I can't figure out why none of the media coverage of this case highlighted the fact that a sitting Knox Co.Commissioner with well known plans to run for Sheriff was officially disciplined in a major major police brutality incident that's going to cost taxpayers a bundle because the man who was threatened with rape and had his ribs broken and his lung punctured is going to sue.It seems like that part of this story is one worth looking into on its own. In the KNS story that briefly mentions Anders' involvement,it doesn't even identify him as a Knox County Commissioner.WTH?

The story says that he approved what turned out to be purposely deceitful and misleading reports from the officers who beat up the man and also who watched and tried to cover up without ever even bothering to view the dashcam videos that as we know now caught most of the beating on tape. The same story said that Anders was issued a written reprimand which means his actions were deemed more serious than the supervisor who only got an oral reprimand.

Commissioner Anders needs to be asked to provide the details of his involvement in this situation so that the public knows whether to demand censure by County Commission or even resignation. Why was his discipline harsher than the other police supervisor? Did he have reason to believe that the dashcam videos would show something other than what the falsified reports showed or did he get the reports having no information that would cause him to doubt them? If it's the former, he was trying to cover up. If it's the second, he may just have been lazy and not following procedure.

Chief Raush has stated that more officers may be charged in this brutality case. Someone needs to get Anders to answer to the voters about his involvement. What Anders has been displined for doing is far worse than what Ownby did and look what the media has done to him.

exercise journalistic ethics and integrity is like asking your dog to use the toilet and then hit the flush lever.

It is simply is not going to happen given the natural propensities of the animal and the physical limitations of the species.

In my opinion, the KNS "beat" reporters will not ask the tough questions, will not make an effort to not trust or not buy in to the spin from local government officials and their spokes people, and are more than content to let local government run ruffshod and unaccountable as long as they get their sweetheart government induced financing for their building and good press seats at UT athletic events.

I can't speak for Satterfield's story. I was surprised that Anders wasn't at least parenthetically ID'd as a commissioner. I watched a video on WBIR and he was ID'd as a commissioner there.

I can speak for my own work, and it is mentioned in my column tomorrow. Because of space limitations, I don't get into it much more, although I do take a swipe at the supervisor's inaction and what it meant. However, with 10 officers involved in the incident, counting the supervisors, there's a lot of real estate taken up just getting every officer and their offenses listed.

No way in hell is Patrick Birmingham going to allow Bad Anders to get his name dirty. Birmingham owns Anders. Birmingham runs the Chamber. If Anders was not a Chamber Boy he would be front page. Pat just bought Brad's soul real cheap!

as cheaply as Steve Hunley owns Jeff Ownby.

And if someone calleld you a "newspaper babe" how would you react?

Broadcast journalism is different than newspaper journalism, but different is not bad.

I work with both, but frankly your demeaning attitude towards broadcast journalist is both uncalled for and beneath you.

Why hasn't the KNS called for Steenrod, listed in the Pilot, FBI affidavit, to resign from the Chamber? Because it would be detrimental to the perception of the Haslam political machine. KNS plays favorites like Liberace played the ivories.

Srsly, guys, 25 posts on this since I sat down to pizza at 8 p.m.? It's only 10:15 now.

Jamie screwed up on the Anders thing. She admitted it. The conspiracy stuff is nonsense. It's pretty much impossible to have a conspiracy in this town anyway. Too many flapping tongues.

As for Scott being condescending for explaining the difference between editorials and columns - we may "all" understand that here on KV, but the general public doesn't. You see their confusion all the time in KNS comments. Heck, many readers don't know the difference between editorial and news content.

Jamie shouldn't have said "tv babes" but the truth is that in general print reporters cover stories in more depth than tv reporters - not surprising, they don't try to cover someting in 90 seconds. And if they stay on the same beat (like Jamie or Donila or the I'm-still-baffled-why-the-KNS-took-him-off-the-city-beat Hayes Hickman) they learn enough background to provide good context. That rarely happens on television.

