Whisnant trial delayed as appeal considered
KNOXVILLE — A U.S. magistrate has granted a continuance in the trial of a Pioneer man facing federal weapons charges.
The new trial date for Douglas V. Whisnant is February 5, 2008. However, if defense attorneys are successful, the trial will not happen at all.
The continuance was requested by Whisnant’s attorneys after they filed a supplement to an earlier objection to a court ruling.
Oneida attorney Leif Jeffers — who, along with his law partner, Mark Strange, represents Whisnant — filed the supplement after former Scott County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Donnie Anderson was indicted by a grand jury on numerous felony charges.
Earlier, Jeffers had petitioned the court to suppress evidence against his client that was seized during a March search of Whisnant’s Ditney Trail home, citing an illegal search of the home. Following a hearing on that motion, the court rejected the request. Jeffers then filed an objection to that opinion. The latest filing is a supplement to the objection, which had not been addressed by the court.
In his supplemental brief, Jeffers cites the 11 felony counts against Anderson. In his original motion for suppression, he had cited a “lack of credibility” where Anderson was concerned. In the new filing, he states that the grand jury indictment, which was returned months after the original filing, substantiates that claim.
“The criminal conduct Anderson has been indicted for involves the total fabrication of an arrest report, manipulation of witnesses, official misconduct, official oppression, aggravated burglary of a home, obstructing the investigation, and aggravated perjury, all of which are felony offenses, and all of which demonstrate this individual’s complete lack of credibility,” Jeffers wrote.
Anderson was the only person who testified for the federal government at the earlier hearing on the motion to suppress evidence. Without his testimony, Jeffers argues, “the United States cannot show any probable cause for the destruction of the interior walls of Mr. Whisnant’s home.”
While a multitude of officers from various agencies participated in the March search of Whisnant’s home, it was Anderson who allegedly noticed drywall dust on a poker handle near a fireplace and subsequently discovered a hidden compartment in which several guns were allegedly stored. At issue are two Ruger 10-22 rifles, as they are the guns that federal agents were able to determine were transported across state lines in violation of federal law.
The search of Whisnant’s home came after he came under suspicion in the disappearance of his ex-wife, Jean Johnson. However, he has not been charged in that regard. Instead, agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, who participated in the search, successfully sought a federal indictment against Whisnant on the weapons charges. Similar charges filed by the state were subsequently dismissed in light of those federal charges.
A hearing has been granted based on the supplemental brief. The defense will make its case before Magistrate H. Bruce Guyton on November 1.