PULASKI, Tenn. - Two Pulaski Police officers involved with the arrest of Doctor Terry Wynn on May 5 have been suspended. Officer Chad Estes was suspended without pay for 30 calendar days. Sergeant Justin Young was suspended without pay for 7 calendar days.

"Simply put, they did not weigh the actions of Doctor Wynn versus the immediate medical attention that was needed for her patient," Police Chief John Dickey told the Board of Mayor and Alderman.

The chief determined racism was not a factor and the officers did not break the law by arresting Doctor Wynn, but lacked discretion when assessing the severity of the situation.

The City of Pulaski called in an outside law firm to investigate the arrest.

Officer Chad Estes clocked Doctor Terry Wynn's car going 46 in a 30-mile-per-hour zone on May 5. Wynn is an OB/GYN who was on the way to the hospital to deliver a baby.

She pulled over, and told Pulaski Officer Estes she needed to get to the hospital.

Police said she then left the scene and drove less than a mile to the hospital. Officer Estes followed Wynn and arrested her in the hospital parking lot.

"When she took off or sped away, and left him there, that constitutes under Tennessee law, evading arrest in a motor vehicle, which is a felony," said Pulaski Police Chief John Dickey.

The arrest has sparked outrage in Pulaski and even led to a debate online about who was right.

"They didn't look at her as a doctor. They looked at her as a woman of color, and they didn't believe that she was a doctor," said resident Georgia Paige-Peterson. "If they will do that to her, I can't imagine what they have done to others."

Immediately after the doctor's arrest, a relative of the woman in labor called the Pulaski police chief and urged him to get the doctor out of jail so she could deliver the baby. Chief Dickey called the jail and had her released before she was officially booked.

"The issue that most concerned me is there was a patient that needed care," said Dickey.

NewsChannel 5 Investigates discovered this is isn't the first time Officer Estes has been involved in a racially charged arrest. Terra Hollis sued him for violating the civil rights of her 17 year old son.

Video obtained by NewsChannel 5 Investigates from 2008, shows Trey Hollis leaving a crowded McDonalds as police arrived to break up a fight. Trey was not involved in the fight, but officer Estes grab him and push him against a table.

Hollis was a basketball player on track to graduate this year. Police also arrested Hollis' grandmother and aunt.

All charges against the family were dropped. The lawsuit claims the arrests were racially motivated. Chief Dickey denies the allegation. He said the TBI investigated, and a grand jury did not indict officer Estes or anyone else.

Terra Hollis believes if Estes had been disciplined after her son's arrest, the latest incident may not have happened.

"I'm very sad it happened because in my mind I think the incident could have been prevented," said Hollis.

Nearly a month after the incident and the people who crowded into the Board of Mayor and Alderman work session are still outraged.

Many feel a suspension is not enough punishment for Officer Estes. They feel he should no longer be able to patrol the streets of Pulaski.

"The incidents that have been reported, plus the ones that have not, it doesn't warrant him being a policeman. He seems to be some kind of bully," according to Georgia Paige-Peterson from the Pulaski NAACP.

As a result of this latest incident, all Pulaski officers will have to attend diversity and use of discretion training.

The controversy may also speed the process of adding dashboard cameras into Pulaski patrol cars. Chief Dickey said a camera would have provided full-proof evidence of what took place during the arrest of Doctor Wynn.

E-mail: ccannon@newschannel5.com & bhall@newschannel5.com

When doctors have blue or red or whatever color emergency vehicle lights and authorization, fine, until then, doc or cleaning lady, speeding is speeding. Color is the axe-grinding object here, bnut on the part of the public, not the PD (in my jaded opinion, as I am sure I'll be reminded).

Best;

Did she have any type of Hospital Identification w/her?

Story doesn't say what the lighting conditions were when the stop was made. In Texas the "racial profiling" cards have a new box to check, unknown race/sex of violator prior to stop.

