GREENEVILLE, Tenn. — A veteran Greeneville Police lieutenant was pushed out by his department after an internal affairs investigation concluded he sexually assaulted a woman onboard a Caribbean cruise in 2019, records obtained by 10News show.
A group of three women accused Lieutenant Alan Dotson of propositioning them and then asking of one if she had underwear on before pushing his hand over her dress into her genitals.
Dotson later failed a polygraph test when an internal affairs investigator asked whether he touched the alleged victim in a sexual manner, the investigation showed.
"I wasn't even close enough to touch this girl. I was never alone with her. Never," Dotson said in his internal affairs interview. He continues to deny the allegations and said he never faced criminal charges.
The 20-year veteran resigned instead of getting fired within two weeks of the incident in September 2019, records show. The allegations and resulting investigation have not previously been reported. 10News uncovered them when the department successfully petitioned the state to revoke Dotson's certification to serve as a law enforcement officer.
"I can find no reason for the females to make up false allegations against [Dotson]," the internal affairs report concluded. "I do find that [Dotson] was evasive and conveniently blank of memory when it seemed to best suit his interest. I believe he committed the actions he is accused."
In a statement to 10News, Dotson denied the allegations and questioned the authenticity of the polygraph result. Greeneville Police declined to comment. The alleged victim couldn't be reached for comment.
Caribbean cruise
The internal affairs investigation outlines a weekend of drinking and gambling onboard a Caribbean Carnival cruise. Dotson said he went on the trip with several friends, but quickly met a trio of women from the Columbus, Ohio area.
"They hung out regularly and the remainder of the cruise" drinking and gambling in the ship's casino, the records stated.
On the final day at sea, Sept. 8, 2019, Dotson and one of the women had a consensual sexual encounter. But when her two friends came looking for her, they told investigators he answered the door wearing only a towel, records show.
"Alan [Dotson] at this point started asking them if they would all three like to get naked and have sex with him at which point he was touching them with his body he was standing so close to them," the report said.
That's when the women told a Greeneville Police investigator Dotson sexually assaulted one of them.
"When they told him no, he asked [the woman] if she had underwear on under her dress and he took his hand and pushed it between her legs, and she says he was trying to put his fingers inside her vagina," the internal affairs report said.
They reported the incident to Carnival Cruise security and the Greeneville Police Department opened an investigation within three days.
Dotson's interview
From the start of his interview with internal affairs on Sept. 17, Dotson had an idea what investigators wanted to know.
"If I may ask, is this about the cruise?" Dotson said while filling out pre-interview paperwork within two minutes of the start of his conversation with investigators.
Over the course of the interview, Dotson had difficulty remembering some of the details of the weekend but continuously denied any wrongdoing.
"No, sir. No way why—there's no reason why I would," he said in response to the accusation he tried to grab one of the women.
"I know without a shadow of a doubt that I did not touch that girl," he said.
Though a lie-detector test isn't admissible in court, Greeneville Police arranged for retired TBI agent Mike Hannon to conduct a polygraph of Dotson the next day.
"Mr. Hannon determined after the polygraph that Alan was not truthful in his answers to the questions relating to whether he touched [...] in a sexual manner," the internal affairs file said.
After the exam, Hannon and GPD captain Tim Davis questioned Dotson, alternating between attempts to empathize with him as a "red-blooded American" and accusing him of lying.
"Why would they make this story up, Alan?" Davis asked.
"You're a liar. You lie about stuff. The truth is we all do, but you're lying about this," Hannon said.
Then they asked Dotson: who would he believe?
"If you're sitting in my shoes, taking that statement, watching her range of emotion, what does your gut tell you? Doing the job you've done for so long," Davis asked.
"I understand that completely," Dotson said. "But I swear I did not. Not even close to touching somebody like that."
Decertification
Greeneville Police asked the state Peace Officers Standards and Training Commission (POST) to revoke Dotson's certification, preventing him from serving as a law enforcement officer in Tennessee.
POST spokesperson Kevin Walters said the full commission approved the decertification in May.
"It was based upon Dotson's failure to appear and the grounds were that he resigned in lieu of termination for severe disciplinary reasons," he said.
In a phone interview with 10News, Dotson said he didn't contest the decertification—that he was "burnt out" and didn't want to work as a cop anymore anyway.
He continued to deny any wrongdoing and said he was "flabbergasted" by the situation.
"[The Greeneville Police Department] wanted me gone and they were going to get me gone regardless," Dotson said, though he did not explain what he meant.
"[The department] didn't give me the benefit of the doubt."
In a statement before publication, Dotson said, "I never abused anybody, sexually or otherwise. The fact that they have linked their investigation to the subjective interpretation of a polygraph by a biased agent would not be admissible in a court of law, nor should it be used to ruin my reputation in the court of public opinion."
Dotson said he never faced any criminal charges. 10News didn't find record of charges in Greene County, the victim's home county in Ohio, nor federally.
An FBI spokesperson said investigations on cruises fall into a complicated legal gray area.