When Chattanooga TV news reports on local arrests, they often do little more than echo what they have been told by law enforcement. We recently saw a welcome departure from one-sided approach in a report by a station about 150 miles west of Chattanooga.
WKRN aired a report on a Tennessee State Trooper who had been arrested on suspicion of domestic violence. Rather than simply repeating the official line, the reporter actually spoke to the trooper’s neighbors. They know him and his fiancée, who live together in Lawrenceburg.
A man who lives across the street said the 29-year-old trooper has made the neighborhood safer by watching “for cars that come flying down the road for my kids, our neighbor’s kids, his kids.” The man added that the trooper and his fiancée “are good neighbors” and that “they never cause trouble.”
Another neighbor said she has spoken to the trooper’s finance and that she was told the fiancée “didn’t call and didn’t try and press charges. I know that they tried to make her press charges, to make a report, and she didn’t. There’s no violence here.”
She added the fiancée had not been injured, and had in fact, been “telling the cops to leave her alone and they wouldn’t.”
The four-year veteran officer was arrested after someone called police and reported that he had “grabbed (his fiancée) by the arms, pushed her against a wall and held her on the floor.” However, the arrest report apparently contains no mention of injuries to the woman or the officer.
The trooper has been placed on administrative leave with pay, pending the outcome of an investigation in the allegations.
If you have been charged with domestic violence, you can protect your rights, your career and your family with the help of a Chattanooga attorney experienced in domestic violence defense.
