Dunn and Marsh Face Criminal Charges
Submitted by Jacqueline Binns
August 28, 2026, 5:05 p.m.
SEVIERVILLE, TN - A Sevier County Grand Jury has returned a six-count True Bill Presentment charging former Fourth Judicial District Attorney General James “Jimmy” Bruce Dunn and Assistant District Attorney General William Brownlow Marsh with criminal offenses arising from allegations presented by citizen and alleged crime victim Erik Cooper.
The August 26 Presentment charges Dunn and Marsh, collectively, with official misconduct, official oppression, retaliation for past action, conspiracy to commit official oppression, witness coercion, and civil rights intimidation.
The charges are accusations, not convictions. Dunn and Marsh are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
The Presentment marks an extraordinary development in a dispute that began more than three years ago over whether ordinary Tennessee citizens could reach a Sevier County Grand Jury without first complying with procedures imposed through the Fourth Judicial District Attorney General’s Office that Tennessee courts later determined were not required.
Cooper appeared before the Sevier County Grand Jury on August 24 pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated § 40-12-104, a statute enacted in 1978 that provides a procedure for persons possessing knowledge or proof of public offenses to present that information through the Grand Jury process.
Commentary to Rule 6 of the Tennessee Rules of Criminal Procedure describes the statutory procedure as one designed to give citizens “free access to the local Grand Jury.”
Two days after Cooper’s presentation, the Grand Jury returned the True Bill Presentment against Dunn and Marsh.
Before appearing, Cooper sought judicial intervention because his allegations concerned members of the local District Attorney General’s Office and because he contended that ordinary participants in the process presented conflicts. Judge Don R. Ash addressed the procedural and conflict issues presented to the court. After Cooper’s August 24 presentation, District Attorney General Pro Tem Stephen Crump prepared the Presentment at the Grand Jury’s request.
A Dispute Dating to 2023
Cooper’s present effort grew from events occurring during a March 27, 2023 appearance before a Sevier County Grand Jury Panel.
According to Cooper’s sworn account, Assistant District Attorney General Ronald Crockett Newcomb presented Cooper with a document titled “Waiver of Constitutional Rights.” Cooper alleged that Newcomb told him he could not testify unless he waived his constitutional rights. Cooper refused. A vote was then conducted concerning whether Cooper would be permitted to proceed without signing the Waiver, and Cooper was ultimately denied the opportunity to provide his testimony.
The following afternoon, March 28, Cooper made a written report to the Sevier County Sheriff’s Office and supplied an affidavit concerning what he alleged Newcomb had done. Cooper says those allegations were not investigated by Sheriff Michael R. Hodges Jr. or his office.
Cooper returned to the Grand Jury process on May 1, 2023, intending to present allegations concerning Newcomb.
Cooper was arrested as he left that proceeding.
Because criminal charges against Cooper remain pending, Cooper has publicly declined to discuss the evidence, defenses, or merits of his own criminal case. He has emphasized that his prosecution and the criminal proceeding arising from the Dunn-Marsh Presentment are separate matters.
Circuit Court Rejected Grand Jury Access Requirements
Cooper then spent more than three years, without counsel representing him in these proceedings, pursuing civil litigation, appeals, and public records requests concerning citizen access to Sevier County Grand Juries.
In July 2023, the Sevier County Circuit Court determined that § 40-12-104 did not require Cooper to submit a written application, did not require him to comply with an application deadline established by the District Attorney General’s Office, and did not require him to schedule his appearance through that process.
The court also determined that Cooper was not required to execute the written Waiver of Immunity in order to invoke § 40-12-104.
In an August 17, 2026 opinion, the Tennessee Court of Appeals recounted those rulings and held that the July 26, 2023 order constituted a final judgment resolving the claims presented in that proceeding.
The Court of Appeals did not reach the merits of Cooper’s later appellate challenges. Instead, it dismissed his 2025 appeal as untimely because the appellate court concluded that the July 2023 judgment had become final nearly two years earlier.
