News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
District Attorney Bryant Dunaway asked the courts to dismiss some 25 cases involving former White County Sheriffs Deputy Brandon Young.
The FBI continues its investigation of Young after he urged his police dog to attack a non-violent suspect during an April arrest. Young has since resigned.
Dunaway said as he began to look at cases involving Young, he found inconsistencies between reports and what actually happened.
“Just doing a spot check for a lack of a better word, started looking at some body cam video of the different other cases at random,” Dunaway said. “Once I found three cases that I felt like the traffic stops were questionable, that really put me in a position where I had no confidence using that officer as a witness in court.”
Dunaway said there was nothing egregious in the cases he examined. He added not every one of the 25 cases had an issue or dishonest statement in the report, but the sampling gave him concern about all 25.
For example, Dunaway said in one case Young stopped a driver because the vehicle’s license plate was not illuminated.
“Then when you watch the car camera video, it looks like the license plate was illuminated,” Dunaway said. “It’s just a simple example of what felt like it was a bad stop.”
Dunaway said he did not dismiss other cases that involved Young but also involved a second deputy. Dunaway said he could build a case on the other deputy’s testimony.
Young’s work came under examination after the April arrest of Tonya Qualls. Dunaway turned over Young’s arrest to the FBI after viewing bodycam video. Young entered an apartment where Qualls, wanted on outstanding warrants, was hiding. The K-9 bit Qualls multiple times on the leg and arm.
“I did not feel after watching that she was guilty of resisting arrest,” Dunaway said. “We have since allowed her to withdraw that plea and dismissed that. I just felt like it was a case where it needed to be investigated by an outside agency relative to that officers’ use of force.”
The White County Sheriffs Department suspended Young for five days and required him take K-9 retraining because the arrest of Qualls violated department protocol.
