Dunaway To Determine If Allegations Against Looper Are Criminal

District Attorney General Bryant Dunaway is investigating if allegations made against Overton County Clerk Victoria Looper are criminal.

The State Comptroller’s Office released an investigation on Looper in April finding that she altered vehicle titles for personal loans. Dunaway said the findings are currently under review.

“That’s the thought process and the evaluation that we’re going through right now,”  Dunaway said. “It could be and that’s what we’re looking at the file for now to determine if that’s the nature of her actions. We’ll see. We should have a determination on that in a week or so.”

Dunaway said his office is reviewing all allegations in the investigation. Not only were titles altered, but Looper allegedly manipulated and/or avoided paying sales tax by declaring vehicles as gifts and misappropriated county-owned furniture.

“The investigative file is much more thorough and in depth than just the report that has been made public,” Dunaway said. “So all the evidence that has been collected and that sort of thing is being reviewed by my office currently to make a determination.”

Dunaway said the Comptroller’s Office sending the factual findings against Looper is a normal process. Dunaway said investigations come to his desk whenever government funds or property may be mishandled.

“We’re reviewing the entire investigation from front to back to see what actions if anything may or may not be criminal,” Dunaway said. “We’re looking at the whole picture, and the time frame which those things may have happened.”

Looper was re-elected to the clerk’s office last week. Tennessee Constitution states that, “county officers shall be removed from office for malfeasance or neglect of duty.”

According to Tennessee Code Annotated, county officials may be ousted from office for: knowing or willful misconduct in office, knowing or willful neglect of duties required by law, voluntary intoxication in a public place, engaging in illegal gambling or committing any act violating any penal statute involving moral turpitude.

Looper’s son has spoke out against the findings saying they are false.