Rutherford County Sheriff Robert Arnold, already facing trial on corruption charges, has now been accused of a domestic violence assaylt on his wife, reports the Daily News Journal.
“The defendant has been accused of domestic assault against his wife, Megan Arnold,” states a pretrial release petition from Kimberly J. Haney, a pre-trial services officer to U.S. Magistrate Judge Alistair E. Newbern.
Rutherford County’s District Attorney General Jennings Jones asked the TBI to investigate the alleged domestic assault after rumors surfaced that sheriff’s deputies had been called to the Arnolds’ Osborne Lane home but did not file a report.
Megan Arnold told the TBI that her husband became violent with her after the couple returned home from a Labor Day party at a friend’s house where he had been drinking, according to the court records. When the sheriff returned home, his wife told the TBI agent, he continued to drink and took an Ambien sleeping pill.
Later, when she opened the bedroom where the sheriff was, “the defendant pushed Mrs. Arnold to the floor and punched her in her right arm near her shoulder,” court records state.
“Mrs. Arnold kicked the defendant, and a struggle ensued,” the court filing continues. “During the struggle, the defendant grabbed a belt and wrapped it around Mrs. Arnold in an attempt to drag her out of the room without leaving marks on her body. Mrs. Arnold slipped out of the belt, and the defendant pinned her on the bed with his body. Mrs. Arnold related the defendant said if he were to place all of his body weight on her that she would stop breathing.
“Eventually, the defendant got up and Mrs. Arnold went to another part of the house,” court records state. “In a recorded conversation between Mrs. Arnold and a third party, Mrs. Arnold stated that she wanted to make a statement to the police, but she is scared of the defendant.”
However, when asked to sign a statement concerning the alleged assault in a Sept. 20 meeting with the TBI, Megan Arnold refused, although she admitted the account was accurate, court records reveal.
…The sheriff his uncle John Vanderveer and Joe Russell, a sheriff’s office accounting chief, face a 14-count federal indictment accusing them of profiting from inmates through the sale of JailCigs, an electronic cigarettes business. The three await a jury trial scheduled to start Feb. 7 before Middle Tennessee U.S. District Court Judge Kevin Sharp in Nashville.