My biggest quarrel with the KNS - which will come as no surprise to Scott - is the obvious cutback in editors in recent years. A LOT more factual errors creep into the paper (not to mention spelling and grammatical ones) and it's annoying. And don't try calling in the evening after a web story gets published to point out an error with the idea of helping the KNS to correct it before the print edition. It will NOT be appreciated.

Now, where the heck is the story about the Federal judge smack down of the Haslam administration over Occupy Nashville? :)

When University of Tennessee football calls an emergency press conference, the three blind mice of the News Sentinel send about five employees. Two web & social media and video, two journalists and one photographer. Yet when Bad Anders gets in trouble. They send a skeleton crew. Jamie is not to blame for this. One question, Mr. Barker... Did you or Patrick Birmingham pull Jamie Satterfield off the school security issue when chamber boy Dr. McIntyre allegedly started complaining? Was the newspaper union called in because just like with Brad Anders, Patrick Birmingham would not let Jamie do her job correctly and unimpeded when dealing with the Chamber of Commerce golden child? Jamie a your damn good reporter. We know the truth and what really is going on an the real battle we must fight every day in the newsroom.

Jamie Satterfield has conceded that she and her editors made a not insignificant oversight in reporting an important breaking story. That answers that question; a mistake was made. So lets move on from that point.

The breaking story was on Monday or Tuesday of this week. It's unusual and concerning that no new story has been reported since that time focused on the part that the vice chairman of Knox County Commission played in what occurred. I want more facts on why he was disciplined, and I would like him to answer questions such as the ones posed in other comments. If he won't respond, that's a problem for him. He owes voters some answers on this because it's not a private employment issue it's a public dollars and ethics issue. I also want to hear what other commissioners have to say about Brad Anders' behavior. I don't really care why this story hasn't been covered yet. I doubt some kind of conspiracy. I only care that it gets covered.

I also hope that the editorial team Barkers runs will be opining that every one of those officers should have been fired. I watched that video with bile rising in my throat. Every one there was culpable. Is it not a crime for a police officer to assist another one in beating up a handcuffed suspect and then lie in writing to cover for the beating? We know for a fact that this is exactly what multiple officers did. That's exactly what they were disciplined by KPD for doing. It's outrageous and scary that those officers and their supervisors remain on our streets. They have no right to wear the badge. They have no right to earn my tax money in salary.

This story did not end with the release of the dashcam video and disciplinary actions earlier this week. It should have just begin because now we know what questions need to be asked. I will be waiting with optimism for the journalists in Knoxville to begin asking them any day now.

Still no reporting on this case in the Sentinel today. That's really something. I agree with the person who said that the release of the dashcam videos and discipline reports for the KPD personnel involved should have marked the start of digging into the story instead of the end of it. The video raises many obvious questions about how discipline was meted out and why these officers are still employed by the city. No one has asked Mayor Rogero any of the follow up questions. Did she agree with allowing all the other KPD employees to keep their jobs? Also as others have stated the issue of a top Knox County public official covering for these officers should warrant its own reporting at least as rigorous and front page- worthy as all the stories on Commissioner Ownby's transgression. I wonder how many people have actually watched that entire video. It's the worst case of police brutality I've ever seen caught on camera. They didn't just beat the man up, they threatened to (paraphrase) "take him behind that building and f*** him up the ass." At one other point a KPD officer asked the man being attacked to "suck my d***." Have any of you ever heard law enforcement officers caught on tape threatening to rape a suspect in handcuffs? Other follow up reporting should include review of all the involved officers and supervisors human resources files.

I also see that Pam Strickland's column that mentions that Brad Anders is a County Commissioner is not listed on the front page of the online edition of the newspaper.

I watched the video and I really couldn't see what was going on. I don't think anyone should have been disciplined on that tape alone because it's rather hard to see what actually happened.

I don't know Anders or any of the officers involved. I'm not saying they didn't do anything wrong, just that the claims made about the video are not necessarily supported by what can actually be seen in the video. I would assume that the investigators talked to eye witnesses, doctors who treated the perp and the other officers on the scene.

I would think the Rodney King video would be an example of the worst police brutality ever caught on film. I have seen much worse than what could be seen on the Knoxville tape.

