Fired police chief contests his termination in closed meeting

East Ridge, Tennessee, officials held a closeddoor hearing Tuesday for a former police chief who is contesting his firing from earlier this year.

The hearing for J.R. Reed, a patrolman of more than two decades who became chief in 2014 and was fired in March, began at 6:30 p.m. in a back room at East Ridge City Hall and lasted until at least 8:30 p.m..

It’s unknown what arguments Reed and his attorney made, which witnesses spoke, who was present, what questions they asked or if a court reporter was present to transcribe the hearing.

Reed’s contest now lies in the hands of five men and women appointed by the East Ridge City Council to hear these personnel matters. But their findings, once they’re submitted, are subject to review by City Manager Chris Dorsey, who has the final say and whose second-in-command, Assistant City Manager Kenny Custer, suspended and fired Reed.

Aside from one break during which a Times Free Press reporter could spot them through a window, Reed, his attorney, East Ridge City Attorney Mark Litchford, Dorsey, Custer and other witnesses and citizens of the council-appointed group listened to testimony.

The hearing’s secrecy stood in contrast to a public appeal hearing in December for Adam Rose, an East Ridge police officer in his late 20s who was investigated and later fired for having a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old high school student.

Dorsey, who was hired in March to become East Ridge’s seventh city manager in 11 years, said Tuesday that he didn’t know why Rose’s hearing was open but guessed that past officials “didn’t know all of the Tennessee Open Meeting Act requirements.” Dorsey said meetings in which a public body makes a recommendation to a single individual are not considered open under the state’s act.

In Reed’s case, Dorsey said, he is the single individual to whom the five-person review board — the public body — is making a recommendation. He said he checked his understanding with a representative and attorney with the Municipal Technical Advisory Service, a state agency that assists city governments with compliance.

Frances Pope, a longtime resident who ran for mayor in 2014, was skeptical of that interptation and said she contacted the state’s Office of Open Records Counsel Tuesday. In an email response shared with the Times Free Press, Open Records Counsel Lee Pope wrote the following: “If the origin and authority of the [personnel] board can be traced back to state or city legislative action, and the board possesses authority to make decisions or recommendations to the city council, then the board is most likely a governing body subject to the requirements of TOMA [the Tennessee Open Meeting Act].”

Because the five people on the review board were appointed by the city council, Frances Pope said, its origin can be traced back to state or city legislative action, like Lee Pope wrote. Therefore, the hearing should have been open, she said.

“[The review board is] an extension of city council even if it’s not reporting to council” but instead to Dorsey, she said.

She added the committee’s findings, which will become publicly available, will be based on information gleaned from the closed-door hearing.

Reed’s termination in March followed a series of incidents involving the former chief and his department of roughly 45 officers, the majority of whom unionized in March 2018. Those incidents included allegedly circumventing protocol in the closure of an East Ridge business and ordering officers to use a special criminal database improperly, a lack of basic supplies for officers, personnel issues with officers, and a November 2018 arrest in which a suspect was stunned in the testicles and choked unconscious.

Before his firing, Reed was suspended in November by Custer, who wrote in a letter that allegations against Reed included “internal financial audit of confiscated funds and goods, lack of department leadership, management of investigations, handling of open records requests, and allowing a hostile employee environment to exist.” A months-long investigation followed.

Reed and an attorney believed to be representing him could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon. But Reed has previously said his officers never came to him with equipment concerns. After he was fired, he decided to appeal, and his attorney asked for a continuance of the hearing, with which the city obliged, Dorsey said.

Reed’s assistant chief, Stan Allen, has served as interim police chief since then.