The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation on Friday arrested two Niota Police Department officers on official oppression charges after they were indicted by the McMinn County grand jury earlier this week for an altercation with a subject they arrested last summer.
Officer Donald McCarter, 45, and Officer Jonathan Scott, 22, were each charged with one count of official oppression and one count of conspiracy to commit official oppression. On June 13, 2011, Scott conducted at traffic stop and pulled over Wesley Stewart, 53, for riding a motorized bicycle without a tag or registration. Scott stopped Stewart near Stewart’s residence and requested his license and registration. Stewart refused to produce the documents requested and when Scott returned to his patrol vehicle, Stewart walked home. McCarter arrived on the scene and he and Scott entered Stewart’s residence to arrest him when there was an altercation and Stewart was injured. Stewart was charged in the incident, but the charges were later dismissed in General Sessions Court.
TBI opened the investigation at the request of the District Attorney General in the 10th Judicial District. Both McCarter and Scott were booked into the McMinn County Jail Friday.