I'm not sure I get your point. I already said the other evidence would have to include witnesses and doctor's reports. There's nothing wrong with a woman your age taking a nap in the middle of the day. You might think more clearly after a little rest.

Actually, if somebody's going to research that other brutality case, his name was Andre Stenson, not Stinson.
I spent a 30-hour weekend covering that story and just double-checked my memory, and came up with this sad note:

(link...)

The Stenson case was terribly sad, and utterly avoidable. He panicked when the cops motioned him to pull over, probably because he was on parole and driving without a license, probably because he couldn't afford the high-risk auto insurance required of people like him. He took off running, and died in a vacant lot on Selma Avenue. M.E. said the cause of death was a rare heart condition and the cops were exonerated.

I wasn't meaning to correct your spelling just for the heck of it, just thought that since you were challenging somebody to look it up, it might help them to have the correct name.

I got a call the night it happened, and spent days and days on that story (one of the times working for a weekly actually helped me). Jamie S and I found ourselves in many of the same places that weekend. I had the luxury of dropping everything to concentrate on that one. Jamie worked that sucker hard. That was during the time when she'd caught KPD in a bunch of shadiness (does David McGoldrick's name ring a bell?) and she was probably less popular with the brass at that time than I was. I really do think the culture has been cleaned up quite a bit now.

It was very tragic.

As for Stenson, the poor guy was working double shifts at Calhouns on the River. A co-worker, a guy from Jamaica, asked Andre to show him around town and he wanted Andre to drive. Literally a fatal mistake when they stopped for cigarettes and got flagged by the police as they pulled out of the parking lot. He panicked and took of running, probably because he thought is parole officer didn't like him.

He got glowing compliments from his bosses and co-workers, including Mike Chase himself. I talked to his co-workers and they were pissed at the internal affairs guy who showed up and pressured them to incriminate Andre.

You may remember that a whole contingent from Calhoun's came to City Council to protest, including Michael Malone (Carlene's son), who was working there as a waiter at that time.

I believe it truly was a wrong place, wrong time situation, and although it was litigated all to heck, I still think it's a stretch to say that a guy who is lying on his belly gasping 'I can't breathe' with a cop sitting on his back saying 'if you can talk, you can breathe' and subsequently died of heart failure expired of natural causes (like Sandra Elkins said he did).

That one will stay with me forever, and I was sorry to see that his poor wife died relatively young, too. They were hard-working people who deserved a better shake in life than they got.

I have no right to abuse others about it but, funny thing, in last week's Shopper News there was mention of one certain firing offense at the paper - misspelling a person's name.

The bottom line here is that a current Knox County Commissioner has just been officially disciplined in an extremely brutal police incident. The paperwork for his reprimand says that he signed off on multiple statements from officers who were lying about what happened without even double checking their stories. And the only daily newspaper in town has yet to do any reporting on this beyond listing his name in a lengthy story, and even then they didn't even identify him as a County Commissioner.

The fact that the local paper hasn't actually reported this story is absolutely incredible by any standard (and no, listing his name in the story last week without even referencing that he's an elected official doesn't count as covering the Brad Anders story). I have no idea why the newspaper hasn't had a field day with this story. There are so many important questions yet to be asked and answered regarding Anders' role in what happened and yet we have radio silence.

Barker and Satterfield have been defending their coverage here and over in the comments at KNS. I have two very simple questions for one or both of them and I hope they will respond.

Do you believe that Brad Anders' involvement in this case is worthy of original reporting? Why or why not?

If any other journalists are reading I'd be interested to know whether you believe that this is a story that most daily newspapers would cover, if a high ranking local public official was implicated in a heinous police brutality case that's going to end with a costly payout to the victim.

I would also like to know from Satterfield how she knows that Anders motivation for signing off on those false reports was laziness as she said in her remark previously. That seems like something that a reporter wouldn't state unless she has solid info to back it up. Otherwise it sure sounds like she's defending Anders' actions because laziness as motivation wouldn't be anywhere near as disturbing as the other possible motivations for what he did.

