Chief David Roddy
photo by Joseph Dycus
Criminal Court Judge Don Poole on Monday found that the Chattanooga Police Department did not withhold any evidence or witness interviews from the defense in the traffic death of rookie officer Nicholas Galinger, because these interviews had not actually been conducted. Defense attorney Ben McGowan had filed a motion claiming that the police department had withheld evidence from the .
The main complaint by Ben McGowan, attorney for Janet Hinds, was focused on the actions the Chattanooga Police Department took immediately after the incident occurred. Ms. Hinds, the former Soddy Daisy postmaster, is charged with vehicular homicide and other counts in the January 2019 incident on Hamill Road.
During investigator Joe Warren’s time on the witness stand, attorney McGowan questioned the officer on procedure. Of particular note was the fact that a second car had come through the area, and although body camera footage showed a sheriff’s deputy had spoken to city officers, their names were not gotten and the vehicle’s license plate was not recorded.
Attorney McGowan posited that the second car through may have also run over Officer Galinger’s body.
Investigator Warren stressed that while many things are recorded at an accident scene, not everything will be. While he spoke to the deputy about the conversation he had with the second car’s passengers, he said the deputy had no recollection of the conversation.
“My job is to investigate the crash, to know who was involved and why it happened, that sort of thing,” said investigator Warren. “A conversation with a deputy that may or may not remember having a conversation with someone who rolled up on the scene afterwards, that doesn’t have evidence that will help my case, I don’t know how important that is.”
Investigator Warren also spoke about why Ms. Lockhart, the first officer to respond to the scene, did not file a witness statement. He said that the officer administered CPR, but was not a witness to the accident or any of Ms. Hinds’ alleged actions. While video showed her speaking about a “statement,” the district attorney stated there was no statement to turn over.
Judge Poole did tell the state to turn over any accident data or measurements they had not turned over to the defense. Attorney McGowan had brought it to the court’s attention that the defense had not seen any sort of measurements, laser or physical, of the accident scene.
While he also asked for Investigator Warrant’s notes, Judge Poole decided that the state was not required to hand those over.
During Chattanooga Chief of Police David Roddy’s testimony, attorney McGowan questioned him about the statements he had made to the media regarding the defense.
During questioning, attorney McGowan made a statement insinuating that District Attorney Neal Pinkston had assisted the police chief in penning the statement. District Attorney Pinkston vehemently denied this, and demanded attorney McGowan provide written proof of this to the court, saying, “I would request the court require McGowan submit an affidavit that supports his allegation that I helped Chief Roddy author that statement. These allegations that I’ve been hiding or suppressing evidence and helping people and this, that, and the other. Well other than what he thinks or asserts, I’d like for him to submit an affidavit supporting that I helped the chief.”
Police Chief Roddy defended the way police had conducted themselves at the scene of the accident. He told the court that officers and investigators followed protocol and that the investigators had processed all of the evidence from the scene. “I didn’t know with exact specificity what was said on scene,” said Chief Roddy. “What I did know was that our traffic investigators had done every bit of their due diligence, they’d investigated the scene and processed all of the evidence.”
The police chief also told the court that it was unrealistic to expect every officer on a crime scene to provide some sort of written report about what they saw. Earlier, Investigator Warren said that the existence of body cameras had eliminated the need for many written statements by officers.
After both of the men had testified, Judge Poole stated that no witness testimony had been withheld, as the witnesses had never been interviewed in the first place.
Attorney McGowan defended his motion before the ruling. “I don’t think that it was inappropriate, even though the state has purported otherwise, to ask why ordinary investigative steps were not taken in this case involving the death of a Chattanooga officer, steps that would have been taken in another case,” said attorney McGowan.
The next court date will be in July, and will concern any other motions filed by either side.