In August, Clark was confronted late at night by Knoxville police officer Joseph Roberts. Clark was tackled, her top torn from her, ᴋпᴇᴇʟᴇԀ on and һɑпԀᴄᴜffᴇԀ. She was ᴇхρᴏѕᴇԀ тᴏρʟᴇѕѕ and тᴇггɪfᴇԀ in a front yard on Linden Avenue.
She told Knox News she thought she might Ԁɪᴇ.
Police and prosecutors saddled her with six ᴄгɪᴍɪпɑʟ charges, including a felony charge of evading ɑггᴇѕт.
But the truth was on Clark’s side. Roberts lied repeatedly, to other cops and in written reports, about his pursuit and ɑггᴇѕт of Clark. In December, Judge Tony Stansberry dismissed every single charge, calling the whole encounter “disturbing.”
The next month, in an eerily similar case, Roberts was ᴄгɪᴍɪпɑʟʟʏ charged himself, accused of lying about starting a high-speed pursuit of 24-year-old Siara Davis. The chase reached speeds up to 100 mph during rush hour and ended in a crash that ɪпȷᴜгᴇԀ three people.
What’s more, three of Roberts’ supervisors reviewed his arrest of Clark, and none raised concerns about his conduct other than his raised voice and fᴏᴜʟ language.
It was the pursuit of Clark, however, that laid the foundation for exposing Roberts’ pattern of behavior and ultimately forcing KPD to deal with it.
Now, as Clark is working to overcome the ordeal and making plans to sue the city, her attorney, Lance Baker, is asking why it took so long for police to act.
“I just find it appalling as someone who does these types of cases that it took until January and Ms. Siara Davis’ incident and not Ms. Clark’s, several months prior, to bring all this to the front,” Baker said.
This happened to be right in front of Clark’s home, not an unusual place on a busy street for officers to pull someone over, she said. As she left her house on her way to a friend’s place, officers saw her and waved.
She got in her car and swung wide onto East Fifth Avenue because of the police cars in the right lane on Cherry. Roberts was standing at the window of the car he had pulled over as Clark turned on the road and drove off.
It’s unclear how fast she was traveling. Roberts later said she almost clipped him with her car, but this doesn’t appear to be the case, according to dash and body camera footage.
Clark is always extra careful around police and actively works not to draw attention, she said.
“I feel like when you see a police officer (as a Bʟɑᴄᴋ person) there’s a certain type of way we have to start acting,” she said. “We got to make sure we’re not in a car that’s being too loud, turning up in our own car, just giving certain type of attention. …”
Staying low-key was her plan that night. She checked her mirrors and continued driving. Nothing was out of the ordinary.
Roberts can be seen concluding his conversation with the woman he pulled over as Clark drives by. He jumps into his cruiser and begins pursuing Clark at a high speed. Her car is barely visible ahead, his dash camera shows.
He activates his emergency lights only after Clark has already pulled over, and his siren for only a brief moment to alert a driver in a cross street. KPD policy requires officers to drive with lights and siren activated when they’re in pursuit and exceeding the speed limit.
Clark was already getting out of her car when Roberts pulled up behind her on Linden Avenue, flashing his emergency lights as he parked. He yelled at her as he approached. Instead of coming to him, she stayed in the yard because she felt safer there, Clark told Knox News last month.
Without explaining what he wanted, Roberts grabbed Clark’s arm and took her to the ground. Clark was wearing only a sports bra and shorts – it reached 93 degrees that date – and her sports bra came off as the two tussled.
Clark ᴋɪᴄᴋᴇԀ and screamed. Roberts later alleged she punched him in the face, though that’s not captured on video. About a minute later, another officer arrived and Clark was һɑпԀᴄᴜffᴇԀ , facedown and topless. Seven officers are on the scene as Clark is held down, still topless before one of the officers finally gets her a shirt.
At Clark’s preliminary hearing, Public Defender Joe Sandford told Stansberry, the General Sessions judge, that Clark reacted like anyone would in those circumstances.
“She struggled and did what she could to protect herself and her dignity as she was in a neighborhood getting tossed around by a police officer who had just taken her shirt off,” he said.
“There was no intent for her to harm this officer. She was doing what she had to do to protect herself and her dignity.”
Clark was worried she was going to be ᴋɪʟʟᴇԀ, she told Knox News.
“I was scared. I felt like I was out there by myself,” she said.
Almost immediately after Clark was detained, Roberts began lying to other officers about what had happened. At one point, one of the officers tells him not to talk about it in front of Clark and he stops.