It appears to definitely be a cover-up. Mr. Anders arrived on the scene in the video and witnesses the man lying in a pool of his own blood. After he witnesses this man who had his face beaten to near deformity. He places his hands in his pockets walked back towards the police car and does nothing. His biggest concern is if the female police officer broke her hand after punching the helpless victim so many times. However, doing nothing is the normal for Mr. Anders. Just ask any of his constituents. I've known person after person after person who's called his number and have not gotten a response. When a person finally got a response from him. He told them that he works two jobs and doesn't have the time or the care to deal with their problem. Ask around. He's lazy.

As for Scott Barker and the possibility of a coverup at the News Sentinel. Let's give everyone a little inside baseball into the Knoxville News Sentinel. I could be wrong, but it appears that allegedly the Last time Jamie Satterfield pissed off Patrick Birmingham, the company instituted a " social media guidelines policy" that was taped up for everyone to see. Basically what it really meant to say in my opinion was hey Jamie stop tweeting what an idiot Dr. McIntyre is. You're pissing off big members of the Chamber and Patrick Birmingham is going to do everything in his power to shut you up about the school scandal. Come on, Scott we all know about the whining emails sent from over at the Andrew Johnson building allegedly. So cut the crap. Go find the big man pull him away from his big glass of wine... And let's do some investigative journalism!

If anyone from the local TV or radio stations is reading this, now is your chance to kick some a** on a big story that the newspaper for whatever reason or reasons doesn't seem inclined to go after. Or maybe Metropulse? Halls Shopper? UTK Daily Beacon or TNJN? Somebody please do something with this story.

Yes, at around the 13 minute mark Lieut. Brad Anders , who is also the County Commissioner can be seen wearing shades. He is the chubby bald guy. But he got a pass because he's in the Chamber crowd and so is Patrick Birmingham. Why do you think Pilot Flying J buys 50,000 papers a week? This is the hush money for events like this and like the school security issue. Remember, allegedly it was the Haslam's who tried to get Brad Anders elected chairman.Why do you think Dr. Richard Briggs switched his vote at the last minute? If Commissioner Sam McKenzie wouldn't have been so mad at Mr. Arnett, then Brad would be chairman because of Dr. Briggs . Why do you think Dr. Briggs broke his promise? He clearly stated he was backing Tony Norman. When the Haslam family subordinates start pumping money into Dr. Briggs campaign. Just remember I told you so. Briggs allied with the chamber at the last minute. Ask yourself why? Why would he go back on his word? Who could pressure a millionaire heart surgeon? Our good friend Mike Cohen can explain that one. I think.

I don't believe there's some kind of edict from on high preventing the reporters at the KNS from doing some thorough, front page investigative stories looking into Brad Anders' role in the KPD scandal. I think there's just no fire in these people's bellies these days to go after stories and new leads and angles on previously reported stories. They have no competition anymore and none of us no matter what we do for a living works as hard when we don't have to compete. The weekly alternative used to routinely battle it out with the KNS for the best coverage of big local stories but now they don't seen to do that any longer. MP also used to point it out when KNS coverage was questionable in some way and they don't seem to do that any longer. When a newspaper has no competition, its reporters and editors are more likely to waste time arguing with readers on local message boards, defending and rationalizing their organization instead of snatching up great leads and tips found in the message board and running with them.

I suspect that now that Jamie Satterfield and Scott Barkers have their heels publicly dug in on the adequacy of how KNS "already covered" this story, we will never see another meaningful word about Brad Anders part in the KPD mess printed in the newspaper.

Questions that need asking

Do KPD supervisors routinely come to the scene of a fairly routine arrest after the suspect is handcuffed and lying on the ground? (the guy committed no crime and had no weapon. He was just drunk in public as far as I can tell)

Which specific person directed the KPD officers to take the severely injured man to the jail instead of to the hospital?

How many times a year does the jail refuse to book in a suspect because he or she obviously needs immediate medical care?

What does Commissioner Anders say on the dashcam video?

