seymour man arrested in error

James Russell Kitts, 44, a UPS worker and football coach was arrested last month as of a extensive roundup of fugitives in East Tennessee. All charges have been dismissed against Kitts.

Kitts was arrested June 25 based on a presentment from a Sevier County grand jury that accused him of trafficking in morphine. The charges were dropped five days later by prosecutors who, based upon new information were unsure if they had arrested the proper individual.

The Sevier County grand jury based their decision received from the members of the 4th Judicial District Drug Task Force that operates in Sevier, Cocke, Jefferson and Grainger counties.

They have made no comment at this time.

"It was a nightmare," Kitts said. “I was in jail for over 20 hours which seemed like 20 days.”

According to Kitts he was arrested about 3:30P.M in front of his co-workers and didn’t walk out of the jail until noon the following day.

"The worst part of it was the uncertainty. I had no idea what was going on or even what the charges meant. To be put in jail with no explanation and no idea whether I was going to get out of it that was the worst of it. You watch TV shows and movies, you hear about this all the time, and it happened to me.

Kitts has retained Sevierville attorney Bryan Delius who said that authorities have refused to return his phone calls or give any explanation on why his client was arrested.

"Mr. Kitts is a pillar of the community in Seymour; he's never been arrested and never been in trouble a day of his life," Delius said. "He's the only employee at his UPS station that has the security clearance to deliver packages straight to the planes at the airport."

An operation called FALCON is made up of a group of U.S. marshals and other law enforcement agents, a fugitive task force, arrived at Kitts' workplace in Maryville and informed his boss that Kitts was wanted on drug charges, according to Delius.

Kitts' boss called him in from the field at which time Kitts was taken into custody in front of his co-workers, according to Delius. He was taken to the Sevier County Jail and held overnight in lieu of $150,000 bond.

Delius said he cut short his vacation and got the bond reduced to $20,000 the following day, but his client then learned that he'd been laid off from work due of his arrest.

The charges were formerly dropped against Kitts June 30 by Assistant District Attorney General Steve Hawkins, who prosecutes these cases in Sevier County.

"The drug task force came to me after he'd been arrested and said they didn't believe beyond a reasonable doubt that he was the individual in the presentment," Hawkins told the Sentinel. "I said, I'm going to dismiss it."

The Sevier County Sherriff Deputies, the jailers and Sheriff Seals treated Kitts fairly according to Kitts.

“I have no problem with the deputies or Sheriff Seals,” stated Kitts. “They all were just doing their jobs and I thought I was treated very well,” Kitts told the Seymour Herald.

Sheriff Seals was informed of the problem and immediately went to work correcting the situation.

“We just took the face of the warrant which had his name, his social security number and his birthday and acted on that information,” Sheriff Ron Seals told the Seymour Herald.

Sheriff Seals was told of the mistaken identify and quickly acted on it.

“As soon as I found out what had happened, I immediately investigated the situation and found out that I went to work on it because this is a real good man,” Sheriff Seals said. “As soon as I found out that this gentleman’s stature in the community is that he’s a decent fellow I went right to work to rectify the situation.”

Sheriff Seals went on the say that he was sorry that this happened, but they acted on the information that was on the warrant.

“I didn't know how Kitts ended up named in the presentment, which was returned by the grand jury in January,” stated Sheriff Seals. “Those don't go to the grand jury for months, and sometimes they can't remember exactly what they (suspects) look like, I'm sure," he said.

Delius said he's tried for several days to get an explanation for his client, but authorities have refused to speak with him.

"They (of the 4th Judicial District Drug Task Force) simply did not do their homework," Delius told the Seymour Herald. “This country was founded on individual liberties. There are safeguards and processes in place to prevent and protect citizens from this very thing and those processes were not followed. When those procedures are circumvented, that’s when you have something like this happened.”

Kitts is now back at work but is still out the $2,000 it took to get him released from jail plus attorney's fees.

"He needs to be reimbursed his costs," Delius said. "At this point in time, they've (of the 4th Judicial District Drug Task Force) refused to even communicate with us, so the only way to put him back in the same position as before his arrest is to pursue it (through a civil lawsuit)."

This event has changed Kitts’ outlook on life. “I’d like to just forgot about it, but it sure has changed my outlook on my freedom,” Kitts said. “When a policeman gets behind or around me I’ve got that doubt in my mind whether there’s something that still outstanding and I’m going to go through this whole embarrassing and traumatizing process again.”

Kitts said he wants to know what happened. "I still have no idea where the mistake was made, how it was made. If it was another person with my last name, if it was mistaken visual identity, I don't have any idea, they still haven’t called and told us anything" he said.