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Customers
sue Cookeville Electric Department -- allege civil rights violations over
cut offs
Top
city government salaries: Top 23 city workers get $1.2 million
Jail suicide
COOKEVILLE, Tenn.
(March 17, 2001) -- 'Full' 2-day investigation determines deputies
should be 'commended' after a woman 'who did not appear to have suicidal
tendencies' 'shocked' corrections officers and other inmates by tying a
bed sheet to a security camera and jumping while sharing a cell with
other inmates. She hung there for 10-12 minutes before anyone noticed,
including the person who should have been monitoring the security camera.
Does this latest death raise questions about Sheriff Jerry Abston's ability
to run a jail? Even if it was a suicide, shouldn't jailers remove belts,
shoe laces and other items from cells? What does the security camera show?
*****
Cookeville threatened
termination of utility services 'for the purposes of collecting a debt
which was not owed,' suit contends -- complaint
-- docket
|
Shiplian
governance: The Municipality as a desperate criminal
Apologist of
the week:
"Cookeville
buys natural gas at wholesale prices from cross-country pipelines and then
distributes it out across the city to its residential, industrial and business
customers at retail rates, as would any business." Hair-Oiled
Citroën
Is government
'any' business?
Would'
any business' cut off fuel to a family if a relative had a delinquent bill
at a different address?
Would
'any business' borrow money in your name to sell you its product at a profit?
Is
the chief spending much time sending pornography from the department?
The
City of Cookeville, Tennessee
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New on This Site
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Ordinances
|
'Without
annexation a city will die or at least it will quit growing.' Cookeville
City Councilman Steve Copeland
Thinking
of relocating to Cookeville?
Two Tales of One City
Trying to Draw Industry
| If
money is all that matters Cookeville alleges the
Federal Reserve says:
[T]he most
impressive indicator of economic growth may be found in data reflecting
retail sales for the area. From 1988 to 1998, retail sales increased by
125%. Significant growth in the number of retail outlets and increases
in income have contributed to this growth. It is also assumed, but undocumented,
that the increase in variety and availability of retail outlets has contributed
to more person coming into the county to shop while fewer residents leave
the county for specialized purchases.
Taken as a
whole, all the foregoing indicators point to an area that is experiencing
solid growth. Especially significant is the fact that this growth has come
about without unduly taxing the capacity of the area's infrastructure to
expand to meet new needs. The schools, roads, water and sewer facilities,
etc. that have been associated with this growth have been implemented without
major increases in local taxes.
For
more |
If
justice and rule of law are important
Factors
not mentioned by Cookeville:
THERE'S
STILL TIME to move to Cookeville or start a business if you want to be
victimized by the growing debt bomb. See our Commerce
and Tourism page, painstakingly created according to the rigid standards
established by Cookeville City Mismanager Jim 'I say who the press is around
here' Shipley and City Attorney T Michael 'Mike' (God bless the person
who sues my client) O'Mara. |
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|
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Once again,
Shipley
pleads ignorance
And we're
beginning to believe him
'I didn't know
we were secretly monitoring private computer usage,' Cookeville's city
manager blurts in this paraphrase, 'but we're not doing it anymore since
you caught us, as far as you know.'
Although his
administration's only notable residue was making the word "Cookeville"
synonymous with "Cookies," "lying" and "civil rights violations," City
Manager Jim Shipley says he didn't know his government's website was sending
small electronic "cookie" files into the computers of innocent visitors
interested in learning about local issues.
Cookeville,
Tenn. (Jan. 10, 2001) -- The city's e-mail server is named 'Cookie
Monster' and messages are stored on a server named 'Ernie' -- one of Cookie
Monster's colleagues on the children's television program Sesame Street.
But
City Manager Jim Shipley says it was an accident -- he didn't mean to send
stealth cookie files into computers browsing to his government's web site.
