Former Hawkins County prosecutor Doug Godbee has been arrested in sex-for-leniency case.
Rogersville, TN.- Former Hawkins County prosecutor Doug Godbee has been arrested on a sealed indictment warrant charging him with one count of official misconduct in connection to sexfor-leniency allegations.
The charge is the result of nine complaints made by female drug defendants or mothers of female drug defendants who claim Godbee offered them leniency in court in exchange for sexual favors. In some of those cases sexual contact is alleged, but most involve allegations that Godbee solicited sex in exchange for a favorable outcome in a criminal case.
Special prosecutor Russell Johnson of Kingston told the Times-News Tuesday that although there were nine civil complaints filed against Godbee, and nine alleged victims, the best strategy for a criminal prosecution was to lump all those complaints into one charge of official misconduct.
“The official misconduct covers the whole period involving those nine complaints,” Johnson said. “It’s a pattern of official misconduct. There were only a few in which there’s an allegation of a sexual favor or sexual act.
“Some of them, it was from the range of flirting or suggesting, which at best would be an attempt of official misconduct, which is just an A misdemeanor.”
Link: http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9031781