What is Anders story regarding his failure to review the video before signing off in the false reports?

Was Anders aware that the man was turned away from the jail and sent to the hospital
before he signed off on the false reports? Was he aware of the man's diagnoses of broken ribs etcetera before he signed off on the reports?

What do the other County Commissioners think of Anders' part in this? Will they have something to say about it as with Commissioner Ownby? Is censure going to be on the table?

What are the odds that Anders still may be charged with federal civil rights abuses in this case?

Why does Jamie Satterfield say that Anders acted out of laziness? What facts in this case lead her to feel comfortable giving her personal opinion regarding the motivations of a party in a story she's covering?

The KNS reported Thomas and Anders were reprimanded for not reviewing the most incriminating video before submitting what the paper said was “deceitful use of force reports”.

A poster here, using their own name, said Thomas was made aware of abuse beyond the video.

The video shows, what was said here, to be Anders at the 13min mark.

So far, the paper is not inaccurate, but its reporting is remarkably incomplete.

The reporter, in her own words, said the KPD Chief “tried to say” something about the case that wasn’t factual. That appears not to be the only thing they’re trying to say. What remains to be seen is if the paper is interested in following up on the new “knowns” since the story was first published.

WAIT!!! Who says Anders was in the video? I haven't heard that, and the reason he was disciplined was for not viewing the video before accepting the use of force reports.

The only person I've heard say Anders was on the video is an anonymous person on KV. If I were that person, I'd be very, very careful before making that accusation, especially in light of the review done both by KPD and the district attorney. They released the video to the public; do you think they would have done that if Anders were in it w/o saying so???? Defies simple logic.

And frankly, this poster sounds like a person who has a vendetta against Anders. Who, btw, does NOT share my politics and who I think was irresponsible in not viewing the reports, but who does not deserve to be accused of things he didn't do.

So y'all let me know if anything substantive shows up in this thread; cause I'ma gonna quit reading it now.

Mallicoat was still there when Anders arrived.

The video has been made 'private.'
Odd

So I'm flying by my (admittedly faulty) short term memory here, but I could see the hogtied Mallicoat's foot sticking up past the hood of the cruiser long past the time Anders was there. Not opining on Anders one way or the other, but I'm pretty sure the guy was on the ground while he was there.

One more edit: I do believe the KPD culture has changed since the Phil Keith era. I'd say that I.V. Owen began it and Rausch has doubled down.

When someone like Betty, or someone else trustworthy, gets this mess sorted out, let me know. But, right now, I am fairly assured all these unverfied commenters are commenting, because the KNS is reluctant to print the whole story.

This is not a privacy/personal issue. It's all about public servants, how they are held accountable, and who influences who in this town. And it until the KNS can be trusted to objectively report a story, the story will be reported on blogs like this. KNS seems on a continuing downward spiral in losing credibility.

KNS follow up article:

Brad Anders acknowledges failure to view KPD video of February beating

The article does not mention that he was on the scene.

Interesting remark:

Anders said that instead of waiting for videos to be downloaded from the camera to a server, he would ask for the memory cards from officers immediately.

I have the YouTube video up on my screen and the owner is "Knoxnews".

Why would YouTube make it private? How could a police organization claim a copyright on a public document? Who other than the YouTube owner could make the video private?

Someone else made copy of the dashboard video.

(link...)

Evidently there are as many dashboard videos as there were cruisers on the scene, giving different views of the event (like Jinnett standing on the guys back), which weren't on the one that the KNS had linked up.

BTW, it's pretty clear that Gene Patterson made a mistake re Anders' suspension.
I think some of this conspiracy theory goes back to the people who wanted to say that there was some kind of KPD plot to entrap Jeff Ownby. Evidently Anders has determined enemies and equally determined friends.

Rewatched some of it. At 25:19, Anders walked to his cruiser and left the scene, so he was there for 12, 13 minutes. Shortly before he left, he asked one of the female officers to "swap out" her downloaded video so he could see it.
Also, the KPD paramedics were working on Mallicoat all during this time, and one of them asked one of the women when she first saw blood on him, so somebody on the scene had at least an inkling that something could be amiss.
Has the question of why they didn't take him straight to the hospital been answered?

the latest incarnation of the video. I can't imagine You Tube making the earlier upload private, taking it down, yes, or muting the audio, yes, but not making it private. I have had videos of cover songs muted in the past by YT but they always sent emails telling me they did it.

