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Meet
the men who opposed transparency and worked to keep Putnam County corrupt
Former district attorney general Bill
Gibson (disbarred while in office but forgiven); former judge Leon C. Burns Jr. (who
served too long, some say); former city attorney T. Michael O’Mara (who
helped the city hide records of police misconduct); former police chief Bob
Terry (whose department was rife with drug trafficking, dog killings, cop-on-cop
shootings and ticket fixing while he emailed pornography to Gibson [before Gibson
was disbarred]); and former court clerk Lewis
Fay Coomer (whose office illegally added charges to indictments and added
fees to judgments and whose office accounting software could not track
changes if money was received then skimmed).
20,000 wrongful convictions in the U.S.
Mullins v. Cookeville history
Are there enough judges to correct what years of unethical government
have created?
Special to the Putnam Pit
COOKEVILLE,
Tenn. (August 29, 2021) – Phillip Mullins, a black,
one-time crack dealer who was convicted of raping a white woman in the 1970s,
is now serving life without the possibility of parole in the 1999 murder of
Vernell Dixon, an 87-year-old widow whose bruised, partially-clad body was
found on the floor of her home near her bloody bed. Judge Gary McKenzie may
let Mr. Mullins finally see the evidence. Except the judge 
used to work for the prosecutor
who put Mr. Mullins in prison.
Mr. Mullins was
almost immediately a suspect after someone told police he was seen nearby.
Investigators took Mr. Mullins’ sperm, pubic hair, blood, and other
biological specimens to compare to what they found at the crime scene. Former
Thirteenth Judicial District Attorney General William E. Gibson never claimed
the DNA matched Mr. Mullins’ sample, nor did he share the DNA testing results
so that Mr. Mullins could see whose DNA was at the scene. Instead, the
prosecution produced a smudge left by what they say was the shoulder of the
killer when the door was forced open. According to an expert, the shoulder
smudge was left by someone about Mr. Mullins’ height.
While he was in
jail, Detective David Gragg removed Mr. Mullins’ clothing from the property
room without a warrant and took it to the crime scene before forwarding it to
the state forensics laboratory. On December 29, 1999, the Tennessee Bureau of
Investigation reported that fibers found on Mr. Mullins’ clothing that had
been transported to the crime scene were “consistent” with “a carpet standard
from the victim’s bedroom.”
The state lab
also found that one of Mr. Mullins’ shoes, taken by Detective Gragg to Mrs.
Dixon’s home, was consistent with a print found at the scene, but other
prints were either not matches or inconclusive.
Rather than
mount a spirited defense for his client, former Public Defender David Brady
tried to convince Mr. Mullins to take a deal
that would have him plead to 2nd degree murder and not serve more
than 25 years in prison.
The following
week, Mr.
Mullins wrote to Judge Leon C. Burns Jr., asking that Mr. Brady be dismissed. He said
that Mr. Brady was overburdened by other cases and was not dealing with
matters that were ripe for action. Mr. Mullins said that Mr. Brady told him
the state was going to convict hm “and that he does not care.”
“Your Honor, my
life is hanging on the line. I do not feel anyone in this court room would
want a counsel to tell them that he does not care.”
In response,
Judge Burns appointed another local lawyer, John Edward Appman, to defend
him. According to Mr. Appman’s testimony at a 2008 post-conviction relief
hearing, his strategy was to not ask for DNA samples that could prove someone
other than Mr. Mullins had been at the scene. And Mr. Appman did not object
when police refused to let him interview a woman who says police coerced her confession
that she was at the scene with Mr. Mullins. Terri Dawson said police
threatened to charge her with the murder unless she said Mr. Mullins was the
killer.
Like tens of
thousands of other prisoners in the United States who may be 
wrongfully convicted, Mr. Mullins
has sent letter after motion after petition to the courts, asking for
reconsideration on grounds that the prosecution was corrupt, the defense
attorney was ineffective, exculpatory evidence was withheld, witnesses were
encouraged to lie – or worse, threated with punishment unless they did.