The
files, capable of storing personal and confidential information about users
and of tracking their Internet habits, were not monitored, Shipley said
in a written response to The Putnam Pit after this publication discovered
'cookies' were being secretly sent to visitors to his site. |
Poll
results
|
Cookeville City Manager
investigates himself:
Shipley
announces he did nothing wrong because he did not know what he was doing
when the city spied on private computers
He also said the software
he will no longer use to snoop in people's computers has been removed from
the computers he used to do it, even though he didn't know he was doing
it
Shiplian governance
The
municipality as a desperate criminal
 A
Cookeville, Tenn., publication recently printed a list of crimes against
citizens at their homes, work and churches. Story
Cookeville
government is desperate for cash, partly because of legal fees to defend
civil rights lawsuits, partly because of poor management and sagging tax
revenue. So the city needs to broaden its tax base by annexation
and drawing in new residents. But that is difficult when the city manager
promoted the least educated candidate for police chief. So instead of acknowledging
crime -- which might chill industry, commerce and tourism but make the
streets safer -- they pretend everything is good.
Jane
Kirtley's report shows why Cookeville and the Tennessee  Municipal
League face so many lawsuits: In order to keep the truth from prospective
'clients', the government tries to control free expression. Column
Cookeville
City Manager Jim Shipley has placed the burden of this policy on the shoulders
not only of taxpayers across the state, through the Tennessee Municipal
League's Risk Management Pool, but on the legal rights of those within
his jurisdiction. Story
To
keep the truth hidden, Cookeville City Manager Shipley's government sends
employees running from the municipal building when a reporter seeks public
records.
Story
When
a reporter visited Cookeville to investigate a murder that would cause
bad publicity for the government, the city fought the effort. Instead of
looking for the killer of Darlene Eldridge, police began investigating
why a reporter was investigating, and investigated the reporter. To keep
the truth secret, the city illegally removed files from the public record.
Story
Now
the government is enmeshed in federal lawsuits, represented by a law
firm that performs unnecessary work and an arrogant municipal risk
management pool that is now coming to the attention of the attorney
general's office. Cookeville City Manager Jim Shipley, Police
Chief Bob Terry and the city will stand trial three times in 2001,
resulting from censorship, allegations of discrimination within the police
department and the firing of a former police chief who blew the whistle
on corruption. Story |
Tennessee
Municipal League's Risk Management Pool refuses to open its financial records
-
NASHVILLE,
Tenn. (Nov. 28, 2000) -- The Tennessee Municipal League, an organization
that serves local governments and which is funded with public money, refuses
to make public how it spends that money. Story
-
Washington,
D.C. (Nov. 27, 2000) -- U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear case
questioning how much retaliation Cookeville officials can dish out before
a reporter's civil rights are violated. But the extent of their abuse of
power will be aired in three federal cases naming city officials who stand
trial in the next 12 months. See
'Tripleheader'
-
Putnam
County Schools contemplate spending thousands to join the Chamber
of Commerce.
Ask
your children whether they know this
before you decide where money should be spent.
-
Binge
Annexation Or, How to recognize a failing police state faced with potential
civil rights damages and falling revenue sources when no one wants to move
there because of the corrupt government.
Putnam
County's watchdog press
|
Should
a mismanaged city collect money by abusing the judicial system when it
has squandered money on unnecessary legal fees stemming from efforts to
silence critics of its incompetence?
What
you need to know if you're relocating to Cookeville:
Includes
a comprehensive listing of such information as crime statistics; Equal
Employment Opportunity; home numbers of Cookeville public officials; Sonny
Boy's Sex Offender Registry; birth, death and marriage statistics; poverty
level; infant mortality; grocers/convenience stores/gas stations busted
for selling cigarettes to kids; regional economic profile and MORE!
Like
this site? Refer a friend!
|
TENNESSEE
UNDERWORLD
WorldNetDaily
Exclusive Series
Al
Gore's links to Tennessee drug, political thugs
|
Police Chief Bob
Terry asserts . . .
