By Beth Burger
Staff Writer
A Chattanooga Police Department officer has posted a $1,500 bond after he was charged with domestic assault stemming from a Jan. 5 argument with a woman.
Officer Leroy Wright Jr., 39, who has been with the department since August 2004, was arrested Tuesday after 29-year-old Dayna Hightower-Cox contacted the department.
Police Chief Bobby Dodd did not return two telephone calls for comment.
Wright's next court date is scheduled for Feb. 14 before Judge Bob Moon.
Assault, which is a misdemeanor, carries a sentence of up to a year in prison.
Hightower-Cox told police she asked Wright to leave during the Jan. 5 argument, but he refused and reacted by pushing her on the sofa and took the phone from her when she tried to call police. He also slapped her face with an open hand, according to the arrest report.
During police interviews, she denied being involved in a romantic relationship with Wright, the report states, but he said they've had a sexual relationship for the past year and a half.
When investigators contacted Wright for questioning, he said he went to Hightower-Cox's home after he saw her at a bar with another man.
He told investigators he pushed her down on the sofa and "stood over her while straddling her knee between his legs, and continued telling her to talk to him," according to the report.
Wright said Hightower-Cox called police and hung up. He stayed until units arrived on scene and left after she denied being involved with him and declined to press charges.
Hightower-Cox later notified police Internal Affairs, and the case was passed on to criminal investigators, police said.
Hightower-Cox declined comment when contacted. No one answered the door at Wright's residence Wednesday.
Wright is suspended with pay pending the outcome of the criminal investigation as well as an internal affairs investigation. He makes an annual salary of $35,913, according to 2010 data.
Wright has a prior internal affairs incident dating back to December 2008 for improper procedure for which he was exonerated, according to internal affairs reports.