A string of witnesses testified Monday that former Chattanooga Police Sgt. Gerry Davis used his badge to coerce sexual favors from women, but the judge said he will not allow the testimony.

Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood said the evidence is not material to the rape charge faced by Davis. He also said the evidence is more prejudicial than probative.

The trial starts Tuesday in which Davis is charged with a "date rape" on March 27, 1998.

A jury from Nashville was chosen last week and will hear the case here.

The city police Internal Affairs department had looked into the allegation at the time. He was given a 28-day suspension, but no criminal charges were brought then.

Davis, 39, was recently convicted in federal court of accepting bribes from nightclub owners to provide "protection." He was given an 18-month sentence.

Judge Blackwood said he will allow the jury to see a video of a traffic stop of the woman bringing the rape allegation. She was stopped some four months after the alleged rape.

The tape shows the car being stopped, and she is told by Davis to perform field sobriety tests. She refuses, shouting at him, "You're the one that raped me. I will not cooperate with you."

Davis had another officer to take her to jail.

His attorney, Lee Davis, said the woman was driving erratically and some 85 to 90 miles per hour. He said she registered .20 - double drunk and pleaded guilty to DUI.

A man was with her in the car. He said he had just met her at the South Beach club and they had been driving around looking for a motel room.

A woman testified that in 1998 she was leaving Bud's on Brainerd Road when she saw Davis sitting in his patrol car. She said she knocked on his window and asked about another officer. She said he asked if she was drunk and she said (using profanity) that she was.

She said he offered to take her home, but she declined. She said she had heard tales of his being aggressive toward women.

The witness said a short time later Davis stopped her vehicle and gave her field tests. She said at the end he took her out of sight of the video camera and patted her down. She said he groped her breasts and private parts, then pushed her against the police car and pressed against her. She said she could tell he was aroused.

She was charged with DUI, resisting arrest and assault on an officer. She said she pled guilty only to DUI.

The woman said she reported the 1998 incident to Internal Affairs.

The witness said afterwards that Davis began driving by her place at the Waterford Apartments, shining a flood light into her living room and bedroom.

She said he later stopped her again on an outstanding warrant related to public work days. She said the warrant should have been recalled, but had not due to a paperwork error.

She said she was with two other females that Davis stopped that night and one told her he had offered to let her go if she would let him touch her breasts.

Another witness said when she was a security guard at Dillard's that Davis touched her inappropriately. She said she told him, "I thought we were friends."

A third witness said she was leaving Bud's when Davis stopped her and a friend. She said he was "flirty and we were kind of flirty to him."

She said he asked for their phone numbers, and they gave him incorrect numbers.

The witness said she later asked him if he was mad. She said he stated that he was not, but she said he would often give her "ugly stares" at the place she worked as a waitress.

Henry Vincent, who said he went to high school with Davis, said he was at the Voodoo Lounge on Market Street early this year and saw Davis outside the club with a female just after closing time.

He said Davis was showing the woman his badge. The witness said he and a friend went back into the bar briefly. He said when they came back out that the woman was performing a sex act on Davis in her vehicle.

Gerry Davis
- Photo2 by John Wilson