33-year-old Daniel Cates sat in a Nashville jail from Saturday night, until late Monday morning, with a $500.00 bond. Late Monday morning, his case was dismissed by prosecutors. He had no prior arrest history in Nashville, and wasn’t given pre-trial release. He was charged solely with ‘resisting arrest’, with no other charge to be arrested for.
Police say they were dispatched to the AT&T store on West End Avenue, in response to a disorderly person call. Store employees say that Cates had threatened to assault them with a metal sewer lid. when Metro Police arrived, they observed him in the middle of the street, running in circles. Officers directed the suspect to the sidewalk, at which time Cates complied and ran toward the officers, shouting he did not want to go to jail. When he reached the sidewalk, where the officers were standing, they told him he was being detained for questioning, and attempted to place him in handcuffs. Officers say Cates started to pull away, and attempted to try to get back onto the street, where there was traffic. Officers and Cates fell to the ground while attempting to place him into custody. Officer Brandon P. Harbaugh then took him into custody and charged him with resisting arrest. There was no other charge for which he was being arrested.
In the same 24-hour period that Cates was arrested and given a $500 bond, others were released on their own recognizance (ROR’d) and freed on pre-trial release on charges including: DUI, burglary, assault of an officer, resisting arrest, assault, and child neglect. Cates was not given either option. Prosecutors dismissed the charge at his court appearance Monday morning. As of 2 p.m., he had still not been processed out of custody.
While technically you can be arrested for resisting arrest, even if you’re not being arrested for any other charge, it’s a rare circumstance that it occurs, and then to not qualify for pre-trial or other programs, is unheard of in Nashville for a first time offender. Actions such as this are often frowned upon by senior officers, and one Midtown Precinct officer tells us “many young officers don’t understand the value of building trust in the communities they patrol” and continued that “an arrest for the sake of an arrest does nothing to help our relationship with the city we serve”.
Civil service records show the arresting officer, Brandon Harbaugh, was promoted from academy trainee to officer in April of 2018.