According to
one study, as many as 20,000 prisoners are wrongfully convicted, and more
than half of them are due to misconduct by government officials. And
for every wrongful murder conviction, the real killer is still at large.
In the case of
Mr. Mullins, his memory is refreshed by thousands of pages of 
raggedy, dog-eared, stained and
incomplete records. Words are underlined and margins filled with scrawled
comments like “railroaded!” and “due process.”
What makes Mr.
Mullins’ yowls different from the cacophony of other such complaints is that
his claims are believable; not because he is a sweet talker or artful
rhetorician. And not because his niece, Jasmine
Woodson, is working day and night to get him justice, although that
does count for something.
What makes Mr.
Mullins’ claims worthy of a closer look is that they are about government
misconduct in Putnam County, Tenn., where, among other things, William E.
Gibson was the first sitting district attorney general to be disbarred for
violations of ethical standards while in office; Reno Martin, a police
officer, was convicted of distributing cocaine and money laundering; the former
clerk of courts, Lewis Coomer, added bogus counts to indictments after they
were signed by the prosecutor and added fees to judgments that he collected
but for which he did not account; the former police chief, Bob Terry, sent
pornographic email to General Gibson, and used his official pager for
alpha-numeric sex chat. The drug task force sold confiscated property to pay
their overtime.
Mr. Mullins
feels the DNA results would have made a difference at trial, but after 20
years he still does not have them. And he wonders who is being protected. On
the other hand, Charles Harlan, the medical examiner, is not any more
credible than Mr. Gibson. Mr. Harlan lost his medical license and died in
disgrace. In one incident, his dog ate part of a body he was examining.
In the long
run, things have worked out better for Mr. Gibson than for Mr. Mullins.
In 2016, the state
licensing board reinstated Mr. Gibson’s law license.
Although the players
have changed, things have not improved for Mr. Mullins. Judge McKenzie has
already picked up where Judge Burns left off, refusing to allow the defendant
access to records that might show he is innocent.
Craig Fickling, the
public defender appointed to the case, said, “we both know what Gibson is
like,” but added that the DNA hearing limited the paths open to seek freedom.
He said things have changed since Mr. Gibson was the prosecutor, but he said
he has 5,000 cases a year to deal with and resources are tight.
________________________________
________________________________
Texas voters kick under-performing
incumbent in the teeth
Chantal Eldridge beats scurrilous Texas judge
AUSTN, Texas (March 7, 2018) -- Chantal M. Eldridge,
whose sister Darlene was murdered in an unprosecuted Cookeville arson fire 25
years ago, defeated incumbent David Crain by a better than 2-1 margin Tuesday
and will succeed him on Texas' 331st criminal court bench.
Crain's shelf-life had passed the use-by date, Eldridge said in her
campaign. 
After
three decades on the bench, defendants with cases before Crain languished in
jail more than four months awaiting trial, the longest of any of the felony
courts in the county.
According to unofficial returns, Eldridge beat Crain 69-31 percent,
receiving more than double the votes for the incumbent, 68,105 to 30,225.
Eldridge's experience with the justice system in Tennessee has given her a
perspective few other candidates can match: her sister was murdered, dying 11
days after a November 11, 1992, arson fire. The investigation was botched,
records were concealed and Eldridge's brother, Fabien, was prosecuted for
beating up a suspect in the murder by a pair of local attorneys who
stood to profit in a civil case if Fabien were convicted. Former District
Attorney General William E. Gibson
was disbarred in 2009 for an unethical relationship with a prisoner his
office prosecuted, but was reinstated
in 2016. Gibson, who had a disgraceful
history as state prosecutor, has repeatedly denied he used cocaine
with Darlene Eldridge or her former boyfriend, who was a suspect in the
arson/murder.
Meanwhile, according to Austin newspaper reports, Eldridge faced questions
of her own concerning a 2006 Austin police investigation into allegations she
had sex with a 16-year-old exchange student from Brazil who was living at
her home. Police did not find facts sufficient to bring charges against
Eldridge, who denied wrongdoing and accused Crain’s backers of “dirty
politics” for leaking information about the investigation. While the age of
consent in Brazil is 14, that would not make her immune from prosecution if
the unsubstantiated allegations were proved.