'Cookeville
is unsafe'
Cops stop hundreds
of cars; city may increase revenue through tickets
Throngs
of delayed drivers thank police for being pulled over and checked, Herald-Citizen
reports on basis of chief's statement.
"You
know, in this town, there is a presumption that people can come and go
and move about freely and be safe -- but unfortunately, that is not the
case in some places at certain times," Police Chief Bob Terry confesses.
|
Gore rep tries
to keep media off WND series
'Witch hunt' for
whistleblowers
inside Tennessee
police agency
By
Charles Thompson and Tony Hays
©
2000 WorldNetDaily.com
SAVANNAH,
Tenn. -- A representative of Vice President Al Gore's campaign, Doug Hattaway,
has been calling media outlets across west Tennessee attempting to stop
coverage of last week's series of WorldNetDaily reports detailing allegations
of political corruption by Gore and his close friends and supporters in
Tennessee.
|
|
Last updated
08/11/07 09:57:53 PM
|
The
Putnam Pit caught the City of Cookeville running its municipal court
in 1994 and 1995 to generate exceptionally huge amounts in fines and forfeitures
to carry out its other unethical activities. Since then, the Tennessee
Supreme Court also has determined that cities like Cookeville abuse the
judicial system to collect money. Do you think it is a conflict for City
Attorney Mike O'Mara to make a whole lot of money -- a real lot -- from
the city's general fund while he also prosecutes cases in the court that
generates the money he makes? What would a "good Christian gentleman" do
when he recognized the linking of his activities with "Christian" diminishes
the whole religion in the eyes of some people? Let
us know.
In
1990, Putnam County ranked among the worst 20% of all counties in the US
in terms of an average individual's added cancer risk from hazardous air
pollutants
|
Looper
denied justice
Victims
of Cookeville annexation aggression can fight back!
Judge John J. Maddux
Jr. has county official work on his property on government time, Herald-Citizen
inadevertantely discloses -- or was Coomer there without permission?
Welcome
to Al Gore's corner of the world
Lewis
Coomer rolls hay at Judge John J. Maddux Jr.'s property during government
business hours, H-C inadvertently reports
Story
says Coomer used cell phone to call cops after confronting burglary suspects.
Authorities say arrest was at 2:30 p.m. Thursday.
[But
if he has a cell phone, why does he use his Justice Center office number
-- and county employees -- to take calls on his private apartment rental
business which he also operates during business hours?] |
Circuit
Court Clerk Lewis Coomer:
Lewis
Coomer might as well rent out his office space in the Justice Center to
someone who actually works there . . . Of course, when you're pals
with a judge, you can do anything you want!
He lies.
He steals.
He cheats.
He rolls hay. |
'People
who tell the truth about me are
sum
bitches,' Coomer might as well say.
|
Now,
Judge
John J. Maddux Jr. is getting his hay rolled by this corrupt public
official on government time, the H-C inadvertently reveals.
What will this do
to Maddux's chances of becoming a federal judge should Al Gore
become president?
Judge
Maddux purportedly was not at home Saturday morning or at Judge Sells'
number and did
not return calls from The Pit before press time. [931KB .wav
file]
|
Click
here for more on Coomer's Crimes
|
|
Mr. Gore:
Is this what we can expect in Washington if you win?
Will your attorney
general be fixing tickets and mowing lawns for big shot Tennesseans? |
Guestbook
entry:
"You got one super
publication here. I encountered the Byron Looper story on a newsgroup about
appalachia and wandered through the Herald stories and backtracked to this
site. WOW!!!
I hope you have a
brick wall around your place. The "powers that be" must hate the ever lovin'
blue eyed #$@%! out of what you are doing.
I am going to come
back to the site to see what some of the other things are you write about
but Looper is what got me here. I am going to tell a friend of mine who
is a retired Freedom Papers publisher about the site to see how he likes
it.
