counsel resulting in a failure to challenge questionable evidence.
But after Braseel was free for less than a year, the Tennessee Court of Appeals in October 2016 reversed Angel's ruling, and Braseel had to return to prison with his convictions reinstated.
Freedom from a fingerprint
In 2019, Braseel filed a petition for a new trial based on new evidence. A fingerprint had been found inside the victim's car during the original investigation. In 2017, TBI matched it to Kermit Bryson, a Grundy County man suspected of killing a deputy in 2008. Bryson killed himself before being apprehended. Braseel's lawyers have contended Bryson was Burrows' killer.
(READ MORE: Popular 'Criminal' podcast airs episode on freed Grundy County man Adam Braseel)
In August 2019, Braseel's lawyers and prosecutors reached a plea deal in which Braseel's murder conviction was dropped in exchange for pleading guilty to aggravated assault. Judge Angel ordered him freed immediately.
Gov. Bill Lee exonerated Braseel in December 2021, clearing his record completely.
In August 2023, Braseel was awarded $1 million by the state to compensate him for spending more than a decade unjustly imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit.
Since his release, Braseel got a job, married, moved to another part of the state, voted and had a son the same week he was exonerated, he told the Chattanooga Times Free Press in August. Braseel didn't immediately respond to a phone message left for him Friday seeking comment on the suit.
Contact Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569.