The two Knoxville Police Department officers who resigned this week are the same ones under a criminal investigation, the lawyer for one officer said this afternoon.
Gregory P. Isaacs, one of East Tennessee’s best-known defense lawyers, said he represents Donald Scott Clark, who turned in his resignation Tuesday along with former officer Nicky R. Bryant.
“Our firm has been retained to represent Scott Clark regarding his former employment with KPD,” Isaacs said. “Our firm has notified Knox County District Attorney General Randy Nichols and Police Chief Sterling Owen this afternoon.
“We are in the process of conducting our own parallel investigation and would strongly caution anyone against jumping to conclusions as it relates to unsubstantiated allegations involving Mr. Clark.”
The officers, suspended last week, resigned Tuesday after being faced with the accusation that they plied two teenage girls with liquor and enticed them to perform a striptease, according to sources.
KPD spokesman Darrell DeBusk has refused to identify the two officers under investigation. He said the KPD has launched criminal and internal probes into the alleged misconduct of two officers.
Isaacs wouldn’t discuss the accusations against his client but asked the public and authorities to keep an open mind.
“We’re confident at the end of the day that there will be favorable information that comes forward as relates to Scott Clark,” Isaacs said. “We want to ensure my client is treated as an individual as this process goes forward and is not painted with a broad brush regarding any other individual’s culpability.”
Bryant, the other officer, hasn’t responded to attempts to contact him.
Both officers had been suspended with pay July 3, records show.
“When they were placed on administrative leave, their police powers were suspended at that time,” DeBusk.
Sources with knowledge of the probes said the officers provided liquor to two girls, ages 13 and 14, at the residence of one of the officers.
After providing the alcohol, the officers are accused of enticing the girls to perform a striptease for them. The allegations include that the naked girls then danced for the men.
DeBusk has refused to disclose the nature of the allegations against the officers. He noted the state Department of Children’s Services was involved in investigating the allegations, but he declined to say the DCS probe indicated juveniles were involved.
DCS spokesman Rob Johnson said his agency joined the case only to assist.
“Our role is to help children who are abused or neglected,” he said.
The Knox County Sheriff’s Office also is investigating the officers, according to Martha Dooley, spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Office.
“We’re investigating, and that’s all I can say,” Dooley said Thursday.
Clark has been with the Police Department for five years. Bryant has been with the department six years. Both officers had multiple reprimands in their personnel files and also commendations from the public for their professional demeanor.
Records show Bryant was suspended for two days in 2005 for not following policy in working an extra job. In 2004 he was suspended for one day for “a preventable crash,” according to records.
Clark was suspended for one day last year after he drove his cruiser out of state, records show. He was reprimanded this year for providing sensitive information to a civilian from the National Crime Information Center and in 2007 for having a dirty and unloaded firearm.
Both men continue to hold police certifications from the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission. The POST Commission certifies officers across the state.
DeBusk said KPD will alert the POST Commission that the officers “resigned under internal investigation.” If warranted, DeBusk said, KPD would ask POST to decertify the officers at the conclusion of the probe.
The commission hasn’t yet received that alert, said Christopher Garrett, spokesman for the state Department of Commerce and Insurance, which works with the POST Commission.
Garrett said any other police agency would be expected to conduct a background check, which would turn up the circumstances of the former officers’ resignations, and to notify the POST Commission, which would ask whether the agency knew how the applicants left their jobs.
Most agencies would at least hesitate to hire someone who left under such a cloud, Garrett said.
“It’s certainly discouraged, but it does happen occasionally,” he said.
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More Information: http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=92898&catid=2
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