Thanks for a great
site; the dog nose is cool, and like the old man said to Jeremiah Johnson
--hold on to your hair pilgrim." PJ in
Weenieville
Essential
Links for Enlightened Leaders
As Bertrand
de Jouvenel has sagely pointed out, through the centuries men have formed
concepts designed to check and limit the exercise of State rule; and, one
after another, the State, using its intellectual allies, has been able
to transform these concepts into intellectual rubber stamps of legitimacy
and virtue to attach to its decrees and actions. Originally, in Western
Europe, the concept of divine sovereignty held that the kings may rule
only according to divine law; the kings turned the concept into a rubber
stamp of divine approval for any of the kings' actions. The concept of
parliamentary democracy began as a popular check upon absolute monarchical
rule; it ended with parliament being the essential part of the State and
its every act totally sovereign. As de Jouvenel concludes:
Many writers on theories of sovereignty have worked out one . . . of these
restrictive devices. But in the end every single such theory has, sooner
or later, lost its original purpose, and come to act merely as a springboard
to Power, by providing it with the powerful aid of an invisible sovereign
with whom it could in time successfully identify itself. Article |
New
Putnam
Pit
Lying
cop
Monterey Police Officer
Tim Murphy said the gun used to kill Sen. Tommy Burks was one of two 9
mm pistols he bought illegally in March 1997. Murphy lied under penalty
of perjury when he said he was going to use them in his work. In fact,
former Mayor John Bowden gave him $700 in advance to make the purchase.
Should Murphy be punished for lying, as provided by law?
|
|
|
What
outsiders think when they read about Putnam County politics
Guestbook
entry from prospective Putnam County employer who followed Looper trial:
"After
reading some of this crap, I wouldn't move to Putnam for love nor money."
A
lot of others wouldn't move to a city governed by Fascists, either, so
the government, desperate for taxes, overpowers resistance and annexation,
allowing those who want to defend their land, their families and
their political ideas only 3 minutes to plead for leniency. Who would want
to live in a place where the officials would tell citizens trying to speak
about their futures not to create "an emotional circus?" Story.
ANNEXATION VICTIMS
Did you know: If Cookeville
drags you into the city against your will you, as a resident voter, can
begin a procedure to revoke the city's charter?
The
man who swore he taped DA Bill Gibson asking him to set-up former Putnam
County Assessor of Property Byron (Low Tax) Looper says he has been taping
people for a long time.
Dedmon
deposition [pdf file 1516K]
|
U.S. Supreme Court
dockets case naming Cookeville
city attorney, city manager in
civil rights violation.
U.S. Court of Appeals says they retaliated over Putnam Pit content,
but that there were no damages. Letter
Police
blame defense attorney after they misidentify suspect
By
SAMUEL J. HARRIS
Putnam
Pit columnist
COOKEVILLE,
Tenn. - Cookeville Police Officers, Zac Birdwell and Jeff Johnson
feel that their testimony under oath before the General Sessions Court
in their case against Desmond Irvin was inaccurate because defense counsel,
Will Roberson, tricked them.
Column
Reader
response: Herald-Citizen
has reality on backwards
From c.d. 'Sonny Boy' norman:
Lewis Coomer appears to be in
violation of "Time and Use of Property Considerations," as cited in state
law
Running a business from government
office is "Official misconduct" according to state manual
"[Lewis] Coomer's use of his county
office for personal business appears to be a form of official misconduct.
The State of Tennessee's General Manual for Clerks of Courts specifically
forbids a clerk to use the public office to operate a real estate business.
|
"We
are enormously troubled by the government's increasing and virtually unchecked
use of the civil forfeiture statutes and the disregard for the due process
that is buried in those statutes."
--
United
States v. All Assets of Statewide Auto Parts Inc. (U.S. Court of Appeals
for the 2nd Circuit, 1992)
|
Looper
discussion
Millions
To Ensure Health Coverage For Tennessee's Poor Go Unspent
| |
New
Putnam
Pit discussion
Should local officials take sobriety
tests before public meetings?
