FENTRESS COUNTY, Tenn. — UPDATE April 6, 2022
The wife of a Fentress County Sheriff's Office employee recanted claims her husband threatened to harm her and apologized to him in court documents seeking to dismiss an order of protection she filed against him.
A Fentress County judge dismissed the order of protection against Michael Potter on March 29. The Fentress County sheriff had taken away his badge and gun after the order was filed.
"He did not harm me and did not threaten to harm me physically in any way that night," Potter's estranged wife wrote. "He only threatened to return to the home to take possession of some of my belongings."
She said the pair are in the process of a divorce and disagreed over the division of their possessions. Potter did not threaten her or intimidate her to drop the order of protection, she wrote.
"I was simply not aware of the detriment that it could or would cause or cost me or him on our personal life or in his career," she said. "I am not in fear of him and I do not feel like I need to be protected from him."
She apologized to Potter and to the court and asked the order of protection be dismissed.
"I was not informed that past experiences or behaviors can not constitute a viable or valid reason to obtain an order of protection when there was no current threat of physical violence or harm," she wrote.
ORIGINAL STORY March 24, 2022
The Fentress County sheriff said he took away a part-time employee's badge and gun after the man's estranged wife filed for an order of protection against him in mid-March.
The woman who petitioned for the order said Michael L. Potter walked into her home as she returned from work on March 11, claiming he said he was going to "take the things he wanted" from the home. The two filed for divorce in January, and she said he was living at his mother's apartment and his girlfriend's home at the time. He moved out of the house on Nov. 21, 2021, she said.
Fentress County Sheriff Michael Reagon said he took away Potter's badge and his gun after he was served the order of protection. The sheriff said he is working as a court probation officer.
When Potter walked in, his estranged wife said he threatened to return later in the night and in the morning. She also said he was calling her names and raising his middle finger toward her while gritting his teeth.
The woman said she told him not to return to the property, but she said he responded by saying "he would do whatever he wanted to do."
She said she changed the locks on the house after the divorce papers were signed. She also said they were signed at the office of the man's attorney because she was afraid of him.
"I am afraid he is going to hurt me or kill me," she said in court records. "He puts me in fear of my life."
"Multiple times since filing for divorce he has told me that I should just blow my brains out," she said in the petition, claiming he also told her he could kill her and make it "look like an accident or suicide."
In court records, she said he had been physically abusive toward her in the past, such as pulling her hair out and giving her a black eye. She also said he vandalized her car.
"His anger has only gotten worse since he has taken steroids," she said in court records. "I felt threatened by him more so tonight because in the past when he has done these things and the cops have been called, nothing ever gets done because he is a police officer and probation officer."
WBIR is not identifying the woman due to the nature of the situation.