Grand Jury Indicts Former Police Officer Laurence Goodine

NewsChannel 9 was there as Officer Laurence Goodine Junior turned himself in to the Hamilton County Jail. Goodine was booked on 5 counts of official oppression and 5 counts of theft. Sergeant Rick Mincey recounted the charges and confirmed they are against more than one person. Goodine disputes the accusations and his father believes his arrest of Lacey Paty, the niece of Judge Sherry Paty, played a part in his son's dismissal. Judge Paty adamantly disagrees with that. Lacey Patey's case has been dismissed, with the option to go to the grand jury. Paty's mother, Lisa Paty, says it was dismissed because Goodine was a bad officer.

We showed officer Laurence Goodine's drug stop of Lacey Paty, the niece of City Court Judge Sherry Paty, to prosecutor Jerry Sloan. He says he had never seen it. but with this type of evidence showing drugs on her, why was her case passed three times? Sloan said, "Officer Goodine was not present on February 9th to my recollection. I don't know about the 12th (January), but obviously was not present on the 9th (February) and that's why it passed until March the 16th."

True, officer Goodine was not in court on March 16th.

The department relieved him of duty nine days earlier on accusations he stole cash from four men, all with criminal histories, during drug stops.

As for Paty's case, we looked back into the court log book.

And contrary to what the prosecutor says, Goodine says he was here the second time.

On February 9th, you can see his name in the book indicating he was ready to go to court with this case.

On that same day, this seated employee within the district attorney's office says she saw the tape.

But Goodine lost his job before the case was ever heard. His father, Laurence Goodine, Senior, said, "We know that it had something to do with it, but we're not going to at this time make any elaborations. Because we know that his hearing is coming up."

Goodine made his ten thousand dollar bond this afternoon. He has retained Lee Davis as his attorney. Davis says they will enter not guilty pleas on every count and looks forward to fighting these charges in court.