New Knoxville Horror Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood Doth Protest Too Much: Rejects Releasing TBI File of Predecessor “Judge Mischief” Richard Baumgartner,

Saying His Hands are Tied
By David in TN

On Friday, Special Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood said he has no authority to make public the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's file on former judge Richard Baumgartner.

The portions of the file not made public, according to Blackwood, contain phone records and recorded conversations in which Baumgartner discusses sex with two women and makes “crude remarks” about people.

Judge Blackwood said there is no conspiracy to protect Baumgartner.

N.S. If Blackwood is doing all of this on his own, there is no conspiracy, since it takes two. However, Knoxville News Sentinel reporter Jamie Satterfield has strongly suggested that either there was a conspiracy to protect Baumgartner, prior to Judge Blackwood’s arrival on the scene, or so many Knox County criminal justice officials either feared Baumgartner, or were his friends, that several different figures acted independently variously to aid and abet him, or to ignore clear signs of misconduct and criminal behavior.