2002 incident between Corbin officer, ex-mayor detailed during trial

Last week’s trial of former Corbin Mayor Scott Williamson on public drunkenness charges finally shed light on a “speeding incident” in the autumn of 2002 – the lynchpin of the defense arguments claiming the arrest was the result of a vendetta, and an incident which had been cloaked in secrecy and rampant speculation since it occurred.
White, at the urging of Williamson’s defense attorney Paul Croley last Wednesday in McCreary District Court, detailed the events of Oct. 6, 2002 around midnight.
White said he was responding to a stolen vehicle complaint at the Best Value Inn (former Holiday Inn) off Cumberland Falls Hwy. when he was called back to the BP gas station, over the radio, by former Corbin Police Officer Eric Moore. He said when he arrived, Williamson accused him of driving too fast, cursed at him and ordered Moore to remove his service revolver from him and threatened to terminate his employment.
“He was yelling and cussing at me and telling me I was in trouble and he said a whole bunch of things I didn’t’ appreciate at the time,” White said.
During his testimony, Williamson said he was returning from a Tennessee football game when he saw White race past him “at a high rate of speed” down Cumberland Falls Hwy. He said he tried to catch up with White, but could not.
“He passed me at such a high rate of speed. He was out of my sight by the time I got around the corner at the entrance to Baptist Regional Medical Center.”
Williamson said White had no emergency lights on and was driving in the center of the road. He said he pulled into BP and instructed an officer refueling there to contact White on the radio and have him come down to meet him.
“I did indeed ask officer Jones (Moore) to put his gun on the hood of the car. I’d had so many complaints of this type about officer White that I had just had it,” Williamson said. “At that point, I was angry and called Chief [Carson] Mullins and intended to have him [White] relieved that night. Carson talked me out of it, as he did soon after due to another incident.”
Williamson claimed he had a “stack” of phone complaints “two inches thick” about White’s reckless driving during his tenure as Corbin mayor. He pointed to the incident as the beginning of bad blood between him and White.
White testified that he smelled alcohol on Williamson during the incident, but was never able to investigate his suspicions that the mayor (at the time) was intoxicated because Mullins separated the two when he arrived to sort things out.
“The Chief of Police came out there and we were separated and he was allowed to leave.”
Croley asked if White was reprimanded for the incident.
“In what way, I don’t know how to describe,” White said. “He ordered my gun to be taken from me in front of another officer, he told me I was fired. For a brief period of time, I felt I was reprimanded without just [cause].”
Williamson claims White was reprimanded.
A surveillance video of the incident was taken by police according to a manager at the BP station. It has never surfaced.
When rumors of the incident began to leak out in 2002, city officials denied requests for interviews by the media.
Corbin City Manager Bill Ed Cannon again declined to answer questions about the incident Monday.
Mullins said he would not elaborate either.
“It’s an internal matter as far as I’m concerned, and that’s the way it will stay unless someone wants to bring it out in a lawsuit or something like that, then we will subpoena everybody that is necessary to resolve the problem.”
Mullins said details of White’s employment record were not subject to public review, but said he is in good standing with the police department. He has been employed by the Police Department for eight years.
“I don’t have a problem with Brandon,” he said. “Personnel matters are just something we can’t discuss.”