United States v. Partin

• Decision Date: 11 February 2022
• Docket Number: 3:21-CR-58-KAC-DCP
• Parties: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff, v. COURTNEY PARTIN, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Tennessee

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff,
v.
COURTNEY PARTIN, Defendant.

No. 3:21-CR-58-KAC-DCP

United States District Court, E.D. Tennessee, Knoxville

February 11, 2022

KATHERINE A. CRYTZER UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

ORDER ACCEPTING REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This criminal case is before the Court for consideration of the Report and Recommendations (“Report”) issued by United States Magistrate Judge Debra C. Poplin [Doc. 43], recommending that the Court deny Defendant's “Motion to Suppress Evidence” [Doc. 33]. Judge Poplin held a hearing on the motion to suppress [Docs. 39, 47], and on October 22, 2021, she issued the Report, recommending that the Court deny Defendant's motion to suppress because “exigent circumstances” justified Defendant's seizure [Doc. 43 at 2, 14, 18].^[1]Defendant objected to this conclusion, asserting that there “is no evidence of an emergency to excuse [Defendant's] warrantless detention and arrest” [Doc. 44 at 3, 5]. Because exigent circumstances existed to justify the warrantless seizure of Defendant, the Court ACCEPTS the

1

Report [Doc. 43], OVERRULES Defendant's objection [Doc. 44], and DENIES Defendant's “Motion to Suppress Evidence” [Doc. 33].

At 5:30 a.m. on November 10, 2020, Defendant's neighbor called the Campbell County 911 dispatcher to report a dangerous situation in rural Pioneer, Tennessee [Doc. 43 at 1, 12]. The caller relayed that a man in the wooded area behind the caller's property^[2] was yelling that “he was burning” and “needed help” [Id. at 12]. The caller also reported that the man in the woods shouted that “Courtney Partin had killed everyone” [Id.]. Two officers from the Campbell County Sheriff's Office responded, arriving to an area “surrounded by woods” [Id.]. Prior to their arrival, the officers did not know whether the man yelling in the woods had a weapon [Id. at 3]. Upon their arrival, they heard Defendant “screaming” that “when the sun rose, he would burn to ashes” [Id. at 12]. At this point, Defendant also “mov[ed] around in the woods” frantically [Id.; see also Doc. 47 at 10:1, :23, 26:23 (Defendant was “frantic[al]ly running around” and making “sporadic movements” “back and forth”)]. The officers announced themselves and asked Defendant “to come out of the woods;” Defendant responded that the officers would have to “come up there and get him, mother fuckers” [Doc. 43 at 12; see also Doc. 47 at 11:12, :17-18 (“[Defendant] replied with a very vulgar sentence” “to come up there and get...