Here
is a new forum to discuss issues in Cookeville and Putnam County, TN.
It is a place to provide thoughtful comments about issues and for others
to respond. We ask only that the posts are relevant and appropriate. You
can join the community or post as a guest.
|
|
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TBI:
a Gore Whore?
Looks
like the fix may have been in
"So,
what's been going on at the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation in recent
years. Apparently, it's not a pretty picture, according to a series of
hard-hitting national stories exposing alleging administrative horror stories
soon to be released. They are aimed at TBI Director Larry Wallace, a couple
of his top administrators and more." Click
here for the whole story
R.I.P.
chivalry
State
investigates allegations by jilted lover that Children's Community Service
chief in Cookeville shacked up with married man at taxpayer expense.
Agency
withholds release of public records while criminal probe is underway. Click
here for the whole story
Wacky
McBrooms
Allan
Brittain asks court for compensation after McBroom's wife, Jane, 'in concert'
with daughter Amy, 'kick in the doors and enter the marital home
by force,' removing Brittain's property, court documents allege. Click
here for the whole story
Cookeville
still has no 2000-2001 budget.
Click
here for some Putnam Pit suggestions for cutting expenditures
Results
of past Putnam Pit polls
See
how other readers feel about everything from Byron Looper's complicity
to Bill Gibson's competence. Click
here for results
A
reporter's notebook
By GEOFF DAVIDIAN
From
Milan
From
Venice
From
Florence
I'll bet no one
in Florence ever said,
"We're
no worse than anywhere else."
FLORENCE,
Italy [March 1, 2000] -- I couldn't help thinking about Cookeville
Councilman Steve Copeland when I walked among the Renaissance art treasures
at the Uffizi Gallery and Galleria dell'Accademia today.
Not
that to me the councilman looks at all like Michelangelo's David,
although as far as I know I have never seen him naked. But he frequently
asks me if I can see anything good about Cookeville, and here I am in a
town where no one ever has to ask that question. Story
|
 |
Would
you want this man to handcuff your daughter?
95% of respondents in poll
say Police Chief Bob Terry should be fired
Why should any city employee
follow any rule or law when there is no consequence to breaking them?
What defense will the city have
if something does happen?
Everyone
knows about you, Chief Terry. Even when newspapers with the story are stolen
and discarded from the public buildings they are placed so your victims
can read about you, everyone knows about you. Everyone.
Imagine
. . . a Bible belt community trying to attract 
business
and create jobs, but keeping a corrupt porno thug as chief of police. Who
would want to move a daughter to a place with a government like that? Who
would send a child to a college in that kind of political atmosphere? A
community the world is watching cannot fool investors with misleading
Chamber of Commerce brochures.
Imagine
a government that would keep this
man in his job to show it will not bow to criticism; a government that
will continue to do the wrong thing in order to prove it is strong. Boy,
what dope would want to move a company or family to a place like that?Imagine
a man who claims to be for the community but does not resign when every
single act he has performed has been shown to be illegal, immoral and thoroughly
self serving.
WHAT
POSSIBLE STANDARD OF PERFORMANCE CAN THERE BE THAT ALLOWS THIS TO CONTINUE?
Tennessee
Association of Chiefs of Police
Value
statement
The
objects of the Association shall be to advance the science and art of police
services; develop and disseminate improved administrative, technical and
operational practices and promote their use in police work; foster police
cooperation and the exchange of information and experience among police
administrators throughout the world; bring about recruitment and training
in the police profession of qualified persons; and, encourage adherence
of all police officers to high professional standards of performance and
conduct. |
Here's
someone the community can be proud of, Jimmy Shipley's own police chief,
backed by the Cookeville City Council, including Vice Mayor Charles
The Pious.
