Charges have been dropped against the Gatlinburg Police Department detective who was charged with perjury in connection to the Ooltewah High School assault.
Detective Rodney Burns was charged with two counts of aggravated perjury in Hamilton County Juvenile Court following his testimony in the assault case involving three Ooltewah High basketball players while they were on a team trip in Gatlinburg in December 2015.
A grand jury indicted Burns in May 2016. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The Hamilton County District Attorney's Office said Burns told a different story in court from reports he filed about the investigation and juvenile court has jurisdiction in cases of failing to report child abuse.
Burns' attorneys said the charges never should have been filed in juvenile court.
Those charges were dropped Tuesday.
A Hamilton County criminal court judge agreed with Burns' attorneys and dismissed the case against him.
“We’re very pleased that this matter is over for Detective Burns. It should never have been brought to start with," Burns' defense attorney Bryan Delius told 10News Tuesday. “The only thing that the (Hamilton County) prosecutor was trying to do was get on the bandwagon and get him some press down there in his home county.”
Burns is seeking damages against Hamilton County prosecutor Neal Pinkston before the Tennessee Claims Commission. His claim has been pending for more than a year.
Burns has still been able to work as a detective in Gatlinburg while the criminal charges were pending. He was the lead detective in a fraud case against several people accused of stealing from the My People Fund.
WRCB-TV contributed to this story.
