After years of hearings and pandemic delays, Monday marked the start of the highly-anticipated criminal trial of Janet Hinds.
Scroll down to read background of the case. Watch our livestream from morning testimony below (scroll down for afternoon testimony).
WARNING: Some of the video played in this testimony is graphic:
MONDAY'S TESTIMONY:
The first day of the trial of a woman accused of drinking, then hitting and killing a Chattanooga police officer revealed never-before seen images and facts.
For the first time, we saw images of Janet Hinds, showing what the prosecution claims is her drinking five alcoholic beverages at a Ringgold bar before driving home.
We also saw bodycam footage showing the fateful night, and heard from the first person Janet Hinds reportedly spoke with after the accident: her daughter-in-law.
Watch Eric Benninghoff's live report:
Scroll down to read more:
OPENING STATEMENTS:
Prosecution:
The prosecution’s opening statements showed video grabs of what appears to be Janet Hinds drinking 5 drinks at the Farm to Fork restaurant in Ringgold before driving home.
They also just showed the body camera footage from the accident. The footage shows that just minutes before the officers were laughing about getting sprayed with rainwater as cars drove by.
Prosecutor Cameron Williams told the jury all Janet Hinds had to do was say to herself she had a little too much to drink, and shouldn’t be driving. “She didn’t do that,” he says.
"She is a 54 year old grandmother and mother, she should have known better, she should have known better," said Williams. "If she would have made a good decision that night, we wouldn't be here. Nicholas Galinger, the police officer she ran over and killed would be here.
He repeated that all she had to do was ask a family member or friend for a ride.
“She made several bad decisions and she made those decisions because she was impaired,” Williams said.
Defense:
In his opening statement, Hinds defense attorney Ben McGowan said when it comes to many facts of the case, the defense does not diverge from the state.
But he says it does diverge when it comes to speculation about Hinds’ alcohol consumption and their willingness to overlook obvious facts.
McGowan says those who saw Hinds the night of the accident will testify she didn’t seem impaired.
He also explained that a string of mistakes at the scene before the crash contributed to Galinger’s death.
McGowan told the jury Chattanooga Public Works stuck a "dinky barricade" with a broken light over the manhole cover where the incident happened.
He says Galinger’s training officer did not illuminate the scene with his lights when they arrived to inspect the manhole.
"She is not the person to take the fall for the myriad of errors that were committed by many, many players long before she came driving down that road that night," McGowan said.
McGowan also says neither officer was wearing a reflective vest that night, and rather were wearing all black uniforms.
He also says Chattanooga Police and the City of Chattanooga are both mentioned in a $25 million lawsuit filed by Galinger’s family because of some of the mistakes made that night.
The defense argues Janet Hinds did not knowingly leave the scene realizing someone had been hurt. Her daughter-in-law would later testify that Janet called her that night thinking she hit a road sign.
First witnesses:
The state first called Melissa Hinds, the daughter-in-law of Janet Hinds.
She was at the Farm to Fork restaurant with Janet Hinds the night of the incident.
Melissa says she spent the beginning of the night briefly at the bar with Janet and her son.
She says they were then both seated at opposite sides of the restaurant, because she and her husband (Janet’s son) were there with co-workers.
Melissa says her interactions with Janet that night were “few and far between.”
But she said she offered Janet a ride home because they had a family gathering the next day and the weather was horrible. She also acknowledged later that the fact Janet was drinking that night was another reason she made the offer.
She says Janet seemed totally fine and not impaired when they left the restaurant.
Later, Melissa Hinds said Janet called her after the accident to say she hit a road sign. "The kind with the blinky light, but the light wasn't working."
The next morning, Melissa says her husband called her to ask if she'd seen the news that an officer had been killed.
I proceeded to tell her she didn't a road sign, she hit a cop," Melissa Hinds testified. "And she said, 'No, no. I hit a road sign.
Once Janet Hinds realized what happened, Melissa Hinds testified she was very distraught. Melissa said she advised Hinds to call the police. But she says she called a lawyer instead.
The prosecution pointed out that Melissa's testimony has changed. In the days after the accident, prosecutors said Melissa told police she would have stopped if she had hit a sign and sustained that kind of damage to her car. Now she says she wouldn't have pulled over on a dark road by herself, as a woman, especially if she was only a few minutes from home.
Melissa Hinds testified that Janet Hinds was distraught after she found out she had probably hit a police officer instead of a road sign. She says Hinds was going to meet with a lawyer but didn't intend to evade police and made no attempt to conceal the damaged car in her driveway.
Before her testimony finished, Melissa read a text message she sent her husband while she was with Janet Hinds the day after the accident:
"She just said there's no reason to live anymore."
Melissa testified that was Janet's reaction when she learned an officer had died.
The trial then broke for lunch.
TESTIMONY RESUMES
Testimony resumed after lunch with former CPD officer Jarrod Justice, who was with Officer Galinger at the time of his death as his field training officer.
Watch our livestream of Monday afternoon's testimony here:
Prosecutors played Justice's bodycam video, and it was tough for those in the courtroom to watch.
It shows Galinger being hit hard by a vehicle and knocked to the ground.
Officer Justice’s body cam video shows Galinger’s body, and him trying to take his pulse.
He then starts to apply CPR after calling other officers to the scene.
Nicholas’s father Barry had to leave the courtroom in tears because the video was too disturbing to watch.
In the video, Justice says the car that hit Galinger was straddling the middle line and "didn’t brake or anything."
Before the video was presented, he also testified the vehicle that hit Galinger was going faster than previous vehicles they saw.
During Ben McGowan’s cross examination, he emphasized that neither Justice nor Galinger were wearing reflective vests.
He also asked why Justice did not have any other vehicle lights on to help illuminate the scene.
Justice responded that he decided not to turn his blue lights on because he thought they could be distracting to drivers. The defense wasn’t satisfied with that answer.
"When I pull over and there’s a problem and I need to get out of my car to check because I’ve driven over something, I put on my hazard lights as a means of not only illuminating that thing but also letting people know that the car is there and that they should slow down," defense attorney Ben McGowan said to Justice.
But during prosecution’s re-examination, they confirmed with Justice that every other vehicle he saw prior to the accident slowed almost to a stop as they passed the barrier, despite the officers not wearing vests or using blue lights.
This story will be updated as we learn more.
BACKGROUND:
Hinds is the woman charged in the 2019 hit and run death of rookie Chattanooga Police Officer, Nicholas Galinger.
On the rainy night of February 23rd, 2019, police say CPD officer Nicholas Galinger was struck by a car that left the scene.
Police say Galinger was hit as he was inspecting a flooded manhole cover on Hamill Road.
Galinger was 38 years old when he died. He was a native of the Cincinnati area and a father of two.
He died on the job just a month after graduating from the Chattanooga Police Academy.
Hinds turned herself into police about a day and a half after the incident.
She is a former Soddy-Daisy postmaster. The defense says Hinds has strong ties to the community, and raised her family here.
The defense argues this incident was "a tragic accident."
Hinds is facing 10 charges, including vehicular homicide by intoxication, leaving the scene, and driving under the influence.
A jury of her peers, selected in Nashville last week, will determine Hinds' fate.
The trial is taking place at the Hamilton County Courts Building in Chattanooga.
Judge Don Poole is presiding over the case.
The prosecution team is led by district attorney Neal Pinkston.
The defense is led by attorney Ben McGowan.
On Monday, we expect to hear opening statements from the prosecution and defense, as well as the beginning of testimony.
Depend on us for live continuing coverage of this trial.