East Ridge personnel board hears from fired police officer

EAST RIDGE, Tenn. (WDEF) –A personnel board heard from a recently terminated East Ridge Police officer about his side off the story.

According to the city manager, Officer Adam Rose was fired because of a sexual relationship he was having with an 18-year-old high school student.

Rose, testified in front of the personnel board today to explain what happened with him and an the high school student.

Mark Litchford, the city attorney, asked Rose about his relation with the woman.

“We were not together,” Rose said.

“She was just a friend?” Litchford asked.

“I would call her a friend,” he said.

“So you have sex with all of your friends?” Litchford asked.

“No, not all of them,” Rose said.

He was asked if he used good judgement.

“I didn’t feel that I was doing anything wrong,” Rose said.

Another officer told him not to go to the school, if she was there.

“He said if we get a call at the school, we can send another officer. He said that didn’t mean if we had something bad that happened at the school, I was just banned from being there,” Rose said.

He was asked by a board member if he saw any problems with the fact that he was married, but separated, while this was going on.

“I do. It was a bad choice on my part, a lot of things going on in my personal life,” Rose said.

Rose’s lawyers say they believe this all came out and he was fired in retaliation to him voicing concerns about the SWAT team’s equipment.

The high school student then told her side.

“Did you and Adam have any kind of romantic or physical relationship before you turned 18?” Terri Daugherty, a lawyer asked.

“No,” she said.

The student also addressed if Rose had contacted other students.

“There has been an allegation that Adam sent a friend request to a 16-year-old female, do you know what that was about?” Daugherty asked.

“Yes, he was just being friendly and he works with a lot of people. And many people that they work with add people,” she said.

The student says the relationship ended in October, but the last couple of weeks they’ve been in contact.

“The age isn’t really the problem. It is just the timing with what is happening with him and what is happening in my life right now,” she said.

The assistant city manager says while Rose didn’t do anything illegal, he violated their moral standards.

The personnel board will have ten days to make a recommendation on whether Rose should have been terminated. It will then be up to the assistant city manager to listen to them or not.