Chattanooga chief to fight officers’ re-hiring

By Associated Press

CHATTANOOGA — Chattanooga’s police chief says he will try to persuade an administrative law judge to not order the rehiring of two former officers after an inmate was beaten.

Chief Bobby Dodd fired Sean Emmer and Adam Cooley after 37-year-old Adam Tatum was injured as officers tried to control him at a halfway house on June 14, 2012.

Tatum’s attorney released surveillance video that shows the beating in which Tatum’s legs were fractured.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported that at a news conference Thursday, Dodd called the actions excessive and outside the department’s policies.

But Emmer and Cooley’s attorneys say Tatum threatened the officers with a knife and repeatedly refused orders to stop resisting.