About
Bob Terry |
Putnam
County used a questionable method of funding rural fire protection
You voted to save
the hospital, but . . .
Can
the hospital save you?
RIP Lewey
![[The PoliticalGraveyard]](http://politicalgraveyard.com/images/tpgsub.gif)
|
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Putnam County
Circuit Court Clerk Lewis Coomer is a thief.
|
Photos/Matt
Welchvv
Should
Lewis Coomer pay taxes on money he stole?
-
Judges
are special. Regular laws don't apply to them
Why
do they bother to call them 'disclosure statements?
Federal
Judges' Disclosure Statements Withheld
Unusual
Action Blocks Publication on Internet
Dec.
6, 1999
 By
Bob Port
NEW
YORK (APBnews.com) -- In response to a project that plans to make available
on the Internet the financial disclosure statements of the nation's 1,600
federal judges, a federal district judge in Florida has barred the release
of any of those public records until further notice.
|
|
|
| The
Miami Herald |
| Judge
William J. Zloch |
|
 |
|
Ex-wife
arrested in Tennessee deputy killing
Woman
Nabbed Outside Boyfriend's Miami Home
Dec.
3, 1999
By
SCOTT A. PIGNONE
NORTH
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (APBnews.com) - The ex-wife of a Tennessee sheriff's
deputy was arrested here after being tracked down in connection with her
ex-husband's shooting, authorities said. Heather L. Beasley, 30, of McDonald,
Tenn., was taken into custody outside her boyfriend's home just before
sunrise Thursday, police spokesman Warren Hardison said.See
the whole story:
The
police are out of control
A
father of nine children was shot to death by Denver SWAT officers by mistake
Time
to slam door shut on some raids
By
Chuck
Green
Denver
Post Columnist
Dec.
1 - News4, as it is known in the modern age of "branding" products
like toilet tissue, cat food, cars and TV news, has a terrific story on
its 10 o'clock 'casts this week.
A
father of nine children was shot to death by Denver SWAT officers by mistake.
It's
not that they didn't shoot to kill. They came armed and ready to fire,
they crashed into the man's home under the authority of a "no-knock" warrant,
they ran into Ismael Mena's upstairs bedroom and they gunned him down with
eight bullets. Story:
Time
to slam door shut on some raids
More
horror stories from the police state
Some
people are always whining. Just because they do all the work and get only
table scraps doesn't mean they get the right to speak out against authority!
Don't you respect the president. Or maybe, your ruling masters don't respect
you because you are a mindless coward afraid to stick up for yourself who
buys into the program and hopes there is a heaven. . .
Chaos
in Seattle:
Is
Cookeville next?
When the Cookeville
city council turned its back on Corridor J opponents, did it leave chaos
as the only force for democracy? Do you have the guts to resist? Is this
what it comes to when you wait too long to respond to corruption and greed?
National epidemic
of police brutality:
New
research shows extent of death resulting from law enforcement. So-called
'suicides' are the findings, in many jail cases. The
study is only 10 percent complete and already surpasses federal reports.
COOKEVILLE
HAULED INTO FEDERAL COURT FOR UNPAID BILL
City
Mismanager Jimbo Shipley refused to pay $20 for a Putnam Pit subscription;
now, the city faces a $400,000 trespass, contract violation and civil rights
suit. Good job, Jimbo. You'll show 'em, one of these days. It just won't
be today. . . .again.
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Definitely
not too progressive: Punishing the messenger for the boss's crime.
Cookeville police Internal Affairs investigation looks at alleged rule
violation or illegality surrounding department employee's discovery that
city's alpha-numeric pagers were used to communicate personal, possibly
sexual messages between female city employee and Police
Chief Bob Terry Terry
Police
Chief Bob Terry
|
Cops
to Shipley:
Which side
you on, anyway?
Cookeville
City Manager signs $3,000 property bond to free jailed
ex-councilman Mike Patterson after Patterson allegedly was subdued,
and was charged with resisting arrest, domestic violence and assaulting
a Cookeville cop.
