Deputy Justin Johnson: Panic Attack, Resignation, Settlement

Justin Johnson, a former Sevier County, Tennessee, sheriff’s deputy, fired seven shots without warning at an unarmed man during a December 31, 2016, call on Sharp Road in Sevierville, then suffered a panic attack on camera and had to be disarmed by a paramedic. He was never criminally charged. The couple he shot at spent 42 days in jail on charges that they had caused his panic attack, were eventually acquitted, and later won a settlement in a federal civil rights lawsuit dismissed in November 2020.

What Happened on Sharp Road

Paramedics called for deputy assistance at a mobile home park after a disoriented woman accused Tina Cody of stealing her purse. When Johnson arrived, Cody ran. His body camera recorded him chasing her, tackling her, and pinning her on the ground with a paramedic’s help.¹

Cody’s boyfriend, Brian Mullinax, stepped out of a nearby trailer holding a cell phone and said he was recording. Johnson opened fire, squeezing off seven rounds in Mullinax’s direction. The shots passed over Cody’s head and over the paramedic. Mullinax was unarmed, and the sheriff’s office later confirmed no weapon was found on or near him.² No one was hit.

After firing, Johnson sprinted across a field, leaving the paramedic alone with Cody. When he returned, he ordered Mullinax to drop the phone. Mullinax complied and lay face down. About four minutes later, Johnson began hyperventilating and waving his gun erratically. A paramedic coaxed the weapon out of his hand and told him to “pull it together.”³ Once Johnson’s breathing calmed, the paramedic handed the firearm back to him.⁴

The Report Didn’t Match the Footage

Johnson wrote in his official incident report that he fired after “turning toward a noise behind him” and claimed Mullinax had shouted that he had a gun and appeared to aim an object at him.⁴ The body camera showed him facing Mullinax the entire time. The audio caught Mullinax saying he was “recording,” not threatening the deputy.⁵ Johnson left the panic attack out of the report entirely.

The gap between the two accounts surfaced only after Mullinax’s defense attorney entered the body camera footage into the court record.³

The Couple Was Charged Instead

Detective Johnny Bohanan filed felony aggravated assault charges against both Mullinax and Cody, accusing them of causing Johnson’s panic attack. Bohanan later testified he filed the charges because he believed Johnson was “having a heart attack.”⁵ The couple sat in jail for 42 days without the preliminary hearing that Tennessee law requires within 10 business days of arrest.¹

A judge threw out the felony charges. A grand jury rejected the theory that Cody caused Johnson’s panic attack and indicted her for resisting arrest instead. Mullinax was indicted on a single count of misdemeanor assault.¹

Both cases went to trial in November 2018. On November 15, a Sevier County jury acquitted Mullinax.⁵ The same jury acquitted Cody of resisting arrest but convicted her of attempting to resist. That conviction was struck down days later, on November 19, 2018.⁶

On the stand at Mullinax’s trial, Johnson admitted he had been wrong about hearing a threat. “I could not hear him. It was a stressful situation,” he testified. He also acknowledged under oath that he had hidden his earlier law enforcement job when he applied to Sevier County.⁵

A Hidden Record at Johnson City Police

Johnson had been hired by the Johnson City Police Department in June 2013 and lasted about five months. Field training officers documented weekly remedial training and unsafe handling of firearms and suspects. A supervisor reported that Johnson “fanned” a fellow officer with the muzzle of his gun and tried to engage a suspect using the same hand holding his weapon.⁷

His time there ended after he was caught lying to Chief Mark Sirois. In October 2013, Johnson emailed the chief to preemptively discredit a woman he described as having a “fatal attraction” to him, claiming she planned to file a false complaint. The woman alleged that Johnson had sent her text messages telling her to kill herself after his wife discovered their affair. Johnson had also anonymously contacted Children’s Services to report her for neglecting her children. He was allowed to resign in lieu of being fired.⁷

When Johnson applied to the Sevier County Sheriff’s Office, he left the Johnson City job off the application entirely.⁸

How Sevier County Responded

Sheriff Ron “Hoss” Seals did not order an internal investigation or an independent review of the shooting. Johnson was not suspended and returned to patrol duty.⁸ When reporters began asking questions in October 2017, Seals defended Johnson in a Facebook post, writing that the deputy “responded to a situation that in an instant called for a split-second-response.” Seals said he had intentionally refused to answer the newspaper’s questions, citing the pending criminal cases.⁹ The office initially cleared Johnson of wrongdoing for the December 2016 shooting.²

The Resignation

Johnson resigned from the Sevier County Sheriff’s Office in mid-January 2018, in lieu of termination. It happened the same day reporters from the USA TODAY Network–Tennessee contacted the sheriff’s office about his failure to disclose the Johnson City job on his 2016 application. The lie on the application, not the shooting, drove his exit. Because he resigned rather than being fired, he remained eligible to apply for law enforcement work elsewhere.⁸

The Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit

In early 2018, Brian Mullinax, Tina Mullinax (formerly Cody), and Tina’s mother Robin Sutton, who owned the Sharp Road property, filed a federal civil rights suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. Mullinax et al v. Sevier County et al, Case No. 3:18-cv-00002, named Johnson, Sevier County, the Sevier County Ambulance Service, and several individual officers and EMTs. The plaintiffs sought $750,000 in compensatory and punitive damages, alleging excessive force, denial of due process, and an illegal search.¹⁰²

Qualified Immunity Denied

In August 2020, Senior U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer denied Johnson’s claim to qualified immunity, ruling that his actions “went beyond the response of a reasonable law enforcement officer.” Judge Greer pointed to the body camera footage showing that Tina Mullinax was unarmed and neither physically nor verbally threatening. “A reasonable officer could not reasonably believe that Tina Mullinax was a serious immediate threat enough to draw his service weapon,” he wrote.¹¹ The judge also found that Johnson had fired “without warning” toward Brian Mullinax and flagged the discrepancies between Johnson’s written report and the body camera footage as disputes of fact for a jury.⁴

In the same ruling, Judge Greer dismissed the county government from liability, describing Johnson as a “rogue cop” whose conduct could not be attributed to county policy.⁴

Settlement

The case never reached a jury. On November 23, 2020, the parties filed a stipulation of dismissal stating that “the parties have resolved all matters between them,” and Judge Greer dismissed the case with prejudice. The settlement amount was not disclosed. The plaintiffs had originally sought $750,000.²¹⁰

1
Knox News. Sevier County Sheriff Deputy Panic Attack Assault Trial
2
The Mountain Press. Case Resolved in SCSO Panic Attack Shooting
3
Knox News. Sevier County Deputy’s Panic Attack a Reminder Why Body Cams Are Important
4
Knox News. Constitutional Violations Lawsuit Proceeds Against Former Sevier County Deputy
5
Knox News. Sevier Jury Acquits Man Accused of Causing Deputy’s Panic Attack
6
Knox News. Judge Strikes Down Conviction in Assault Panic Attack Case
7
Reason. Tennessee Deputy Who Suffered Panic Attack After Firing Shots
8
Knox News. Sevier Deputy Justin Johnson Panic Attack Resign
9
Knox News. Sevier Sheriff Defends Deputy Who Opened Fire, Suffered Panic Attack
10
PACER Monitor. Mullinax et al v. Sevier County et al
11
The Mountain Press. Judge Rules in SCSO Shooting Case