753: Jim Hammond – Republican Sexual Predators

Jim Hammond is the Sheriff of Hamilton County, TN. He has created a culture of impunity, protecting deputies who rape and assault the public. One of his deputies has been indicted on 44 charges including rape, assault, and stalking. But this deputy did some of his worst crimes with other deputies. For example, Deputy Daniel Wilkey and another deputy did a body cavity search of a Black man in handcuffs. When the video was released there was widespread outrage, but Hammond did nothing.

It’s worse than that. The Sheriff has delayed and refused to provide the evidence requested by the District Attorney. Then, two years of dashcam footage was lost due to a “server outage.” The Sheriff said he was at war with the DA and, indeed, one of his deputies is running for District Attorney. That candidate has been accused of witness tampering. So the DA asked the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to investigate which Hammond said was political, though an independent prosecutor said was appropriate.

In April 2022, a week after a judge okayed a lawsuit against Deputy Daniel Wilkey and the Sheriff’s department, the woman Wilkey was accused of raping and assaulting was found dead.

There is an excellent thread on the Deputy and his crimes by Rebecca Kavanaugh. Despite the likelihood that a white law enforcement officer in Kentucky would be Republican, I don’t know for a fact that he is, not even with the forced baptism. Check out this thread here.

In 2022, three suits were filed against the Sheriff alleging violent attacks in the jail.