CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – The man arrested in what prosecutors say was an unlawful traffic stop by a Montgomery County deputy said he was targeted because of his race, and that the deputy made a false statement under oath.
As a result of the traffic stop, Deputy William Baker was arrested Oct. 7 and charged with official misconduct, aggravated perjury and official oppression. He was terminated from his position, according to Sheriff John Fuson.
According to court documents obtained by Clarksville Now, Baker was indicted during the grand jury’s October term for an arrest without probable cause of 21-year-old Kennard Williams. The indictment also claims Baker said under oath that he ordered Williams to leave the scene when he had not done so.
At first, a routine stop
On the night of Sept. 5, Williams, who is mixed race, was traveling back to Clarksville from Tampa, Florida, he told Clarksville Now. He had two friends, who are white, pick him up at the airport, and he was supposed to pick up his daughter from her mother’s house later that evening.
The three men were traveling on 101st Airborne Division Parkway near Whitfield Road when Baker initiated a traffic stop.
At first, everything seemed routine, Williams told Clarksville Now.
“Everything was cool, he (Baker) was talking to the driver, he asked him if he knew how fast he was going and if there was a reason why he was going fast, and my friend was like, ‘No, there’s not a reason that I was driving fast, I don’t have an excuse,'” Williams said.
Williams said Baker then shined a flashlight on him and his other friend in the backseat. Baker asked for their IDs.
“I’m in the passenger seat, and I look at the police officer, and I asked him, I said, ‘Why do I have to give you my ID?’ Well, he starts to say stuff like it’s the law, and he starts naming off fake laws,” Williams said.
Williams said he declined to give the officer his ID because he was not the one driving. Baker ordered Williams to get out of the car. Williams said his ID was stored in his backpack after traveling.
“I step out the car, and I have my backpack with me, which my ID is in, so I step out of the car, and my friend starts recording at this moment,” Williams said.
‘What laws am I breaking?’
As he got his ID out of his bag, Williams said, he pressed for more information from Baker about what led him to ask for his ID.
No Tennessee statute exists that compels a person to provide identification to a law enforcement officer unless the officer has reasonable suspicion that the person is engaged in criminal wrongdoing.
“I’m asking him at the same time, ‘What laws am I breaking? Why do I have to get out of the vehicle? What crime did you suspect me of committing?’ And he starts naming off some more stuff like failure to exhibit, and he started threatening to take me to jail if I didn’t give him my ID,” Williams said.
Williams said he then handed Baker his ID, and Baker returned to his patrol vehicle. Baker said he and his friends sat in their car for 40 minutes, and then an officer with the Clarksville Police Department arrived.
Williams said he flagged the officer down to come talk to him.
“Then I asked him just the proceedings during a traffic stop. I’m like, ‘Hey, what do y’all usually do when y’all pull people over and there’s passengers in the car? Do y’all ask for their IDs?'” Williams told Clarksville Now.
At this point, Williams said, Baker returned to the car and asked Williams to step out of the vehicle again.
“He gives the driver his ticket, he makes me get out of the vehicle again and walk over to his car,” Williams said. “Then he gave me a ticket for failure to exhibit when clearly I have a video of me giving him my ID.”
‘Black kid in the car’
Williams said when he was sitting in Baker’s patrol vehicle, he asked more questions. He asked for Baker’s badge number and name, which Baker refused to give him.
“We’re sitting there, and I’m literally talking to him and I start recording him at this point,” Williams said. “We’re talking, he literally stops what he’s doing, he turns around, puts me in handcuffs and takes me to jail,” Williams said.
Williams was placed under arrest and charged with disorderly conduct.
“When we got to the jail, he (Baker) made a false statement to the clerk or whoever was in there that took his statement under oath, which I guess is where all of this is coming from,” Williams said.
According to information from MCSO, the traffic stop was initiated at 8:40 p.m. Williams said he did not get out of jail until around 12:30 a.m.
Days later, Williams got a call from the District Attorney’s Office notifying him that the charges would be dismissed.
He added that he had to pay money out of pocket that he didn’t have to make bail that night, and he had to find a babysitter for his daughter because her mother had to be at work. He said he is looking for a lawyer.
“I can honestly say I feel like it was because I was the ‘Black kid in the car.’ Both of my friends that were with me were white. He didn’t give either one of them a hard time. He only gave me a hard time,” Williams said.
Clarksville Now has reached out to Chase Smith, Baker’s attorney, for comment.