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LaFollette City Council votes to hire officer who was nearly fired from THP to full-time role

Isaiah Lloyd resigned instead of being fired by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, his personnel file shows.

LAFOLLETTE, Tenn. — The LaFollette City Council voted to hire Isaiah Lloyd as a full-time officer for the city's police department on Tuesday. 

Lloyd was a part-time officer with the LaFollette Police Department. The City Council decided to promote him to a full-time patrol officer, making $36,664 a year. Chuck Queener, a city council member, was the only member to vote against it.

In Tennessee, the Peace Officer Standard & Training (POST) Commission regulates and certifies law enforcement officers. Lloyd's POST file shows he worked for the Tennessee Highway Patrol from 2015 through 2018. 

The commission suspended Lloyd's POST certification for two years, between Jan. 1, 2019, and Dec. 31, 2020, because of his conduct as a trooper. 

Lloyd's POST file said that on Oct. 1, 2018, Commissioner David Purkey wrote a memo to Lloyd notifying him he would be terminated on Oct. 11, 2018. The trooper's personnel file said he resigned "in Lieu of Termination." 

As a trooper, Lloyd was never charged with a crime. However, a disciplinary history review included in Lloyd's POST file showed troopers investigated Lloyd for nine different incidents during his time at THP. 

"Trooper Lloyd, you can no longer be trusted with the responsibilities and duties of a Tennessee State Trooper," Purkey wrote in the notice of termination to Lloyd. 

Purkey said Anderson County District Attorney General Dave Clark told THP his office would no longer prosecute cases from Lloyd in Anderson County and asked the department to move Lloyd to a different jurisdiction. 

The review found Lloyd entered evidence, including cash and illegal drugs, incorrectly. He pursued a car with a 3-year-old inside at more than 123 miles per hour, the review said. He ignored court and Grand Jury appearances, the file said. 

In 2017, Lloyd stopped a vehicle for a seatbelt violation, a lawsuit said. The female driver admitted to taking Ambien. Lloyd performed a pat-down frisk, then placed his fingers inside her waistband, the disciplinary review said. 

"Lloyd had went beyond the Terry v. Ohio frisk," the review said. "Trooper Lloyd received an Oral Warning for this procedural infraction." 

At a mobile home in Jacksboro, Lloyd assisted the Campbell County Sheriff's Office and Jacksboro Police Department in a search for a female suspect, though neither department asked Lloyd for help, the review said. The people who lived in the home didn't allow law enforcement to come in, because they didn't have a search warrant, documents show. 

Suspecting a female inside the mobile home was the person in question, "Lloyd forced the rear door open," the report said. He later returned to repair the door but didn't notify dispatch or his supervisor. 

"Trooper Lloyd has given inconsistent statements regarding whether or not he entered the residence after forcing the door open," the report said. 

Knoxville defense attorney Mike Whalen said police officers who are found to be untruthful or not following protocol are tough to include as witnesses in court cases. 

"If you are being untruthful about how you collect evidence and how you deal with citizens, you have no business being a police officer," Whalen said. "Any act of dishonesty or lying or cheating or not following the rules is fair game for cross-examination, and will be for the rest of his life." 

In a phone interview with WBIR for a previous story about Lloyd, LaFollette Police Chief Steve Wallen said he wanted to hire him because of his experience as a THP trooper and a military veteran. 

"He was cleared by the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the District Attorney's Office in Campbell County, and his POST was reinstated," Wallen said.

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