Former ORPD officer pleads not guilty to statutory rape, official misconduct

Note: This story was updated at 6:10 p.m.

CLINTON—A former Oak Ridge Police Department officer charged with aggravated statutory rape and official misconduct pleaded not guilty in Anderson County Criminal Court on Friday morning.

Cassen Jackson-Garrison, 31, was indicted on the two charges by the Anderson County Grand Jury on May 3. He was arrested May 6 by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and Anderson County Sheriff’s Department in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee.                                                                    

At the request of Seventh District Attorney General Dave Clark, TBI special agents began investigating Cassen Jackson-Garrison, who was an ORPD officer at the time, on August 13, 2015, on a complaint that he was having sexual contact with a minor. During the course of the investigation, Agents developed information that Jackson-Garrison had sexual contact with the teen in July 2015, the TBI said in a May 6 press release.

Jackson-Garrison was terminated from his employment with the Oak Ridge Police Department in August 2015. Authorities announced then that he would be prosecuted.

A pre-trial motion deadline for Jackson-Garrison has been set for August 22, and a plea deadline has been set for September 12.

Jackson-Garrison is represented by Knoxville defense attorney Greg Isaacs.

More information will be added as it becomes available.