We received an e-mail today from a loyal reader that has tipped us to many stories in the past. Some of you have commented in other areas of our site about this and we feel it deserves front page attention. Chico has done it again. The story below must be another Blue Crush initiative:
Two weeks ago local businessman Bradley Greer appeared in City Court on driving 19 miles over the speed limit. Greer didn't want to stand in line like other citizens and kept trying to go to the front of the line outside the courtroom of Judge Jayne Chandler. One of the two City of Memphis police officers who handles security for the courtroom Officer K.J. Brown noticed the man on his cell phone trying to break the line and ordered him to get in line like everyone else. At the point the Greer read the officer's name tag and mentioned it to the person he was speaking with on the phone. When the officer inquired as to who he was giving his name to Greer stated to the officer "Director Godwin will be down to take care of you". Officer Brown mentioned this incident to the senior officer in the courtroom Officer S.F. Pryor III whose been on the force for 29 years. Pryor told Brown to do his job and treat Greer like any other citizen. Shortly after court started and Judge Chandler was on the bench Deputy Chief Jim Tusant entered the courtroom with Greer,by passed the judge and went over to the City Prosecutor to address ticket #Q409632. Tusant asked that the ticket be dismissed and it was. Never even regarding Judge Chandler, Tusant and Greer left the courtroom. At this point the judge inquired of Officer Pryor as to why Tusant was in her courtroom. Pryor told the judge what Tusant had just done as part as having Greer's ticket dismissed. Judge Chandler became livid and told the Prosecutor that Tusant was out of order and that Greer was going to treated the same as any other citizen no matter who he knows. Chandler ordered that the ticket be returned to the docket and that Greer appear before her. The date for Greer to return to court was this past Thursday July 3,2008. In the mean time I'm told that Judge Chandler sent a letter to Police Director Larry Godwin telling him that she will not allow him to fix tickets in her courtroom and that she had returned Greer's case to her docket. I'm also told that Chandler requested his appearance in her courtroom also on July 3,2008. Earliar this week I received a call from a close business associate who stated to me that Police Association attorney Ted Hansom had been in contact with him,and knew that the two of us were friends. I was told that Hansom had said that there was really nothing to the case and that the ticket had been paid. It was apparent from my conversation with my business associate that there was the wish that I not be present in the courtroom on Thursday morning. Seeing that a private citizen and not a police officer had received the ticket I couldn't understand what Hansom's role was. But when I got to Judge Chandler's courtroom on Thursday morning I found out. It appears that Ted Hansom is representing Bradley Greer who was not present on Thursday morning. I'm told that Larry Godwin was on vacation so he was also unable to appear. The hearing has been reset to August 5,2008. The question here is why is Godwin and Tusant attempting to fix a ticket,and what is the relationship between Godwin and Greer. I'm told that Greer owns a restaurant that officers frequent but I have not been able to prove that...yet. The Police Director and his command staff getting involved in ticket fixing should send a signal to mayor Herenton that it's time to make a change. How can police officers ticket citizens when the Police Director is allowed to fix tickets for his friends. The Director was so upset with the officers in Judge Chandler's court for telling her what went on, that the officers whose only job is court security were sent outside 202 Poplar to write tickets on their lunch break.