I remember the story of the DPS Trooper who followed a Dr. to the hospital and stroked him several tickets, right after surgery. I think for every traffic violation he committed, except speeding which was allowed at the time, not sure about now.

People responding to emergency calls should be given some slack to exceed speed limits (but otherwise drive safely) on the way to the hospital, particularly in the middle of the night (yes, I'm one of them). We occasionally have problems with that here in my town and physicians and others (nurses, techs, etc) have received tickets trying to get to the hospital. I will generally drive a little fast and slow down thru stop signs and run red lights, as long as there are no other cars around. This is generally the case around here after midnight. It's what I would want someone to do if they were coming to see someone I cared about. It cuts precious time off the trip and those few minutes can be critically important. I haven't been stopped yet but I have my scrubs on and hospital ID. If a policeman insists on writing me a citation then I will wish that he has someone near and dear to him who needs urgent medical attention in the middle of the night sometime.

Another example of a small town cop playing hard ass.

Got stopped in Flippin, Ark this past week end, where several of us had gone to spend a lot of money trout fishing. It was dark and we were on our way to Wal Mart to spend some more money when our van with TN plates was pulled over. Barney walks up and the first words out of his mouth was "You've been drinking!" When the driver said "no", the cop ordered him out of the van and administered a breathalizer test. Results were 0.00. Cop said, "well, sometimes these don't work." and had him do it again. Results were 0.00. Cop decided he might be doing it wrong and called in a back up. And so this ninja type: black clothes, pants tucked into his boots, bad-assed fingerless gloves, etc shows up. The two barneys confer and administered two more breath test with the Ninja's breathalizer. Results were 0.00. This frustrates the two barneys and so they call up their supervisor. Who comes and gives the driver TWO more test with his machine. And the results were 0.00. After much conferring and running checks on everybody that was in the van (average age was @ 50+), they let us go.
Sleep well, America. These are the kind of dumb asses that are protecting you.

In all states that I know of if you hand the cops your medical ID and drive away stating your on emergency call they will give you a escort not arrest you. Those cops deserve firing someone could have died due to there stupidity.

I don't think it had anything to do with RACE. Wasbeeman is probably correct about a small town cop.

I've had good and bad experiences with small town cops.

Worst case Haskell, Texas

Best experiences, Tucumcari and Jal, New Mexico.

The one in Jal really surprised me. We had a blow-out on a rig near Eunice, New Mexico. I blew through Jal headed that way at 85 in a 45 zone at about 4:00am. The cop pulled me over. I explained where I was headed and why. You could see the glow on the horizon. He said "GO", and I was on my way.

Outside Tucumcari I was going about twenty mph over the limit and the State Trooper pulled me and the guy on my tail over. The other guy started bad-mouthing the fresh-out-of-school trooper for clocking me and pulling him over too. The new trooper was calm, wrote the man a ticket, then walked up to my window, said, "drive careful, and have a nice day", and walked back to his unit. The other guy was still spitting, cussing and kicking dirt when I drove away.

When I was in college, I had a several jobs, one of which required me getting up at 4 am and driving a ways to feed and clean stalls at a horse barn. I overslept a bit one morning, which was somewhat of a problem since my boss was adamant about the feeding schedule. I was driving like a bat out of hell and had to stop for some gas. Closest place was Grambling, LA. The same town which is the home of the all black university jungle. I was going 57 in a 35 after pulling out of a gas station that didn't yet have pay at the pump. Now you can take it from me, that being in a jail cell in Grambling @4:30 AM is NO PLACE for a white boy. That cop was in his 50's I'd say, and after I explained where I was going and all, started the conversation by noting that I had a 4x4 truck. He then explained to me how driving off road could knock off a speedometer 10-15 mph, and he was sure that this was what had happened in this case. I was on my way in short order without even a warning, and I didn't bother to inform him that I was a bit more than 15 mph over the limit. Another time, I was late to pick up a girl for a Rodeo and that cop pulled his gun and made me assume the position. When I told him my story, I was again on my way in short order. Most cops are just guys with a badge and a gun. Not all small town cops are bad. Assholes exist everywhere and in every field. I agree that doctors on an emergency call should be cut a bunch of slack, but so should cops. After all, who among us doesn't know a doctor who's a total narcissistic asshole?

quote:

Originally posted by ddrhook:
In all states that I know of if you hand the cops your medical ID and drive away stating your on emergency call they will give you a escort not arrest you. Those cops deserve firing someone could have died due to there stupidity.

