Panel Deliberated 10 Hours In Police Officer Case
posted March 1, 2008
A Criminal Court jury, after deliberating 10 hours, on Saturday night found former Chattanooga Police Officer Lawrence Goodine not guilty of all charges.
He was cleared of 17 remaining charges, including one count of perjury, and eight each of theft and official oppression.
The two-year officer had been charged with taking money during traffic stops and pocketing it.
Bryan Hoss, who handled the case along with Lee Davis, said, "The family is just ecstatic. The defendant broke down crying when the verdicts were being read. Three of the jurors, including the foreman, were crying too."
Judge Don Poole presided over the weeklong trial.
The jury was selected on Monday afternoon and had been sequestered.
Attorney Hoss said, "The tough thing we had to deal with was there were seven different stops and eight different people claiming money was taken. But there was absolutely no proof how much money these people actually had on them.
"And because of the chosen profession of these drug dealers, it was difficult to believe them."
He said the 27-year-old Goodine has a new job in sales. The attorney said, "He's going in a new direction."
A former track star at UTC who still holds the 60-meter record, he waited all day along with his wife, Erica, and his parents.
The jury announced at 7 p.m. that it had a verdict, and the finding was given at 7:15 p.m. after all the parties had assembled.
The jury had asked several questions of the judge during the long day of deliberations.
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