Hallucinations, Threats in Officer’s Personnel File

(Covington) – The Covington Police officer arrested this week for buying a gun from a convicted felon has a long history of reprimands from places he worked.

News Channel 3 filed an open records request and learned that Hall was fired from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office in 2005.The reason; truthfulness and personal conduct. So we sat down with the Covington Police Chief to find out why he was on their force.

“He’s a local guy and I guess that played a part,” Chief Tim Glass said.

Chief Glass didn’t hire Officer Jack Hall, but he believes mistakes were made in the process. Glass says the only background check that was done was getting someone’s word.

“My chief told me that he contacted one his command officers and he gave him a great recommendation,” he said.

Had they done the same check we did they would have learned Hall was fired from the Shelby County Sheriff’s office in 2005.

In a 65 pages personnel file we obtained we learned Hall was fired after an incident with a woman he was dating. She said he “made threats to kill her…put a pillow over her face and then put the gun to her head.”

They are charges that Hall denies, but a Civil Service Board sided with the woman. He lost his job, but soon found a home in the Covington Police Force.

It didn’t take long for him to build a reputation there. One police report we obtained shows he called 911 one night because he thought he was seeing dead animals in his home.

“My former chief told me he was on the prescription medication and he took too much and that caused him to hallucinate,” Chief Glass said.

Chief Glass admits the department has had their concerns about Hall in the past. They even called the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations on him before.

“TBI  has been here before but everything turned out to be just hearsay that we couldn’t prove,” he said.

But recently, Glass gave information to TBI they believe can be proven. On July 12th, Glass reported that Hall was making threats against officers and trying to buy a stolen gun from a convicted felon. An alleged crime that landed Hall in jail.

He has since bonded out.

While Glass is glad Hall is off the force for now, he worries about the future.

“I was definitely concerned about the situation and still am because I’m sure he’s got some hatred toward us,” he said.

He also says its unfortunate that this incident puts a blemish on his department.

 ”I’m really hurt by it,” he said. “But I’d rather we get rid of that type of officer.

Hall is on unpaid leave from the force. He was on Family Medical Leave when he allegedly called up dispatch and asked them to check to see if  a gun was stolen.  The arrest affidavit says he tried to buy a gun from a man he knew to be a convicted felon.