An off-duty cop sitting on her porch in a bathing suit calls in a complaint against a neighbor, a man with six children tootling up the road in a little scooter with one of them in the seat with him.
By David Tulis / NoogaRadio 92.7 FM
She scampers into her clothes, gets into an unmarked police cruiser, runs down the road in Soddy-Daisy to the driveway entrance of her neighbor, Richard Booker, who encounters her with his phone camera running.
Meanwhile, Sgt. Jerry Workman — whose video is above — arrives on the scene and demands Mr. Booker’s driver license, offering no explanation as to why he is making the demand. Officer Workman arrests Mr. Booker, and charges him with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and reckless endangerment.
The video makes clear Mr. Booker used no violence, which is the standard for resisting arrest (thus, Mr. Workman’s is a false charge). Secondarily, none of the tests for disorderly conduct are met in this encounter. These charges, though filed and alleged by Mr. Workman, are dismissed by Judge Marty Lasley in Soddy-Daisy city court.
“The reckless endangerment was taken down to a misdemeanor, so that I could return to work,\” Mr. Booker says. “I’m not on any kind of government assistance so this has effected my large family.”
“I plan to fight in court for that charge to be dropped as well because I want my record to be clean again. I have never been to jail or had any trouble with the law/police in the past, so I want this to be off on my record.”
Judge Lasley said he is sending the last charge to the grand jury.
Mr. Booker’s constitutional rights are violated because he was arrested without a warrant. Warrantless arrests are banned by law unless the officer obtains one of 11 grounds for arrest without a warrant under Tenn. Code Ann. Title 40-7-103. None of these grounds appear to have obtained in his seizure.
Has the judge got the grand jury rigged, as it is in Hamilton County, so that every government person involved can participate in the violation of this man’s rights?