GRENADA – A Grenada police officer was arrested Wednesday, while on duty, and charged with sexual battery of a child under the age of 18.
Officer Donnie Tenner, 41, of Charleston, was arrested at the Grenada Police Department yesterday, by the Public Integrity Division of the Attorney General’s Office, on two separate indictments of sexual battery of a child. Tenner’s case came before the Grand Jury of Tallahatchie County and the indictments were filed on Wednesday, Nov. 17. The Grenada Police Department and the Grenada Sheriff’s Office also assisted in the arrest.
Tenner, who has been a patrolman with Grenada for about four years, had been under investigation for an incident that occurred in Charleston in 1998 and 2005.
Court records show that “between the dates of November 15, 1998 and December 15, 1998” and “between the dates of January 15, 2005 and February 15, 2005, Donnie Tenner did willfully, unlawfully and feloniously engage in the sexual penetration of a child under the age of 18 while he served as a teacher, assistant coach and police officer, positions of trust or authority over the child in violation of Section 97-3-95, Mississippi Code, 1972, as amended”.
“It is indeed disheartening to have to arrest a law enforcement officer,” Attorney General Jim Hood said of Tenner’s arrest. “But no one is above the law.”
The crimes occurred while Tenner was working in Charleston, in Tallahatchie County.
Captain James Russell Carver, who has been the chief investigator with the Grenada Police Department for 21 years, said his department is still “trying to recover from the shock” of seeing one of their own taken away in handcuffs.
“We’re still trying to deal with that,” Carver said, “and process that one of our officers was arrested. Yes. We are in shock, and still trying to cope with that.”
Carver said that Tenner has served with the Grenada Police Department on two separate occasions, leaving the department for about two years, prior to his return nearly four years ago. Carver said that Tenner left on his own, in good standing, and has never had any official reprimands or allegations of loose conduct with the department.
“We’ve never had any kind of complaints about him,” Carver said. “But now, he’s on suspension until the investigation is complete. And at that time we can determine whether he will be released from duty or not.”
Tenner, who was taken to the Carroll-Montgomery Regional Correctional Facility in Vaiden, is being kept “in segregation” and away from other inmates because of his status as a police officer and so that prison officials can observe his mental state.
Tenner has a bond hearing scheduled for Monday in Sumner.
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