I agree 100%

quote:

Originally posted by daniel77:
Most cops are just guys with a badge and a gun. Not all small town cops are bad. Assholes exist everywhere and in every field. I agree that doctors on an emergency call should be cut a bunch of slack, but so should cops.

I agree with everything except that cops should be cut some slack. The goal of their job is to increase public safety. When one of the cops who happens to be an "A@@ H@@@" does something than negatively impacts public safety he should be fired.

When the Doctor arrived at the hospital the officer could have followed her in and confirmed her story(on her way to deliver a baby) with the hospital staff. Instead he arrested her because she had the audacity to ignore his authority.

This reminds me of the NFL player who was arrested because he continued on to the hospital while a police officer tried to get him to pull over. Once at the hospital the officer did not want any of the passengers to leave the car even after they explained that they had received a call that their mother was dying(she had been sick and was crashing) and wanted to see her before she died.

In that case the officer was white and the family was black. Not that race was a factor.

I didn't mean THAT cop should be cut slack. I simply mean that a blanket statement of ALL cops being stupid or jerks is uncalled for. One asshole in a group shouldn't reflect on the whole group. I agree that this guy may well be a candidate for dismissal. I also believe that for every bad story we hear about cops, there are several good stories. Just sayin'.

You are, of course, right, Dan. However, it is our nature to NOT report all the cats that aren't lost. And also, a man's reputation is built on many acts and destoryed by one.
Maybe cops ought to police their ranks a little better (pun intended )

quote:

Originally posted by daniel77:
I didn't mean THAT cop should be cut slack. I simply mean that a blanket statement of ALL cops being stupid or jerks is uncalled for. One asshole in a group shouldn't reflect on the whole group. I agree that this guy may well be a candidate for dismissal. I also believe that for every bad story we hear about cops, there are several good stories. Just sayin'.

On this we agree. I personally know several cops who are top notch guys.

Like wasbeeman, I just don't see why cops should try so had to protect their own. AFAIC no "A@@ H@@@" cop should be allowed to make it to retirement.

Poor decisions made even worse by the involvement of a supervisor, who should know better.

Escort her to the hospital. In fact, offer to help with any issues the family may have. AFTER the fact, if her speed did truly create a danger to the public, issue the doc a WARNING, not a citation.

Note the officer's previous discipline for poor decision making. Discipline for public safety officers is designed to first modify behavior and then remediate. Continued similar behavior requires more severe discipline. It's an upward curve. This guy may not get it. So whack him hard for this, his second offense, fire him for the next one.

Whack the supervisor for not doing his job.

As for the race issue, I'm betting this venue is populated by a well balanced demographic. In such cases it is rare when racism is NOT alleged. My guess is this moron would have done the same with a white driver.

Hire the right people. Train them. Pay them enough to stay motivated. Monitor their behavior. Get rid of the morons.

I agree, TWL.

The police officers involved in this incident showed unbelievably poor judgment. It makes me question their basic intelligence. This was utterly stupid behavior.

Lengthy suspensions, without pay, are in order here. Serious reprimands need to be placed in their personnel files.

And if they are involved in any further nonsense of this kind in the future, they ought to be fired outright.

Usually cops cut docs and nurses some slack, cuz they know some day the cop or his family might be the one in the hospital.

wasbeeman we have the same kind of fools in our little town of 1200 folks....... my answer is "load your gun you are on your own"............... and they know it because everyone knows everyone in a town so small.........