State of Tennessee v. Tony Galtelli, John B. Gardner, and Vance Plumoff

Appellees, Tony Galtelli, John Gardner and Vance Plumoff, all West Memphis, Arkansas police officers, were indicted for reckless homicide by the Shelby County Grand Jury after a high-speed chase. The chase resulted in the shooting death of Kelly Allen, a passenger in the vehicle involved in the chase. The district attorney general denied pretrial diversion for each officer. Subsequently, Appellees sought relief from the denial of pretrial diversion by filing a petition for writ of certiorari in the trial court. The petition alleged that the district attorney general abused his discretion by denying pretrial diversion. The trial court granted the writ of certiorari, ordering the district attorney general to place Appellees on pretrial diversion. The State sought both an interlocutory appeal and an extraordinary appeal. Both requests were denied. The State subsequently sought and was granted permission to file a late notice of appeal pursuant to Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure 3. On appeal, the State asserts that the trial court improperly concluded that the district attorney general abused his discretion by denying pretrial diversion and that the trial court erred by ordering the district attorney general to enter a memorandum of understanding to place Appellees on pretrial diversion. After a review of the record, we conclude that even though the trial court properly determined that the district attorney general abused his discretion by denying pretrial diversion, the trial court improperly ordered the district attorney general to place Appellees on pretrial diversion where the district attorney general failed to consider all relevant factors in denying diversion.  According to State v. McKim, 215 S.W.3d 781 (Tenn. 2007), the trial court should have reversed the district attorney general’s denial of diversion and ordered the district attorney general to consider all the relevant factors in regard to granting or denying the applications for diversion. Therefore, we affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand the matter to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.