Former Chattanooga police chief indicted on illegal voter registration, perjury charges
CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee — A former Chattanooga police chief has been charged with illegally registering to vote in Tennessee and falsely filing government documents, state inspectors announced Thursday.
According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations, a grand jury in Hamilton County, which includes Chattanooga, has returned a 17-count indictment against Celeste Murphy.
Murphy, 56, had overseen the Chattanooga Police Department since 2022 but resigned Wednesday without publicly giving a reason.
She turned herself into the Hamilton County Jail on Thursday and was later released on a total bond of $19,000, the TBI said in a statement. She is scheduled to appear in Hamilton County Criminal Court on July 12.
It was not immediately clear whether Murphy had an attorney, and contact information was not provided.
The charges include one count of illegal voter registration, one count of false entries on official documents, three counts of falsifying government documents, three counts of forgery, three counts of perjury and six counts of official misconduct.
Murphy has been under investigation by the TBI since April after the This was reported by the Chattanooga Times Free Press conflicting residency claims on her Georgia tax forms and Tennessee voter registration forms.
The investigation found that Murphy claimed primary residences in both Tennessee and Georgia during her time as police chief. City of Chattanooga policy requires government employees to live in Tennessee.
The newspaper reported that Murphy has claimed a homestead exemption every year since 2021 on a home she bought in Fulton County, Georgia — a tax break for those who declare the property as their primary residence. Meanwhile, Murphy is registered to vote in Tennessee, which requires people to declare that they live in their primary residence in the state.
“During the investigation, agents determined that Murphy knowingly entered false information into several government documents related to establishing residency in Chattanooga, even though they swore allegiance to the truth when signing the documents,” the TBI said in a statement press release.
Murphy had previously posted on social media that she could not publicly reveal where she lives in Chattanooga for safety reasons.