The appellate opinion also records that, in 2025, the District Attorney General’s Office—represented by the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office—acknowledged that the July 2023 order was a valid judgment that appeared to have disposed of all pending issues and stated that it did not seek to relitigate issues previously adjudicated.
The opinion further recounts subsequent trial court rulings that the July 2023 order “remains valid and in full effect” and, to the extent of any perceived inconsistency with a later order, “controls, and reflects the judgment of the court.”
What About the Other Citizens?
Those rulings have prompted a larger question that Cooper says remains unanswered: How many other citizens encountered those same barriers when attempting to report crimes to a Sevier County Grand Jury?
“I know what happened to me because I kept fighting,” Cooper said in a statement released Friday. “What I still do not know is how many other people were turned away, discouraged, or prevented from reaching a Grand Jury by procedures Tennessee law never required. Those citizens matter too.”
Cooper says that question is one reason he continues pursuing governmental records concerning how citizen Grand Jury appearances were administered over a period of years and whether other citizens were subjected to the same procedures.
He has said his concern extends beyond citizens who persisted long enough to reach a courtroom.
“How many people were discouraged and simply went home?” Cooper asked in his statement. “How many citizens never reached a Grand Jury at all?”
Tennessee Attorney General Was Asked to Investigate in 2023
In September 2023, Cooper provided Skrmetti written notice describing conduct Cooper alleged constituted obstruction of Grand Jury proceedings by Dunn and Assistant District Attorneys General Ron Newcomb and Barry Williams.
Cooper specifically asked Skrmetti to exercise the authority of his office to seek an investigative Grand Jury so the allegations could be independently substantiated or disproved.
Cooper says he remains unaware of any investigation by Skrmetti into the allegations he reported.
Meanwhile, Skrmetti’s office later represented Dunn and Newcomb in litigation arising from Cooper’s Grand Jury access efforts. The August 17 Court of Appeals opinion identifies Jonathan Skrmetti and Assistant Attorney General Jacobs M. Gilbert as counsel for Dunn and Newcomb in that appeal.
“When a citizen tells the State’s chief legal officer that he believes prosecutors are interfering with citizen access to Grand Juries, I believe the proper governmental response should be to find out whether the allegations are true—not merely to oppose the citizen who continues asking the question,” Cooper said.
Newcomb Seeks Appointment to Replace Dunn
The controversy is unfolding as Governor Bill Lee considers applicants to succeed Dunn as District Attorney General for Tennessee’s Fourth Judicial District.
Newcomb, whose conduct during Cooper’s March 27, 2023 Grand Jury appearance has been the subject of Cooper’s allegations and litigation, has applied for the appointment.
Before Cooper’s August 24 appearance, Newcomb filed a request seeking permission to appear before the same Sevier County Grand Jury, or a subsequent Grand Jury, concerning the matters raised by Cooper.
The request followed Cooper’s August 18 filing of a Petition for Judicial Interpretation and Declaratory Relief seeking an unconflicted process for presenting allegations involving Newcomb and other members of the local prosecutor’s office.
All judges of Tennessee’s Fourth Judicial District recused themselves from hearing Cooper’s Petition, and the matter was assigned to Judge Don R. Ash.
Cooper previously provided information to Governor Lee concerning Newcomb’s involvement in the March 27, 2023 proceeding and later notified the Governor of the developing Grand Jury dispute and Newcomb’s request to appear.
The issue is especially significant, Cooper contends, because Newcomb is seeking appointment as the chief prosecutor of the same judicial district while unresolved allegations concerning his own conduct during Grand Jury proceedings remain the subject of Cooper’s continuing efforts through lawful processes.
No indictment has been returned against Newcomb, and Cooper’s allegations concerning Newcomb have not been adjudicated.
A Separate Grand Jury Access Appeal Remains Pending
The August 17 opinion resolved Case No. E2025-00522-COA-R3-CV by dismissing Cooper’s appeal as untimely.
