Rutherford County Sheriff Arnold Will Await His Corruption Trial In Jail

Rutherford County Sheriff Robert Arnold will be jailed and held in a federal prison until a corruption trial scheduled for February.

Arnold had been free on bond since a 14-count indictment on bribery and corruption charges. U.S. District Court Magistrate Alistair Newbern revoked Arnold’s bond Wednesday following a five-hour hearing the day before.

At issue were allegations by investigators of a drunken domestic assault on Arnold’s wife on Labor Day. Newbern was asked to consider whether Arnold violated the conditions of his pretrial release — and whether he poses an ongoing danger to his family.

The hearing, in front of a packed seventh-floor courtroom in downtown Nashville, revealed that the sheriff’s wife was reluctant to come forward and initially hesitated to talk with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

TBI Special Agent James Scarbro testified that the woman said she was shoved to the ground, punched, and then pinned on a bed beneath the sheriff’s weight. The agent said she agreed those were the facts, but ultimately declined to sign a written statement.

Eventually, an acquaintance made secret recordings of her phone calls and gave them to authorities, prompting them to take action against Arnold.

In the phone calls, the woman says the sheriff pressured her not to talk to detectives, and said that if he were jailed it would ruin their family.

“Robert has repeatedly made it clear he does not want me reporting it,” she said in one call.

The judge also heard from the probation officers who have been monitoring Arnold.

Initially, they recommended allowing the sheriff to remain free. But that changed during the course of the hearing — which Newbern, the judge, said gave her “much to think about.”

“We do not believe there are conditions to assure he won’t violate again,” said, James Perdue, the deputy chief of the probation office. He added later, “Based on the totality of the evidence, we changed our recommendation … to detention.”

The probation officers said that Arnold initially wrote a statement that “nothing happened” on Labor Day. Later, when pressed, his story changed. The officers had been recommending that Arnold undergo alcohol and anger management counseling.

Perdue said the testimony revealed deception and manipulation on Arnold’s part, and also raised concerns that he may be abusing his position of authority by pursuing information as to which of his employees are aiding prosecutors in his corruption trial.

The case revolves around the involvement of Arnold and two other men in a business that sold e-cigarettes to inmates in the Rutherford County jail that Arnold oversees.

“[TBI] agents, somewhat regularly, hear from employees of Rutherford County who express concerns about retaliation,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Cecil Vandevender.

Judge “My conclusion might be different if Sheriff Arnold were to resign his office” .. The Sheriff is currently being booked into jail— Chris Conte (@chrisconte)
September 28, 2016

Prosecutors argued that bond should be revoked because there was sufficient evidence of an assault, and they emphasized Arnold’s powerful role in the county.

Yet defense attorney Thomas Dundon argued the evidence was weak and that the remedy — jail — went too far, when other conditions were available.

He asked the mother of Arnold’s wife to testify. She said the couple’s marriage had been combative for 13 years — a “stormy ride” — but that her daughter insists she is safe in the home and that they still live together.

Arnold has resisted calls from Rutherford County officials to resign.