Former Sheriff Bill Bivens' 3rd Strike Out

Sheriff Bill Bivens

Part history and perhaps a political obituary: remembered as a life-long public servant

Although he said in 2016 he was out of politics forever, in 2018 he tried for the third, and perhaps the last time to get back in the Sheriff's seat.

To anyone that has met him, he is like-able and has a generational history in Monroe County--his father was a former MCSD Sheriff--Bill also served as a county commissioner. After serving as Tellico Plains Police Chief, he decided to run against the 3 term sheriff Doug Watson in 2006, and he won.


Complaints against Watson had escalated to the point that even his supporters felt it was time for a change--two incidents, one in Madisonville and the other in *Coker Creek swung the balance in Bivens' favor--well-connected actors, in criminology known as the 'criminal elite', were getting away with a 'slap in the hand'...county wide corruption affected every aspect of society, and led to the change of the guard 2006-2014 Bivens' tenure as Sheriff.
There's no doubt, Bill will be remembered as a good man, who tried to make a positive difference in Monroe County.

There is more detail in the Coker Creek incident, but the one in Madisonville had similar components.

*March of 2006, a mid-twenties white male, son of a 'crony' of then sheriff Watson rolls his truck off the bank on Hwy 68 near what at the time was, the  'Davis Store'--flees the scene and runs home to hide-out...during the next hour, the cops try to flush the suspect out and arrest him. It escalates to the suspect shooting at a combined force of 4 police agencies (THP, MCSD, TPPD, even a cruiser from Vonore PD showed up and a WATE news crew.) 

Watson forbids the officers to shoot back, even though the officers said some of the shots 'whizzed by close to their heads'. The suspect finally passes out/faints, but was never injured and gets taken into custody by Sgt. Mike Morgan. 

It was the only time that a crew from Knoxville based WATE-TV showed up during an active crime scene in Coker Creek...
the shooter was only charged with 'reckless endangerment' and received a $100 fine from Judge Reed Dixon...(that's less than the average speeding ticket.)

MCSD Deputies Memorial Day Manhunt

While you were enjoying your holiday weekend barbecue on Memorial Day 2018, an alert deputy spotted a fugitive who was wanted on a VOP (violation of probation) from a drug related arrest.

The chase started near Ball Play/Belltown road heading towards Tellico Plains--for a short time, there was a good visual on the suspect's truck, then after about 20 minutes the getaway vehicle was spotted abandoned in the woods. 

According to an employee at the health dept, the Belltown/Ball Play road community has been one of the worst areas in the county involving drug related incidents.

You can thank the efforts of the deputies in sheriff's dept. and the county's city police depts. who continue to wage war on the drug epidemic. 

Travis Jones Resigns! ...Leaves Law-Enforcement for Secure State Job

Was Jones knowingly violating the law?...what started as a relaxed and unassuming interview, will have far-reaching implications on his career

It's been close to a year that Travis Jones (perhaps unwittingly), admitted to MSNBC's Keith Morrison what has been 'standard practice' at the Monroe County Sheriff's Office... A total disregard for the legal steps required to present evidence in court--his admission could open the floodgates for possible re-trials in cases where a defendant's civil rights, (especially those not having a good attorney at the time), may claim their civil rights were violated. The failure of the sheriff's dept. to properly train officers, and the lack of oversight when misconduct occurred, made national headlines in the Dawson case.

Can the state of Tennessee "teach an old dog new tricks?" Even if it was possible, the "Fruit of the Poisonous Tree" doctrine may hang like a storm cloud, and raise reasonable doubt in any future investigations or court testimony involving former MCSD Captain Travis Jones.

Call it an October surprise or however you wish to characterize it; but, it was a 'head-turner' to learn that Jones was 'abandoning ship' as head of MCSD detectives to work as a 'fire investigator' with the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance--what led to his departure and more importantly, what does he know about fire investigation?

A good fire investigator should have a 'scientific or chemical' background--Dr. Gerald Hurst earned his PhD in chemistry from Cambridge, he said that "fire investigation in general is the 'swamp of forensic science'-in fact, many forensic scientists refuse to recognize arson investigation as a 'sub-field' of forensic science." Many innocent people are sitting in prison, because of inaccurate conclusions drawn from faulty science.

Senior members of local police departments are often times recruited and move up to the TBI, FBI, and other law enforcement agencies--not in this case--why? we can only guess at all the possibilities...

Prior to 2014, MCSD had a history of bungling death investigations, or conducting no death investigations whatsoever in cases where the evidence of possible criminal conduct was crystal clear.

Sheriff Watson Arrested on 12 Felony Charges

Judge Don Ash is picked to preside: the same judge that presided over the Bill Bivens vs Randy White lawsuit in Monroe County

**Bradley County: Steve Lawson unseats incumbent Eric Watson on May 1st, 2018--with no democrat in the race, Lawson will take office September 1st, 2018**
For 8 1/2 months Eric blamed others (The TBI, Chattanooga Times Free Press, county commissioners, grand juries), now he can get on with his true calling in life as "used car salesman."

Prosecutor Jimmy Dunn dropped all felony charges against Watson on 1/11/2018, before the case was even heard in court--even though after 6 months of appeals, Judge Don Ash had ruled on 12/21/2017 the case to go to trial (the indictment originally had 6 felony offenses and later had 12 in total)...Dunn admitted that Watson had violated the law, but claimed he had paid the taxes on the vehicle titles mentioned in the indictment--however, that was not part of the case--the indictment charged "fraud and forgery." 

In a press conference the day after prosecutor Dunn dropped all 12 felony charges, Watson blamed others (and rumors?) for the 2 year investigation, and didn't offer to answer questions from reporters--this incident and how he handled it, will forever haunt his career --- he will now go before the 'court of public opinion.'

12/21/2017 Judge Don Ash refused to dismiss charges, case to go to trial--Watson's attorney had filed a motion to dismiss (motion DENIED), the approach was that since the titles in the vehicles that Watson had admitted to 'forging' were not Tennessee titles, the law didn't apply.

The arrest of a county sheriff is a rare event--it's been almost 10 years since former Hamilton County Sheriff Billy Long was arrested by the FBI and convicted on money laundering, extortion, and other charges. Long was released from federal prison in 2016, but will serve a monitored 'house arrest' for another 5 years.

After a year long investigation by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, a grand jury indicted Watson on 6 felony counts--after getting his prints and mugshot taken, he posted a 30k dollar bond and was released from custody back in July 2017.