Byron (Low Tax) Looper dies in prison
after guards forcibly remove him from cell
June 26, 2013:"Tennessee
Department of Corrections Commissioner Derrick Schofield asked the Tennessee
Bureau of Investigation to lead a probe into the circumstances of
Looper’s death, according
to the Knoxville News Sentinel.
Russell Johnson, district attorney general for the 9th Judicial District,
which includes Morgan County, approved the request.
Details remained sketchy Wednesday afternoon, but the district attorney
general said he was told corrections officers “had to restrain and remove
Looper as a result of an incident possibly involving other inmates” about 9
a.m. Wednesday, and Looper was taken for medical treatment before being
placed in a medical isolation cell.
Looper was found dead an hour later, Johnson said he was told. More
from Knoxville News Sentinel
More on Byron (Low Tax) Looper:
Latest story
showing dog-killer Eric Hall's and Trooper Bush's cowardice
Appeals court affirms ruling for
family
whose dog was shot by Cookeville
officer
"The
troopers put the Smoaks into separate patrol cars, after which Bush and Hall
can be seen on the videotape grinning and laughing."
-- Court of
Appeals opinion
Read
the Court's opinion (Sept. 3, 2009)
"As the
Smoaks knelt on the pavement and troopers applied the handcuffs, the two
Cookeville officers — one wielding an assault rifle and the other a shotgun —
prowled a few feet away, their raised guns tight against their shoulders and
trained on the Smoaks. Although this gesture was superficially menacing and
surely intended as an intimidating show of force, the way these two officers
paced and shuffled behind the troopers, wavering guns gripped white-knuckled
in their hands, exhibits such nervousness and fear that, even on video, the
tension is palpable and the ensuing events are
almost predictable.
______________________________
Allen Fredrickson photo
Police families who came
out to support Police Officer Eric Hall must feel pretty
stupid today when the national press is reporting on the Court of Appeals
opinion, which paints Hall and Trooper David Bush as cowardly thugs.
__________________________________________
"It is
also worth noting that, prior to trial, the troopers testified that pointing
a gun at a suspect, absent the justification for deadly force, is a
significant departure from customary professional police practices, and that
the correct position of an officer’s gun is in the “down ready” position
until deadly force is warranted. Nothing in this record provides a
justification for deadly force, and this was not the 'down ready'
position.
"Meanwhile, handcuffed
on the side of the highway and still wholly uninformed about why they had
been stopped, the Smoaks asked the troopers several times to “please shut the
door[s]” of the station wagon so that their dogs would not escape from the
car onto the highway. The troopers ignored these requests. When Mrs. Smoak’s
son, Brandon, asked Trooper Phann if he could close the passenger-side door,
Phann ordered him not to move. Lieutenant Andrews approached the driver’s
side of the car, determined that there were no other passengers, and closed
the driver-side door. At this point, Mrs. Smoak can be heard clearly, saying:
“My dog is not mean, he will not hurt you.”
"While
Phann was handcuffing Brandon, the Smoak’s one-year-old bulldog/bull terrier
mix, General Patton, jumped from the still-open passenger-side door and —
with ears up and tail wagging — bounded through the tall grass alongside the
highway. According to the Smoaks, the dog was headed toward James Smoak, but
Eric Hall, the Cookeville police officer with the shotgun, moved to
intercept; according to Hall, however, the dog was pursuing him and he was retreating in fear.
"Either
way, Hall back-peddled in a slight semi-circle,
toward the handcuffed, prone, and now shouting Smoaks, with the excited dog
following (tail wagging vigorously). Then, directly in front of the camera,
when the dog had almost reached Hall, Hall stopped, leaned down with the shotgun
and — with the gun’s muzzle almost touching the dog’s face — fired. The dog’s
head exploded in a mist of blood, bone, and brain, and its lifeless body
dropped from the camera’s view."
______________________________