A separate appeal, Case No. E2025-00383-COA-R3-CV, remains pending before the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
That appeal arises from another § 40-12-104 proceeding and concerns issues Cooper has raised involving unresolved declaratory relief, Grand Jury access, conflicts involving Grand Jury participants, and the independence of the Grand Jury process when governmental officials involved in that process are alleged to possess conflicts.
Cooper maintains that the recurring disputes demonstrate the need for clear judicial guidance concerning the operation of Tennessee’s citizen Grand Jury access law.
“For more than three years, the central question has remained remarkably simple,” Cooper said. “When the Tennessee Legislature says that a citizen with knowledge or proof of an indictable or triable offense may take that evidence to the Grand Jury, what governmental officials may stand between that citizen and the Grand Jury, and what conditions may they impose that the Legislature itself did not?”
Dispute Has Roots in the 2016 Gatlinburg Wildfire
Cooper’s involvement with the Fourth Judicial District Attorney General’s Office predates the 2023 Grand Jury controversy.
Beginning in approximately 2018, Cooper worked as a litigation consultant with attorneys pursuing federal litigation arising from the November 28, 2016 Gatlinburg wildfire.
Cooper says that work led him to evidence that he believed demonstrated criminally negligent homicide and implicated the conduct of then-Gatlinburg City Manager Cindy Ogle, former Gatlinburg Police Chief and current City Commissioner Randy Brackins, Assistant Police Chief Gary Waldroup, former Gatlinburg Fire Chief Greg Miller, and former Sevier County Emergency Management Director John Matthews.
Cooper says the evidence he reviewed led him to believe those officials knew by approximately 1:15 p.m. on November 28, 2016, that the wildfire presented a danger of leaving Great Smoky Mountains National Park and threatening Gatlinburg and surrounding communities. The wildfire ultimately left the Park, devastated portions of the community, and killed at least 14 people.
Cooper has emphasized that those were his conclusions from the evidence he reviewed and are not findings of guilt by any court. He says his efforts to report what he believed was evidence of criminal conduct ultimately brought him into contact with the Fourth Judicial District Attorney General’s Office and evolved into the larger dispute over whether ordinary citizens can reach a Grand Jury when their allegations concern public officials—including prosecutors themselves.
“There Is Nothing to Celebrate Here”
Despite pursuing the Grand Jury matter for years, Cooper says he does not regard the charges against Dunn and Marsh as a personal victory.
“This is a sad day for the citizens of Cocke, Grainger, Jefferson, and Sevier Counties who relied upon the integrity and honor of the Fourth Judicial District Attorney General’s Office and its prosecutors to fulfill the duties and promises they made under oath to our communities,” Cooper said.
He added: “There is nothing to celebrate here. There is only a responsibility to find the truth, protect the rights of everyone involved, and make certain this can never happen to another citizen.”
Cooper has emphasized that Dunn and Marsh are presumed innocent and are entitled to defend themselves, challenge the evidence, confront the allegations through the judicial process, and receive a fair trial before an impartial tribunal.
Because Cooper remains a defendant in a separate pending criminal prosecution, he will not answer media questions concerning the charges against him, the evidence relating to those charges, his defenses, or other matters that should be resolved in court.
Case: In Re Sevier County Grand Jury / Erik Cooper, Petitioner to Appear Before the Sevier County Grand Jury, Sevier County Circuit Court, Fourth Judicial District of Tennessee, Case No. 2026-CV-517-I
Court Documents: Newcomb’s “Waiver of Constitutional Rights”; Cooper’s petition cases and their rulings and court transcripts; Cooper’s notice of Newcomb’s alleged crimes given Sevier County Sheriff Michael R. Hodges, Jr.; Petition for Judicial Interpretation and Declaratory Relief, Case No. 2026-CV-517-I; Newcomb's August 20, 2026 Request to Appear; related court orders and appellate filings available upon request.
Documents Available Here: tinyurl.com/4mh5sz5x
