Detective pleads not guilty to new charges
HUNTSVILLE — Appearing on behalf of Donnie Anderson in Criminal Court here Monday morning, an attorney entered a plea of not guilty for the former Scott County Sheriff’s Department chief detective.
Anderson now faces a total of 11 felony charges involving four different female victims and stemming from incidents which investigators contend began just months after Anderson began working at the Sheriff’s Department in September 2006.
Last week, the Scott County Grand Jury returned a superseding indictment against Anderson and two co-defendants — Michael Paul Webb and Tammy Mae Carroll — who were part of an original indictment returned in August by the same grand jury.
The 11-count indictment returned last week does not include any new charges against either Webb or Carroll, who are charged with filing a false report in connection with a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation probe into an alleged false criminal report at the Sheriff’s Department.
Instead, the superseding indictment was sought by prosecutors to include new charges against Anderson, apparently as the result of new information that came to light to TBI investigators following the original phase of their investigation.
Anderson originally faced two counts of official misconduct and two counts of official suppression, in addition to a count of giving a false report, all stemming from incidents in mid June 2007 that involved two separate female victims. Allegedly, Anderson “intentionally subjected” each victim to “mistreatment and detention.”
As a result of the new indictment, six additional charges are added to the original five, including two new counts of official suppression, one new count of official misconduct, aggravated burglary, theft over $1,000 and aggravated perjury.
The new charges have evolved from an incident that allegedly took place in December 2006, six months before the now-infamous alleged false report came to light.
The charges stem from the break-in of an Oneida home on December 11. According to an incident report filed by the Oneida Police Department, OPD Investigator Paul D. Adkins initially investigated the break-in, and discovered a Dell notebook computer and a dog missing.
The investigation was subsequently turned over to the Scott County Sheriff’s Department, apparently at the request of the victim of the break-in. Two days later, according to the OPD incident report, the dog was found and returned to its owner, and Detective Anderson phoned OPD to state that a suspect, Fallon Christian Frogge, had been arrested and charged with that break-in.
In March 2006, still three months before Anderson’s trouble at the Sheriff’s Department began, Frogge pled guilty in Scott County Criminal Court to aggravated attempted burglary and was sentenced by Judge Shayne Sexton to a sentence of three years probation.
In a bizarre twist, Frogge has gone from suspect to victim, and it is Anderson who is accused of burglarizing the home. In addition to two charges in connection with the alleged home break-in, Anderson faces additional charges for the alleged mistreatment of the home’s owner and of Frogge.
Anderson, who turned himself in at the Scott County Jail on Wednesday (Oct. 3) on the new charges, did not appear at Monday’s arraignment proceedings. Arthur Jenkins, representing Anderson’s attorney, Bob Jolly, informed Judge Sexton that a written waiver of arraignment had been filed with the court, and that Anderson was pleading not guilty to the charges against him.
Webb did appear in court on Monday for an arraignment, despite not facing new charges, along with his attorney, Leif Jeffers. Webb also entered a plea of not guilty.
Carroll did not appear in court. A warrant was issued for her arrest.
A status hearing in the case is set for December 3, also before Judge Sexton.