Man sentenced to 18 months for lying under oath that he witnessed police shooting

Thursday, November 3, 2011

A Birchwood, Tenn., man was sentenced in federal court in Chattanooga to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of perjury, according to a U.S. attorney's office news release.

Kenneth Hafley, 58, testified in a civil lawsuit against Hamilton County Sheriff's Office deputies that he was an eyewitness to a police shooting on May 7, 2009. When he spoke in U.S. District Court on Jan. 25, 2010, he claimed that he saw officers shoot an unarmed man multiple times, pull him off a fence and shoot him again, the release stated.

However, the medical examiner said the wounds were not consistent with Hafley's story, witnesses disputed that Hafley was even at the scene and a video also contradicted Hafley's version of the events, the release stated.