A former Chattanooga police officer who has been charged with sexual battery is now facing a $300,000 lawsuit filed on behalf of the alleged victim.
The lawsuit, filed in Hamilton County Circuit Court on Thursday, alleges that officer Benjamin Dessalines and the Chattanooga Police Department violated the constitutional rights of the plaintiff, identified only as Jane Doe. Specifically, it states her Fourth Amendment rights to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures were violated.
The city is also accused of negligence for failing to properly train or retrain the officer.
The city of Chattanooga referred all questions to Chattanooga Police Department spokeswoman Elisa Myzal, who declined to comment citing ongoing litigation but clarified questions about Dessalines' disciplinary file.
The suit claims the police department "had notice" of at least one other allegation of sexual assault involving Dessalines, who was hired in July 2016.
Dessalines' internal affairs file, however, only shows two citizen complaints - one in May 2017 for rudeness and another in May 2018 for discourtesy.
The 2017 complaint for rudeness was unfounded, Myzal said. The 2018 complaint for discourtesy, however, was sustained. Dessalines' body camera was also found not be on during that incident - a response to a noise complaint - which led to an allegation of improper procedure being sustained.
Apart from the November 2018 entry for the criminal offense, there are two others: one for counseling and one is for an award or commendation.
Inside the lawsuit
At around 6 p.m. on Nov. 8, 2018, a woman and her mother were shopping at Food City on Lee Highway when one of them was caught shoplifting.
The daughter went on to be detained for about five hours, the lawsuit states. She was finally released at around 11 p.m. and called her aunt, who was unable to pick her up.
"Upon hearing Plaintiff's plight, [Dessalines] volunteered to drive Plaintiff home," the lawsuit states. He told her to walk to another business' parking lot "so no one would see her waiting on him."
There, she waited for roughly an hour before Dessalines finally picked her up.
"He asked her if she wanted dinner and drove to a Taco Bell drive-through without any lawful justification, rather than proceeding directly to Plaintiff's home," the lawsuit states. She declined the food and repeatedly asked him to take her home to her children.
But instead of driving her home, Dessalines took her to his apartment "under the guise of needing to meet a friend." Once there, he touched her "breasts, crotch and inner thighs against her will and without her consent," according to the lawsuit.
After about 40 minutes of continuously asking Dessalines to take her home, he finally did but not before brandishing his personal firearm and loading it in front of her, the lawsuit states. The woman believed it was an attempt to intimidate her into staying longer, according to the suit.
She "believed she might die at the hands of Officer Dessalines for protesting his touching of her," the lawsuit states.
Dessalines finally drove her to her house at 2 a.m., according to the lawsuit. The woman "shortly thereafter" filed a formal complaint against the officer.
The Times Free Press does not identify victims of alleged sex crimes.
After the incident, Dessalines "continuously sought to make contact with Plaintiff through a texting app," according to the lawsuit. It does not clarify which app was used, but states the app "deletes messages after they are sent."
The investigation
According to police, the woman filed a report with the special victims unit on Nov. 27, and the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office began an investigation the same day at the request of the police department. Dessalines was placed on administrative leave the next day. And on Nov. 29, he was arrested and charged with felony kidnapping and felony sexual battery.
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 victim's testimony, Statom said at the time. The victim 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.
Dessalines was indicted on May 29 on the sexual battery charge. His next court date is Dec. 18.
He was fired from the Chattanooga Police Department on Jan. 31, the same day another officer, Desmond Logan, resigned just minutes before his own disciplinary hearing amid a federal investigation into multiple rapes.
Logan was arrested on Sept. 12 after he pleaded guilty in federal court to two counts of deprivation of rights and admitted to raping three women in his custody and using a Taser on another.
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