Last week, a rookie Tennessee police officer died in the line of duty. But while the officer’s loss is tragic, the evidence suggests that his death, as well as the death of a woman in his custody, was the result of his negligence.
Meigs County Sheriff’s Deputy Robert “RJ” Leonard, who had just joined the sheriff’s office out of the academy in December, responded to a disturbance call Wednesday evening. According to reports, a man and a woman were arguing on a bridge and Leonard arrested the woman around 10 p.m. According to Meigs County District Attorney Russell Johnson, the arrest was Leonard’s first since he joined the force.
After handcuffing the suspect, later identified as Tabitha Smith, and placing her in the back seat, Leonard radioed her that he was transporting her to jail. But along the way, according to Johnson, the deputy allegedly sent his wife a text that simply said, “Arrest.”
“His wife texted back and said, ‘That’s good,’ or ‘That’s great,’” said Sheriff Austin Garrett of neighboring Hamilton County. But at the time, Leonard apparently drove the wrong direction down the Blythe ferry ramp and into the Tennessee River. At the same time Leonard texted his wife, dispatchers say they received a garbled radio message from him, with the only distinguishable word being “water.”
The next day, a patrol vehicle was removed from the Tennessee River, from which the bodies of Leonard and Smith were later recovered.
While Leonard’s death is tragic, leaving behind not only his wife but three children, too little attention has been paid to the woman who died, handcuffed, in his custody. Deputy Chief Brian Malone fought back tears as he announced Leonard’s death, referring to Leonard as “part of our family,” while referring only to Smith, herself a mother of two, as “the other victim.”
ABC7 Los Angeles’ report on the events carries the headline: “Bodies of missing Tennessee lawmaker and woman who was detained have been recovered, officials say.” But the headline was changed from the original headline: “Tennessee officer found dead after making first arrest, patrol vehicle recovered in river.” While this reflects an earlier period when less information was available, that article still contained the detail that dispatchers had lost communication with Leonard just as he was texting his wife and that “the deputy, originally from New York, He appeared to be texting and radioing while driving in a dimly lit area he was unfamiliar with.”
Indeed, a report on Chattanooga’s ABC9 noted that the incident “raises safety concerns at Blythe Ferry ramps,” but the segment still shows that the road leading to the boat ramp in question featured three “rumble strips “: bumps in the road meant to warn drivers of impending danger and three yellow signs warning that “the road ends”.
Unfortunately, Smith is just one of countless people who die in police custody. In 2014, Congress passed the Death in Custody Reporting Act, which requires the federal government to collect and analyze data on the number of inmates who die in state, local, or federal custody each year. But a report released last year by the Leadership Conference Education Fund and the Project on Government Oversight found that the government “has yet to collect reliable data, let alone produce the required study.” Citing data from the Government Accountability Office, the report finds that “in 2021 alone, the government potentially underreported deaths in custody by nearly 1,000 compared to other public data sources.”
Leonard’s accident was almost certainly an accident, as he was driving at night along a dark road in an unfamiliar area. But preliminary evidence suggests a certain degree of negligence, both in texting while driving and in not paying attention to multiple posted signs. While Leonard’s death was a tragedy, it should be noted that his negligence also caused the death of a woman in his custody.