The uploader is aware of the reason that video has become private.

My thoughts at this point.

The discussion of conspiracy is loony. However the use of the word coverup is not loony in this situation. It's troubling that KPD officials and Mayor Rogero did not indicate the presence of County Commissioner Brad Anders at the scene looking at the injured, bloody man on the ground when they conducted their press conference with frame by frame replay of what the three officers who were charged are seen doing. I can't imagine that they didn't find it noteworthy that one of the supervisors who was disciplined is also seen on the tape behaving in a way that would be problematic even if he hadn't then signed off on the false reports by every one of the multiple liars in uniform at the scene that day.

As for the Sentinel, I don't believe there's any sort of purposeful conspiracy going on here that has anything to do with local politics. What we are seeing is sloppy reporting from start to now. Jamie Satterfield concedes that she and her editors both missed her failure to identify one of the disciplined KPD supervisors as a County Comissioner. We all make mistakes but that one hasn't been corrected in the online version of the story the last time I looked which was after Satterfield conceded her omission here at KnoxViews. Maybe that story has been corrected by now. I don't know.

Next Jamie Satterfield stated here at KnoxViews that Anders behavior in signing the false reports without due diligence was the result of "laziness." She did not say that this wAs her personal opinion (which she shouldn't be offering outside her reporting anyway) and she did not cite any source for this claim of hers which served as a de facto defense of Commissioner Anders actions by minimizing his motivations to the least disturbing option. I would still like Jamie Satterfield to clarify where she got her information regarding the known intentions of Anders in this matter. She's answered other questions on this blog and has made other statements and I would appreciate it if she would provide sources for her laziness explanation.

As for WATE it appears they made a factual error in reporting that Anders was suspected rather than just disciplined. That's similar to the factual error of omission that the Sentinel made in the first story . Like the Sentinel, WATE should issue a correction to their error to their audience.

Until a commenter on this blog pointed out that Brad Anders actually came to the scene that day, I don't think any journalists had even noticed that fact. It would have been helpful if Chief Raush and Mayor Rogero had pointed it out to the media in the press conference but they didn't. It seems that journalists who attended simply assumed that city officials had done all the legwork for them in identifying issues of consequence and details that might matter in the released dashcam videos so none of them took the time to do their own careful review of the tapes. The journalists were like lapdogs who were so grateful to city officials for spoon feeding them the material that they just spoon fed the same information as presented by the officials in the same way.

Then the Sentinel runs a story today about Anders' involvement in this situation and they don't even ID him as a county commissioner in the headline, and the whole story as published consists of Anders giving his version of what happened with no apparent effort by the Reporter to verify the facts of Anders version. That's not reporting that's a press release. I can't believe that the story doesn't even mention the fact that Anders came to the scene that day and saw the bloody man on the ground himself. Is there any way the public can read the reports that Anders approved? If the false reports describe a situation that doesn't match what Anders saw and heard on the scene that day, that's revealing. I also want to know who called Anders to the scene that day and why. Is that information something the public can access?

last but not least Jamie Satterfield next makes the statement on this blog that Anders doesn't appear on video until after the beaten up man was already gone. I've watched the video and that's very clearly not correct which makes me have to ask whether Satterfield viewed the video herself before writing the story where she didn't identify Anders as an elected official or whether her reporting consisted of regurgitating what was said by city officials in the press conference that day.

One final thing is that YouTube doesn't accidentally or purposely change the settings on a member account video from public to private. Saying that no one at the Sentinel changed that setting at that specific time when questions were being asked about how carefully the reporters there had watched the video is just an asinine, desperate excuse that makes no sense. Surely Satterfield could have come up with a more credible reason for the video being made private than blaming You Tube. I'm sure not many people at the Sentinel have administrative access to the newspaper's You Tube account so one of them changed it and they did it because someone in the news department instructed them to change it while they figured out whether Satterfield was wrong in her comments on this blog.

