Contributed Photo / Twelfth Judicial District Circuit Court Judge Justin Angel Twelfth Judicial District Circuit Court Judge Justin Angel has been appointed to preside over a case in which Tenth Judicial District Attorney General Steve Crump stands accused of being blackmailed into securing a conviction in a 2018 second-degree murder trial.
Crump has denied the allegations, which came to light when Chattanooga attorney Bill Speek filed a series of motions seeking a new trial for his client, Miranda Cheatham, who was convicted in the killing of her husband, James Cheatham, in 2016. She was sentenced to 18 years in prison, though she has maintained she was acting in self-defense.
Judge Andrew Mark Freiberg recused himself from the case last month.
"Living and residing within this community has meant exposure to pervasive sources of alleged information, opinions and commentary about this case preventing the continued ability to be a fair and impartial jurist," Freiberg wrote in his order of recusal.
Angel was later appointed by Judge J. Michael Sharp, the 10th Judicial District's current presiding judge.
Angel will move forward with the case, he said, and the upcoming hearing is still scheduled for Oct. 9, though it has been moved to 1 p.m. Freiberg's order to bring Miranda Cheatham back to Bradley County on Oct. 1 still stands, as no attorney has asked Angel to modify it.
On Oct. 9, the only issue that will be litigated is the defense's motion to remove Crump's office from any involvement in Miranda Cheatham's fight for a new trial. The request for a new trial will be heard at a later date.
The defense's motions detail several instances of alleged misconduct by the prosecutors who tried the case: Coty Wamp and Drew Robinson.
One of the allegations involves the suppression of a recording in which James Cheatham's sister confesses to a prior affair, allegedly with Crump, and admits to threatening to "f--- his whole life up" by airing their alleged affair if "something didn't happen soon."
The recording was never produced at trial despite prosecutors having been made aware of it by the Cleveland Police Department.
In their response to Speek's motions, Crump and assistant district attorney Paul Moyle said there never was an affair.
Furthermore, Crump's office claims the recording was actually a ploy to get Crump removed from the case because the victim's family member who created it had been "very dissatisfied with the pace of the investigation and at a meeting in May 2017 stated that if our office didn't charge Miranda Cheatham quickly he would see that someone else prosecuted the case."
It'll be up to Angel to decide if Crump's office should be removed from the case based on whether there is enough evidence to show a conflict of interest or appearance of impropriety.
Angel was elected in 2014. Then 32, he was one of the youngest people to hold a trial judge post in Tennessee. He was also the first Republican in three or four decades to hold a trial judge's seat in the 12th Judicial District, the Times Free Press previously reported.
Angel gained notoriety when, on Christmas Day in 2015, he granted a new trial for Grundy County resident Adam Braseel, who had spent nearly a decade in prison for a crime he says he didn't commit.
He was finally freed during a 2019 hearing during which a plea deal had been reached in which Braseel's murder conviction was dropped in exchange for him pleading guilty to aggravated assault. Angel gave Braseel credit for time already served and ordered him freed immediately.
Contact Rosana Hughes at rhughes@timesfreepress.com or follow her on Twitter @HughesRosana.