Grayson Fritts — a Baptist preacher turned police detective in Knox County, Tennessee — gave a sermon on June 2, 2019 in which he called queer people “animals” and “freaks” and added that “federal, state and county governments should arrest, try, convict and ‘speedily’ execute people within the LGBTQ community.”
So now that he’s been pushed out of the police force, it makes sense that county prosecutors recently dropped rape charges that Fritts helped bring against a local gay man — and more charges may follow as the county is re-examining every case involving Fritts’s detective work.
In October 2016, 47-year-old Shawn Lee Smith was indicted by a grand jury on charges of rape and sexual battery stemming from an October 2015 incident in which Smith allegedly lured a guy back to his hotel room by saying that he was a licensed massage therapist. An indictment basically means that a jury believed the case had enough evidence to move to a full trial.
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Although the case ended on a mistrial after Smith’s accuser “made several outbursts in court,” according to KnoxNews.com, a jury still found Smith guilty of a felony charge of impersonating a licensed professional and misdemeanor theft.
The county was considering a re-trial, but it has decided not to and dropped the rape charges against Smith because going back to trial would involve calling Fritts to testify … and perhaps a government shouldn’t rely on testimony against a gay man made by a guy who wants the government to arrest, try and execute all gay men? Maybe??
The office of Knox County District Attorney General Charme Allen recently announced that it was conducting “a review of all pending cases involving Fritts for potential bias.” As such, it suggests that the county is at least admitting that Fritts’ anti-LGBTQ worldview might’ve tainted his work, making his conclusions potentially toxic to the at least 10 criminal cases that he’s currently connected to.
After blowback from the public, Fritts was pushed out of the city’s police force this summer and given a monthly pension of $1,275.28 (although a police department spokesperson claimed his being “bought out” had nothing to do with his hateful comments).
Although Fritz claims his professional behavior was never affected by his anti-LGBTQ animus, it’ll be interesting to see if the county drops any other charges against people investigated by him. Sadly, we may never know how many queer people might’ve aggressively accused, charged and sentenced before he was caught saying how badly he wants to arrest and imprison all queer people just for being themselves.
RIGay
And the lure of the South is… what exactly?
rbernard
Some places in the South are much more gay friendly than others and some are intolerant communities whipped up in fear that “evil” gay people are going to make god angry and destroy America for allowing gay folks to exist out in the open.
That being the case, you certainly have to be choosy about where you live in the South.
There are a lot up low information fearful, superstitious people living there who are easily lead by intolerant non-tax paying scamvangelists who will misquote the bible to justify their prejudices – and there lies the rub..
JonathanMartin1285
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innocentgay
Pretty trees.
SnickSnacks
Your comment would be appropriate IF the creep was still working for and being supported by the local police force. But he isn’t, is he. They kicked his filthy self out, and are doing the right thing by reviewing all his pending cases. That says a lot about that community and what they feel about lowlifes like him. Sounds like the south, at least that community is headed in the right direction. And I dare say you’d see the very same reaction in most cities in the south. To label “the south” as a negative because some anti gay bigot made an ass of himself is just as prejudiced as he is. California has several anti-gay politicians who’ve made the news. But you don’t see anyone saying “and the lure of the west is?”. Funny how that works.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Countdown til this smcubag puke’s kiddie sex scandal erupts….10..9…8…7….
MacAdvisor
“An indictment basically means that a jury believed the case had enough evidence to move to a full trial.”
A grand jury indictment means nothing of the kind. It doesn’t suggest anything about the strength of the case. The standard to pass a grand jury is there “probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed by a criminal suspect.” All there needs to be is sufficient reason based upon known facts. Moreover, the case is not tested with a response. Thus, one could indict someone because there is a good reason to believe they committed the crime even thought there is much reason, such as eye witnesses, to suggest otherwise.