I meant to say that WATE misreported that Anders was suspended not suspected.

If KNS was trying to cover-up Anders involvement, why wouldn't they just delete his name from the article? Putting Anders' name in the story but not mentioning he is a county commissioner isn't a very good way of covering-up his involvement. Most people who follow local politics know that Brad Anders the police Lt. is Brad Anders the county commissioner.

It seems much more likely that the reporter just forgot to put in Anders alternate role as commissioner than it does to speculate she was acting on orders from her publisher.

An ambulance was dispatched to the scene and told to leave on arrival. The records of the paramedics activity log will show this. The suspect then lied face-down with life threatening injury for a long length of time before he was finly transported to the jail. KPD also had their forensics at the arrest location after the ambulance got sent back. There is more to the story that needs to come out.

I saw this strange Sentinel correction today. You don't see many corrections. It took almost a month for charges to be filed. Many think if neighbors had not made an issue of the beating nothing would ever had happened. To this day the KPD has not said that Lt. Anders was on the scene. Which is the second coverup, but whose counting anyway?

This gets more bizarre. Nothing to see here, move along.

"Tuesday’s editorial incorrectly stated that Knoxville police supervisors tried to cover up the beating of a homeless man by officers under their supervision. Capt. Eve Thomas, Lt. Brad Anders, who is also a county commissioner, and Sgt. John Shelton were reprimanded for the way they handled their review of the case. But an internal affairs investigation found no evidence of a deliberate attempt to cover up the beating."

(link...)

Come on KNS. Now KPD has made you print a retraction on a technicality of phrasing. Time to bring your A game and start asking more questions. Y'all are capable of really good investigative journalism. Time to deploy it. It won't be hard to make the factual case that Anders did exactly what you first described in the editorial before somebody at KPD or city government made you take it back. Go ask the questions that haven't been asked and demand answers, pull more records that haven't been reviewed, interview civilian witnesses (their names are all in the KPD IF report that you have already published online) and prove that you had it right in that editorial. Lots of us will be rooting for you.

Was driving and listening to the car radio about 15 minutes ago. Heard on WKVL 850 AM that KPD has said that the person that appears to be Brad Anders on the KPD video is NOT Lt. Brad Anders.

Also heard on the radio that the ambulance that came to the scene was waived off. Not sure why, no other information was given. The radio station did not give the name of the KPD contact who made these statements.

On WKVL 850 am this morning host Mike Howard said that KPD changed their story from Friday. On Friday KPD denied that Lt. Brad Anders was on the scene. So Mike Howard went to KPD and got the six videos and watched four of them.

Howard called KPD and told them that Lt. Anders was on the scene and anyone who watched the video could see that. KPD said they never claimed that Lt. Anders was not on the scene but he was on the scene after Michael Mallincoat had been taken away.

Howard said on air this morning that this is a "very poor coverup". He said you can see Mallincoat's feet in the camera frame above the hood of one of the KPD patrol cars the entire time Lt. Anders is on the scene.

KPD also said that Lt. Anders has publicly said he was on the scene. Mike Howard of WKVL said he can find that no where in any media.

This backs up what Jamie Satterfield said KPD told her.

Today is the County Commission meeting. Will the coverup spread to Commission?

I believe Betty Bean said last week in the Shopper (can't link to it) that this guy is running.

Why is Donila leaving the KNS now? ...Is it a credibility crisis?

Is this a form of self censure?

KNS with sudden new interest long after the horse left the barn:

(link...)

The abuse, he said, "would be hard to explain" and "some of it was unnecessary."

And there in lies the rub.

NO ABUSE of a subdued suspect is "necessary".

Regardless the outcome, thanks Don Jacobs.

Jacobs refers to many documents and messages in his story but the source materials aren't made available to readers as has become the norm with stories of this kind. I hope they will be.

