Breaking: Government Testimony from August 15, 2012 Inconsistent with Press Reports Two Years Ago in Miller Case

HAVE SHERIFF BILL BIVENS AND TBI AGENT BILL BRAKEBILL COMMITTED PERJURY?

by Sharon Rondeau

(Aug. 16, 2012) — Reported testimony from Monroe County Sheriff Bill Bivens and TBI Agent Bill Brakebill during the trial of Jessica Kennedy Powers for the murder of Jim Miller is not consistent with what was reported two years ago.

The murder occurred on July 17, 2010.

Defendant Jessica Kennedy Powers reportedly provided the names of Monroe County Sheriff’s Department Capt. Michael Morgan, Boonie Stokes and Brandon Steele as having been involved in the perpetration of the murder.

Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III told The Post & Email this morning that government officials are “giving themselves up.” Fitzpatrick has called the murder “a message to the community” to refrain from reporting government corruption.  “I believe that Sheriff Bill Bivens and TBI Agent Bill Brakebill committed perjury on the stand,” Fitzpatrick said.  He has previously said that the murder was “a government hit.”

On May 11, 2011, The Post & Email published a written report prepared by Fitzpatrick and submitted to the TBI and Knoxville FBI which named Boonie Stokes and Brandon Steele as having been involved in the murder.  Neither agency ever contacted him, although those two names have now been mentioned by the mainstream press and in court.

The Post & Email has published subsequent reports and also has never been contacted.  However, after Fitzpatrick contacted us this morning, we called the Knoxville FBI and spoke with a duty agent, who said, “It’s the TBI’s case.”

Fitzpatrick does not yet have internet access, so this morning he read to us from the print version of the Monroe County Buzz.  “This is the week after Jim Miller’s murder.  The date is 23 July 2010,” Fitzpatrick said.  “The headline is ‘Sheriff’s Captain Cleared in Miller Homicide Investigation.’  The subtitle is ‘TBI, Other Agencies Permit Kenny Hope to Return to Duty.'”

[Editor’s Note: Another local report dated August 20, 2010 stated the same.  An article from the Advocate & Democrat stated that “according to the TBI and District Attorney General Steve Bebb, one thing is known for sure: Monroe County Sheriff’s Capt. Kenny Hope did not commit the crime.”  District Attorney General Steve Bebb  has b]

The article stated that “a road captain” who had become “a short-term ‘person of interest’ in the investigation into the Jim Miller homicide case has been cleared of any involvement in the death of Miller.”  The article went on to say that Hope would resume his duties with the sheriff’s department based on a statement from a spokesman for the TBI.  The spokesman, Kristen Helm, had said that Bivens, Hope and the sheriff’s department had “cooperated fully” with the Miller investigation.

The article quoted Helm as having said that the investigation would continue and that at that time, there were no new developments. Helm said that details about the specific wounds Miller suffered would not be revealed so that the investigation would not be compromised.  Helm reportedly told The Buzz that identification of the body “could take weeks or months.”

“Several TBI agents have been assigned” to the investigation, Helm was quoted as having said.  “No one person has been singled out as a ‘major suspect’ in the case, Helm said.”   The Buzz further quoted her, “This is a wide-open investigation, and we’re working very hard to complete it.”

The Buzz said that Bivens had told them that he had agreed “not to speak publicly about the investigation per the TBI’s request” and that the TBI would release any and all information on the case.

A 24-hour tipline for the TBI was published at the conclusion of the July 23, 2010 article, which had no identified author.

Fitzpatrick said that in an article dated August 16, 2012 in The Chattanooga Times Free Press, a photo shows Judge Walter C. Kurtz “sitting on the bench in the background.  In the foreground is Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Christopher Lochmuller testifying about Jim Miller and how his body was found,” Fitzpatrick said.  The title of the article is “‘Details Key to Slaying Arrest,’ Detective Says.” by Shelly Bradbury.

The article begins:

Madisonville, Tenn. – A detective says the woman accused of shooting a man in the head and then burning his body was just a source of information for investigators at first, but they became suspicious when she knew a few too many details about the crime.

The article continues by describing the crime, the charges against Powers, and that she appeared to have details which only an eyewitness would have had.  She also was reported to have said that “she believed members of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department were involved in Miller’s death and specifically mentioned Detective Mike Morgan and Sheriff Bill Bivens.”

Powers’s defense attorney, Robert Eldridge, then reportedly asked TBI Agent Bill Brakebill if he had “followed up” on the information Powers had provided, to which Brakebill reportedly answered, “no.”  “I did not have any information at any time that indicated Mike Morgan or the sheriff were involved in Jim Miller’s death,” Brakebill reportedly said in court.

