Chattanooga Pulse

Written by Gary Poole
Saturday, 31 January 2009 04:13

Some stories just don’t seem to want to die, and the case of Chattanooga police detective Kenneth Freeman vs the 71-year-old Wal-Mart greeter is far from being over.

Everyone is aware by now that Det. Freeman has been soundly punished by the department after an internal investigation into the incident at the Collegedale Wal-Mart where video footage clearly showed him acting in a highly unprofessional and confrontational manner.

He was suspended without pay for 28 days, assigned to take anger management courses, and will apparently be reassigned once his suspension is completed (though that remains to be confirmed).

The latest wrinkle in the ongoing drama involves the The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. They have launched an investigation of their own into the matter, after being asked to take a look at the incident by District Attorney Bill Cox. The investigation is not expected to take more than a few days, after which the TBI turn their results over to Cox to decide whether to pursue criminal charges or not.

One touchy issue is whether or not Freeman was initially justified in reacting to the greeter’s grabbing of his arm from behind. Technically, the greeter could be charged with assault himself, even though he told investigators that he merely “brushed his arm” when asking to see Freeman’s receipt. The video footage is not clear on the level of contact, and Wal-Mart officials, while confirming that it is against company policy for any employee to grab or make physical contact with a customer for any reason, has made no formal comment on the incident. What Freeman did after the initial contact, especially his altercation with the bystander who came to the greeter’s aid, could however spell trouble for the detective, above and behind the punishment he has already been given.

But that’s not all the news… no, our good friends over at News Channel 9 have been doing some solid investigating of their own. They have acquired Freeman’s personnel files and made some interesting discoveries. Chief among them is the fact that Freeman has received 32 internal affairs complaints in the 11 years he’s been on the force, a quarter of them relating to excessive use of force. However, before anyone gets out the tar and feather, only two of the complaints involving use of force were sustained, and one of them is the current Wal-Mart case.