Any criminal cases that rely solely on the testimony of Chattanooga Police Officer Benjamin Piazza will be dismissed, Hamilton County District Attorney General Neal Pinkston's office said Thursday.
The comments followed a Times Free Press report that Piazza had presented criminal cases to the grand jury this week amid a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation probe into possible assault of motorist Fredrico Wolfe during a March 2018 traffic stop. Court records showed five people were indicted Wednesday for DUI arrests that Piazza made in 2017 and 2018, and the police department said it knew Piazza was going to court to present cases.
Spokeswoman Melydia Clewell said Pinkston learned the police department had changed Piazza's paid leave to desk duty on Jan. 25 and allowed him to return to court after a Times Free Press reporter raised the question. Pinkston now will evaluate those five indictments while his assistants continue to figure out how to approach Piazza's pending cases in General Sessions and Criminal Court.
It's not uncommon for officers who are or have been under investigation to return to court to work on their cases. Not every investigation results in extreme discipline or reveals credibility problems. And in Tennessee, officers present cases to a grand jury, not prosecutors.
"Chattanooga police officers are compelled to give required testimony regardless of their duty status so that persons in the legal process are not unnecessarily delayed or affected by ongoing internal investigations," police spokeswoman Elisa Myzal said in an emailed statement Thursday. "The Chattanooga Police Department understands the District Attorney's concerns over certain prosecutions and supports seeking guidance on how to proceed in order to best serve those impacted by the cases the District Attorney is questioning."
Moving forward on Piazza's pending cases puts prosecutors in a gray area, as there's no law for how handle pending cases brought by officers under criminal investigation, Clewell said. Another complicating factor is Piazza's personnel file, which accuses him of lying to police supervisors on at least two occasions, Clewell said.
"It is possible we can move forward with Piazza's cases if other officers were also on scene, or if strong evidence - such as wide, conclusive blood tests, or multiple eyewitnesses - exists," she said. "Cases which rely solely on Officer Piazza's testimony will be dismissed."
The Times Free Press reviewed all of the available charges Piazza brought against 139 people that he arrested in 2018. Of the 500 charges, records show, nearly 180 were dismissed in lower courts, 87 were sent to a grand jury for possible indictment and 61 yielded guilty pleas. A small number resulted in diversions or were withdrawn completely, and several more are pending. There are more ongoing cases from 2017, too, partly because of the nature of the charges.
Many of Piazza's arrests were DUI-related, and those prosecutions take longer since they rely on multiple blood tests for alcohol and drugs. Hundreds of DUI cases also "froze" in early 2018 when Chattanooga lawyers challenged a TBI fee system that could've restricted prosecutors from using blood tests as evidence at the state Supreme Court.
Contact staff writer Zack Peterson at zpeterson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow him on Twitter @zackpeterson918.