Manager says policeman was irate, pulled service pistol
By Chris Conley
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
Copyright 2006 The Commercial Appeal, Inc.
A Memphis police lieutenant has been indicted on charges stemming from an Aug. 1 dispute with a businessman in which the officer is accused of pulling his service pistol.
Charles Andre Cox, 45, was indicted Thursday by the Shelby County Grand Jury and is due in court Sept. 28.
Cox told police he went to the Express Oil Change at 5180 Riverdale after his wife complained she’d been overcharged.
Cox told police that the manager, Robert Parker, became belligerent, pushed him several times and made racist comments, once calling Cox “boy.”
Express Oil Change employees told police that Cox was the aggressor.
Parker said that Cox held him at gunpoint for 20 minutes.
Parker was issued a misdemeanor citation for simple assault, but those charges were later dropped.
Instead, Cox was indicted Thursday on the more serious charge of aggravated assault. He has been on routine paid leave since Parker made the accusations against him.
Cox has been in the news before.
On Christmas Day 1995, police went to the home of the officer’s ex-wife to break up a fight between the two.
The year before, Cox was at the center of a brawl with another officer in which he eventually was pepper-sprayed.
Cox and his partner were working undercover on April 8 when officers stopped their Cadillac for speeding at Poplar and Yates.
Cox claimed that he identified himself as a police officer, but was sprayed and handcuffed anyway. The officer who sprayed him said Cox did not identify himself and instead became uncontrollable.