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Cookeville Police Chief Bob Terry's rocky climb to the bottom

Porno email ring at Cookeville P.D. includes police chief

 

Rumor, documents link Gaw, Terry

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. , (Aug. 28, 1999) -- Former Police Chief Bill Benson undertook an investigation into a complaint that on March 24, 1998, Police Officer William Drossman, speaking to Tennessee Tech students, slandered businessman Mike Gaw.

Gaw was widely reported to have been partially the target of a federal investigation involving, at least, General Sessions Court Clerk Lewis Coomer's files.

But the official records do not show that Benson took any action whatsoever regarding the officer's concern that there were leaks within the department. In fact, there is no record at all that Police Officer Drossman asked for an investigation in two areas involving Chief Robert Terry.

Booze for the chief, cash for the governor

Everyone was covering for Mike Gaw, ex-Cookeville cop says

It took the FBI to move in on ticket-fixing in PutnamCounty because Mike Gaw has sources and friends in law enforcement to ensure no local problems. But speeding may not have been the worst violation covered by political influence, Bill Drossman says

By GEOFF DAVIDIAN
Putnam Pit editor

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. [June 16, 1999] -- While he headed the Drug Task Force, Cookeville Police Chief Bob Terry chatted with a known cocaine user, washed it down with free booze and called officers to see if friends were under narcotics investigations, an ex-cop says.

June 19, 1998 -- District Attorney Bill Gibson's 13th Judicial District Drug Task Force has used asset forfeitures to indirectly supplement the salaries of its members, a practice that personally has benefitted drug agents empowered to seize and dispose of private property byauction, The Putnam Pit has found.

In a letter to City Hall acquired by The Putnam Pit, Bob Terry, the director of the 13th Judicial District Drug Task Force, writes that funds received through asset forfeitures are used to reimburse the City of Cookeville for the overtime incurred by members of the task force.

• Cookeville refuses access to Bob Terry's expenses
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. [June 10, 1999] - When candidates to succeed Bill Benson as Cookeville's chief of police submitted their applications and resumes, the winner squeaked through with less scrutiny than the others.

Sergeant Bob Terry, King of the self-authorized overtime, was on paper a mixed bag of slight formal education and extensive on-the-job training. His application states he went to 21 training classes between February 1990 and April 1998. One Terry supporter, Councilman Steve Copeland, said he had a "gut feeling" about Terry, who headed District Attorney General Bill Gibson's Drug Task Force for years while on the city payroll as a police sergeant. True, The Putnam Pit reported before his appointment that Terry ran up staggering overtime while director of the Task Force -- never mind other city directors are salaried and work however long it takes to do the job, and never mind other municipalities did not pay overtime for Task Force members.


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Missing files: Bob Terry's calling card
• Putnam Pit forwards information to police accreditation organization
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. [June 19, 1999] -- A Police Department official said he could not find any internal record of a complaint by former Police Officer Bill Drossman that Police Chief Bob Terry had an inappropriately close relationship with Mike Gaw, target of a federal probe into ticket fixing.
Captain Nathan Honeycutt, said he would make available a 75-page file documenting how the department wagged when Gaw complained that Drossman had uttered Gaw's name in a classroom. This file was not specifically mentioned in the original request for public records, but was offered and substantiates Drossman's concerns that there is selective enforcement of the law where Terry and Gaw are concerned.