Chad Bradley
A former city police officer who was given a suspended three-year sentence after pleading guilty to aggravated statutory rape is facing a probation violation charge.
Probation officials said on May 19, Signal Mountain Officer Brandon Warren was running radar in the 1000 block of Ridgeway Avenue and pulled a vehicle over that was driven by Bradley due to a non-working tail light.
The officer said he could smell a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from Bradley's breath. He said he had "two beers two hours ago."
The officer said Bradley performed poorly on field sobriety tests and he was taken to the County Jail after a blood draw.
Bradley was again at the jail this week on the probation violation. He will appear Aug. 17 before Criminal Court Judge Don Poole.
Bradley had faced 2-4 years at the sentencing last year conducted by Judge Poole. Bradley earlier pleaded guilty to statutory rape in Meigs County and got a two-year sentence there. He served 30 days in jail in Meigs County. The cases involved sex with the same 17-year-old girl.
Bradley is classified as a registered sex offender. Sex offenders on probationi are not allowed to use any alcohol.
Bradley testified earlier that he met the girl while working a second job at the Bluff View Art District. He said she and other girls were dancing around and he checked them to see if they might be intoxicated. He said afterward they came up to him and began talking. He said that led him to begin seeing the Meigs County girl. He said she looked like she might be in her 20s.
He said she told him she was 18 years old, though she had just turned 17. He said he checked with the girl's mother just to make sure, and she also said she was 18. He said the girl's mother "encouraged the bedroom activities" between the two. Bradley was 35 at the time.
He said he learned the true age of the girl when he was looking at some paperwork on her during a medical visit. He said after he found out she was 17, he did not have sex with her again.
Bradley said at his sentencing that he was back with his family and they are active members of Redemption Point Church.
Bradley was terminated from the police department after the 2009 charge. He had been a city officer since 2000.