Patterson,
a director of Cookeville Regional Medical Center, allegedly claimed he
was suffering a heart attack after the scuffle, but refused to go to the
hospital he serves, according to police reports.
On
Sept. 11, 1999, two police officers arrived at a residence located at
900
Edwin in response to a 911 call. There, according to the police report,
former Cookeville Councilman Mike Patterson had been in a violent confrontation
with his wife, and following an alleged fight with the officers they subdued
Patterson, hauled him down to the Justice Center and charged him with domestic
assault, assault on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest.
The
Herald-Citizen provides the blow-by-blow here.
One
observer told
The Pit: "Can you believe that ____? Shipley
signing a guys bond for assaulting a City Officer?
Ironically,
Shipley's signature came on the heels of Patterson's wife's warning that
Patterson knows everyone and would "get out of it."
"I
quickly got some information from (Mrs. Patterson) for a police report
suspecting that when I went to assist Officer Pleming, she would leave
and I'd be stuck without her biographical data," according to Officer Michael
Matt's report. "While I was writing, I mentioned that we were there to
help. I was surprised when she got angry again and said that I wouldn't
help, that 'he's friends with everybody at the Police Dept. and gets out
of everything.'
"Again,
myself and Officer Pleming tried to get [Patterson] to speak to us about
the incident. When he continued to refuse to speak except to tell us that
he knew Fred White and (Cookeville City Manager) Jim Shipley, I finally
told him, 'Sir, we are very serious about domestic violence and protecting
those victims. We have a bunch of broken glass, stuff thrown toward your
wife and signs that there was a fight. You appear to be the aggressor and
won't cooperate, so I am arresting you for domestic assault.'
According
to The Herald Citizen, "The 911 dispatchers, following standard
procedure, had alerted police after the caller hung up without saying anything.
"Officers Ed Pleming and Michael Matt went to investigate, and
they allege they found that Mike Patterson and his wife had
been involved in a domestic dispute which caused Mrs.
Patterson to "fear for her safety."
"They
also allege that Patterson resisted arrest and struck one of the officers
on the side of the head as he struggled with them.
"Here is Officer Matt's report on the case:
" 'We were dispatched to 900 Edwin Street in reference to a
911 hang-up telephone call via Putnam County EMS. While
enroute to the call, Cookeville Police dispatch told Officer
Pleming, who was closest to the residence, that an unknown
type of disturbance was suspected at the scene. As Putnam
County EMS had received the 911 call and initiated the police
complaint, that information could not be detailed or verified.
According
to the paper's excerpt from the police report:
"Again, myself and Officer Pleming tried to get him to speak to
us about the incident. When he continued to refuse to speak
except to tell us that he knew Fred White and (Cookeville City
Manager) Jim Shipley, I finally told him, 'Sir, we are very
serious about domestic violence and protecting those victims.
We have a bunch of broken glass, stuff thrown toward your
wife and signs that there was a fight. You appear to be the
aggressor and won't cooperate, so I am arresting you for
domestic assault.'
"Michael Patterson then made some type of comment like,
'No, you're not, and I'm not going anywhere.' As I said,
'You're under arrest' I reached for his right arm while he was
sitting in his chair. Michael Patterson jerked his arm away from
me and then Officer Pleming and I each reached for an arm.
Michael Patterson then lunged up out of the chair, pulled his
right arm away from me and sucker-punched me on what I
later found to be my left temple."
The
circuit court clerk's office reports that the bond was signed by Rebecca
Patterson and Jim Shipley.
The
initial court appearance is set for October 4, 1999.
Return
The
Herald-Citizen asked: With nearly 300 election workers hired for election
day in Putnam County, could counting and accuracy mistakes happen here?
has
much experience at it. It's dopes like this who give journalism a bad name.
They stand for NOTHING. And a cowardly journalist is the worst kind of
coward.