Can anyone tell me whether appropriate police procedure ever allows any suspect in any circumstance to be trussed up face down like the bleeding man in the photograph in Jacobs' story? I suspect this kind of "hold" is not permitted. If KPD disallows this kind of face first hogtie of suspects, why did supervisors Anders and Shelton not immediately change the man's position when they got there?

Also, it appears that police work is the only kind of public service where you can literally be caught on videotape screaming at a member of the public you serve that you are going to bust that person's head (as the female officer yelled at the suspect as she left) and be allowed to keep your job. She had plenty of time to cool down and she was in no danger yet she bullies the bleeding man tied up on the ground by threatening to hurt him next time she sees him.

If a person is in with the "right" crowd, then you can do
no wrong. If Anders wants to be sheriff and he is the chosen one, then he will be the next sheriff. End of discussion.

That was a telling KNS story today. It answered a lot of questions. Was Lt. Anders on the scene with Michael Mallincoat? Yes. Was an ambulance there? Yes.

Two big questions left. Who turned away the ambulance? Who decided to send Mallincoat to the county jail instead of the hospital?

Does KPD plan to come forward with the answers? Or do bloggers, a radio station, and the KNS, have to go and find the answer?

Today's KNS story was puzzling. The reporter indicated that he had reviewed many records related to the incident but they aren't identified clearly and unlike with most newspaper stories nowadays that rely on public records, the material the reporter used to write his story wasn't made available to readers to view for ourselves. This is odd. Also odd is the way in which the story missed the forest for the trees. It raises questions it never attempts to answer. The reporter mentions trying to ring the woman who made the citizen complaint but never mentions so much as attempting to speak to Chief Rausch, Mayor Rogero or any of the officers involved to ask the outstanding questions.

In a comment on this blog, a witness states that she exchanged emails with Officer Thomas about what she saw yet Supervisor Thomas signed off on the false reports. If it's true that a citizen alerted Thomas to what was seen during the arrest, she had clear reason to know the need to fully investigate before signing off on those false reports. I'd like to know when those reports were signed by the supervisors. Did the KNS reporter review the false reports? What exactly did the officers on the scene claim happened?

As for Commissioner Anders, how is he still employed? He's seen observing a man bleeding from the face and head and tied up face down on the ground. There's blood on a patrol car so obvious that he inquires about it on camera. What did he say to Mr. Mallicoat when he leaned over and spoke to him while the paramedics attended to him on the ground? Has anyone even bothered to ask Anders this question? Why did Anders not order the obviously injured and fully subdued man to be turned on his side or back? Has anyone bothered to ask Rural Metro who called them to the scene and what that officer said regarding the condition of the suspect? Somebody there thought Mr. Mallicoat needed emergency medical care. Rural Metro also needs to be asked for their records regarding their assessment of Mr. Mallicoat's condition. Did they simply miss bleeding and broken bones and a punctured lung? That's unlikely. It's more likely and far more disturbing that they made note of the seriousness of Mr. Mallicoat's physical injuries but still left him there on the ground, tied up and bleeding because someone in authority instructed them to stop administering care and leave. Why on earth did the reporter not ask about this?

Most glaringly, Chief Rausch and Mayor Rogero, both of whom generally seem to be honest and earnest individuals, need to be asked the obvious question of why officers they note in their own disciplinary reports to have failed to stop a brutal beating and then lied about it have been allowed to remain employed. All due props for forcing the resignation of the three primary attackers, but is it not just as alarming and illegal for officers on the scene to simply stand and watch? One of the female officers even took the time as she left to verbally threaten the injured suspect she had just seen beaten with physical violence the next time she saw them. Is threatening a member of the public like that not in and of itself an offense for which an officer can be terminated?

So many questions and no attempt whatsoever to answer them. Why would a reporter go to the trouble to rewrite essentially the same story from two weeks ago without moving it forward in any way? I want to see that "8 inch" stack of documents that the reporter says he looked over to write his story. I want these unanswered questions answered.

A final question; why was KPD forensics called to the scene as noted in today's KNS coverage and what did the forensics officers do?

City of Knoxville settles lawsuit with man beaten by police