Protesters
injured another police officer on the scene.
The activists argued they were exercising their constitutional rights to free speech when they made their voices heard at the meeting. The four – Every and the Rev. Calvin Skinner, along with Gavin Guinn and Arron Valentine – were part of a large group of people who attended the county commission meeting on April 19, 2021, one week after police killed Thompson.
Three other demonstrators who were arrested that night − Kevin Andrews, Carrie Hopper and Mary Winter − previously agreed to plea deals.
Every and Skinner also were arrested following a Knoxville City Council meeting. There has not been any action on those charges in three years.
Defendants take the stand
Seven of the demonstrators were charged after they stood during the Knox County Commission meeting and called for the release of police body camera video of the shooting. The demonstration briefly interrupted the commission meeting, though police and deputies moved immediately to stop the protest by handcuffing and pulling the activists from the room.
The demonstration began when Every sounded a bullhorn, signaling demonstrators to loudly demand the release of the police bodycam video from the Thompson shooting.
Prosecutors say Guinn and Valentine surrounded Every and Skinner, preventing officers from reaching them and, more important, the bullhorn.
Attorneys for Guinn and Valentine argued there were other people surrounding Every who were not arrested and Skinner’s attorney, Mike Whalen, argued Skinner never interfered with officers and only raised his voice in protest after commission chair Larsen Jay called for a recess in the meeting, meaning Skinner did not interrupt the meeting.
Every took the stand Wednesday and said it wasn’t her intention to force the commission into recess because doing so would have (and did) defeat the purpose of the protesters being there. They wanted to put pressure on those in power since commissioners control the budget for the district attorney’s office and the county school system.
Skinner also took the stand said it would have served no purpose to prevent the commission from conducting its business. “Power at its best is justice at work and justice at work is simply putting love at the center. Love in action,” he said. “In that moment, I definitely didn’t see or feel any love.”
All four defendants’ attorneys attempted to get the charges tossed by arguing, among other things, that the disruption wasn’t substantial, which is what the state law requires for the charge. But Judge Kelly Thomas Jr. denied the motions and opted to let the jury decide.
“Everyone wanted a jury trial. We’ve got a jury trial,” he said.
Second county commissioner testifies
Knox County Commissioner Dasha Lundy testified via a Zoom video call Wednesday that the meeting was only briefly disrupted and that antimask protesters in 2020 were treated differently than the protesters who were arrested.
“When Black people advocate for their community, it’s perceived as a threat,” she said in court.
Lundy also testified she asked Sheriff Tom Spangler why there was increased security the day of the meeting but did not get a reply.
During the first full day of the trial, April 9, Knox County Commissioner Larsen Jay, who was chair of the commission at the time, testified that the protesters were treated differently than the 2020 antimask protesters because they left after protesting.
“They got up and walked out of the door,” Jay said about the antimask protesters who consistently protested at commission meetings during the COVID pandemic. “In this incident, when the officers came to escort them out they didn’t willfully walk out the door … this group intentionally came with the purpose of getting arrested.”
Legislature tries to quash peaceful protests
The case is the first tried under Tennessee’s enhanced penalties for disrupting public meetings. The law was part of the Tennessee General Assembly’s push to punish “unruly” demonstrators.
The state enhanced the penalty for disrupting a public meeting from a Class B misdemeanor to a Class A misdemeanor, putting it on the same level as being charged with impaired driving, simple drug possession, theft under $1,000 and assault. The penalty can include up to 11 months and 29 days in jail with a maximum fine of $2,500.
How Thompson died
Thompson was killed April 12, 2021, after four officers barged into a school bathroom where he and a friend were hanging out as Thompson cooled off from an argument earlier in the day with his girlfriend.
His girlfriend had left school to go home, and her mother called police to complain about the argument, which she told police got physical. The girl’s mother, Regina Perkins, told officers Thompson was known to carry a handgun.
Thompson was carrying a handgun in the front pocket of his hoodie because he feared for his safety, especially after his girlfriend’s mother sent him a series of threatening texts, according to a lawsuit filed by the family.
Body camera footage revealed four officers wound up inside the narrow bathroom: officers Jonathan Clabough and Brian Baldwin, school resource officer Adam Willson, and Lt. Stan Cash. They surrounded Thompson, who was in a stall and wearing a backpack, and began pulling him out of the stall.
Thompson implored the officers to “wait, wait” as they grabbed for him, and made no aggressive moves.
As the officers grabbed Thompson his gun discharged and a bullet struck a trash can. Baldwin immediately dropped from Clabough’s view. Clabough mistakenly believed Baldwin had been shot, so he fired, striking Thompson in the chest with the shot that killed him.
Clabough fired a second shot because he thought Thompson was about to shoot Cash, the DA’s office said. That shot struck Willson in the leg.
Lawsuit dismissed
In February, a federal judge dismissed the remaining pieces of the farreaching lawsuit filed by Thompson’s mother against Knoxville. The judge had previously dismissed the portion of the lawsuit against the police officers involved in Thompson’s killing. The family has appealed the decision to the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, where it faces long odds of being overturned.
Tyler Whetstone is an investigative reporter focused on accountability journalism. Connect with Tyler by emailing him at tyler.whetstone@knoxnews.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @tyler_whetstone.