CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., Aug. 24, 2022 — Police chief Celeste Murphy has put three more cops on desk duty for lying as the local NAACP demands “a review of every case” involving the unreliabile prosecution witness officers.
“This issue is not about Police Chief Murphy, who has been on the job less than six months,” Rev. Anne Pierre says. “It is about treatment of the citizens of Chattanooga. No police officer or any other person has the right to lie in response to questions during a proceeding. The people of Chattanooga are due fair policing and testimony in every instance.”
The officers are Sgt. Bobby Adams, Sgt. Zach Fuller, officers Jonathan Adams, Charles Ballard, Celtain Batterson, Michael Hogsed, Michael Keef, Zach Smith, Gregory Stroud and Jerrell Wolff, according a list seen at the courthouse and reportedly sent to DA Neal Pinkston.
“No police officer or any other person has the right to lie in response to questions during a proceeding. The people of Chattanooga are due fair policing and testimony in every instance.” In defending Chief Murphy as one “who did not lie,” Rev. Pierre asks that Mayor Kelly and the city council demand a federal justice department investigation.
Says Marie Mott, a rights activist and candidate for city council, “Committing perjury, which we know is a felony offense, to be lying in court — David, this is 10 officers, and we have now idea, even if we know their names, we’ve got to look into how long they have been policing, testifying in court? We’re talking about potentially hundreds of cases, people who might be wrongfully convicted, pending litigation. This is huge — massive.”
Miss Mott, who has charges pending still from her role as George Floyd killing protest leader in Chattanooga, says training is partly responsible for lying on forms, before grand juries and at hearings and trials.
“It almost seems they are trained to lie. *** Police don’t lack training. They have a specific kind of training, to go into a courtroom and say what’s in the best interest of the department and not what is actually truthful about interactions with people in the community.”
Miss Mott gives me an interview today on Tulis Report (starting at 20 min). She gives her analysis of the now-13 officers put on desk duty for being untruthful in their public duties for nearly an hour on the Marie Mott show.