Monroe County Sheriff Bill Bivens was then asked if he “had suggested the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department take a secondary role in the investigation because members of his staff had been implicated in the crime,” to which Bivens reportedly said under oath, “I may have.”

Capt. Michael Morgan has not been seen recently and was one of four sheriff’s deputies to beat and taser Fitzpatrick on October 27, 2010 during an arrest for allegedly “failing to appear” for a court hearing.  Assistant District Attorney General Jim Stutts asked questions of the witnesses.  Stutts has been named as possibly being guilty of misconduct in the Tenth Judicial District along with ADAG Paul D. Rush.

The trial is taking place in “Monroe County Criminal Court,” which should not exist according to TCA 16-2-506, which ordered criminal trials to take place in district courts made up of several counties in most cases.

“Those two articles are not consistent with one another.  On 23 July 2010, no one person had been “singled out” as a suspect, and within five days, Kenny Hope was allegedly looked at and cleared,” Fitzpatrick said.  “We’ve always known that the sheriff’s department was involved in this; we’ve described this as a ‘government hit.’  Yesterday, when Brakebill was asked in court if he had followed up on Powers’s leads, he said he did not.  According to The Buzz on July 23, 2010, the TBI was reported to have taken the lead, along with the Tenth Judicial District, in the investigation.  Within a week, the TBI claimed investigative authority over Jim Miller’s case,” Fitzpatrick said.  “Bivens had agreed not to ‘speak publicly…per the TBI’s request.’  This is the Monroe County Sheriff in a very high-profile murder case.  Bivens should have complete clarity about what he did in regard to his department because ‘members of his staff have been implicated in the crime.’  The answer Bivens gave allows for plausible deniability,” Fitzpatrick said. “What Bivens should have said yesterday, which would have been consistent with the report of 23 July 2010, was “Well, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation was the lead investigation agency at that time; they had put gag orders on local agencies, to include the sheriff’s department…we stepped back; officers in my department had been named…” The TBI recognized that and had taken the lead on the investigation within five days.  Within five days, Hope was implicated in the death. One of Bivens’ own deputies was involved in the case, so as a matter of professional obligation and duty, Bivens would have had to have stepped back from the investigation.  He should have testified yesterday, “As the sheriff of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department, because my deputy was instantly implicated in the murder, I withdrew…”  And now we know that Kennedy Powers implicated Bill Bivens himself and Mike Morgan – these men were named specifically…three Monroe County Sheriff’s people were involved!  And it appears from The Buzz report that the TBI had taken on investigative responsibility working with the Tenth Judicial District within the first five days of Miller’s murder.

“The comments from yesterday and the comments from 2010 do not match up,” Fitzpatrick said.  “The sheriff’s department is giving out statements.  Bill Bivens should have complete command of the information.  He was asked about it on the stand and refused to answer directly.  Brakebill said yesterday that the TBI was informed by Kennedy Powers that she thought that Bill Bivens and Mike Morgan were involved in the death of Jim Miller.  She told them that back in the day, and then we had the report about the possible involvement of Kenny Hope.  So the TBI, back in July 2010, had three sheriff’s employees implicated in the death of Jim Miller:  Sheriff Bill Bivens; Capt. Mike Morgan, the lead detective for the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department; and Kenny Hope, within the first days after Mr. Miller was shot dead.  And when Bill Brakebill was made aware of that, did he follow up on that?  He said ‘no.’

“That was a lie.  He would have had to have followed up on Kenny Hope to clear him.  If they didn’t follow up, how did they clear him???  And Brakebill was identified as the ‘lead investigator.'”

“Powers didn’t implicate Hope; somebody else did that.  The lead detective said he didn’t follow up, which is an out-and-out lie because somebody had to have followed up in order to clear him!

“The person who said that Kenny Hope had been cleared as of July 23, 2010 was the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation public information officer, Kristen Helm.  She said in a press release that ‘Sheriff Bill Bivens, his department, and Hope himself have cooperated fully’ with the investigation and that Hope would return to his road captain duties.  Then Helm said that investigators were continuing their work.

Brakebill lied on the stand yesterday when he said he didn’t follow up.  Brakebill had to follow up to clear Kenny Hope, and if it wasn’t Brakebill directly, then one of his TBI coworkers had to go in and clear Hope, and then because Brakebill was the ‘lead investigator,’ the TBI agent who had information that would have cleared Kenny Hope would have had to go to his boss, the lead investigator, present his or her information to Special Agent Brakebill and say, “Here’s what we’ve got; we need to clear Kenny Hope.’  Brakebill would have been the only person who could have approved that, and even then, Brakebill probably would have had to have turned in his swivel chair to his boss at the TBI because we’re talking about police officers involved in a murder!!! This is a very, very big deal!!!”