NASHVILLE, Tenn. – A state trooper in line to be fired now will be allowed to resign after a Knoxville porn actress wrote in her blog about performing oral sex on him during a traffic stop.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol announced last week it sent James Randy Moss, 40, a letter of termination giving him the option of a hearing before he is officially dismissed.
Earlier in the day, Moss had sent in a letter of resignation, but officials said they didn't know about the letter until after they had notified him of the termination, patrol spokesman Mike Browning told the Knoxville News Sentinel on Tuesday.
"The Department of Safety is going to honor his resignation in lieu of termination," Browning said.
Moss declined comment and referred a reporter to his attorney, Jack Lowery Sr. of Lebanon.
"I'm pleased with that because that is a true statement of the facts. He did submit his resignation prior to their proposed termination," Lowery told The Associated Press.
Moss wrote in the letter he was resigning "because it is my desire not to bring any further discredit or embarrassment to the Tennessee Highway Patrol."
"I sincerely regret the allegations that have been made against me, and I regret the resulting discredit that has been leveled at the Tennessee Highway Patrol," he wrote on May 24.
Under the screen name "Barbie Cummings," Justis Richert, 21, wrote on her blog the trooper sent her photos and video of their encounter after he stopped her outside Nashville on May 7.
She was cited for speeding. She also wrote she told the trooper about having "happy pills" in her car, and she said the trooper took the pills and threw them into the brush by the highway.
After telling him she makes "dirty movies," they watched sex videos in his patrol car and then he asked, "What does it cost for someone like me to get anything like you?" she wrote.
According to THP internal affairs records, Moss admitted to the woman's claims, the newspaper reported. Browning could not be immediately reached Tuesday to comment on what Moss admitted doing. Most of the details of accusations against Moss were redacted from his termination letter.
Lowery said he couldn't discuss the allegations because the district attorney general is looking over the case to determine whether charges should be filed.
"There's not an allegation out there anymore that he traded sexual favors for throwing away drugs. I don't think that was the sequence of events at all," Lowery said.
The attorney said Moss did what many law enforcement officers have done when they find small amounts of drugs or alcohol. "It's like catching a kid with beer -- 'I'm going to make you pour it out. I'm not going to charge you with it,"' Lowery said.
As for the sexual favors, Lowery said: "I think his stop was over with. ... I think it was after that there was a proposition. I don't want to go into detail about that."
Lowery said Moss had been in the patrol for 10 years and was respected in the district.
"I never heard anything bad about him," he said. "This is a regrettable thing. He's had to suffer a lot."
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