Monteagle arrest at heart of federal lawsuit
Charges collapsed – now a civil rights case and a volatile Town Hall showdown
8:01 a.m. April 1, 2026
Rodney Kilgore is taken from the back of a patrol vehicle as seen on bodycam footage from Officer Alhafiz Ibn Karteron on Sept. 15, 2025.
Editor’s Note: The Observer filed a Tennessee Public Records Act request seeking incident reports and body-camera footage related to the Rodney Kilgore matter because Monteagle Police Chief William Raline is a candidate for Moore County sheriff. When an individual seeks public office, records tied to official conduct, supervisory decisions, and public-facing accountability should be open to scrutiny. The Observer pursued these records in the interest of transparency and an informed electorate. Chief Raline promptly addressed the request on Tuesday.
DUANE CROSS
MCO Publisher•Editor
What began Sept. 15, 2025, as a $160 dispute at a Monteagle repair shop did not end with an arrest. It spilled into criminal charges that later collapsed, a federal civil rights lawsuit, a public fight over an officer’s future, and a tense blowup at Town Hall this week.
Police records show Rodney Lynn Kilgore, 59, was arrested at 4:56 p.m. Sept. 15, 2025. The report lists Officer Alhafiz Ibn Karteron as the reporting officer and Police Chief William Raline as the approving officer. According to the narrative, the case began when Henry Mouton brought a box truck to Kilgore’s shop because of mechanical problems and later disputed a $160 labor charge after a filter change and diagnostic testing.
Karteron wrote that he advised the parties that the disagreement could become a civil matter for the small claims court. But according to the report, Kilgore said he would not allow Mouton to leave without paying. Karteron wrote that he warned Kilgore he could not legally detain the customer or block his vehicle from leaving, then arrested him after concluding Kilgore had used a small white truck to block Mouton’s vehicle from exiting the property. That allegation became the basis for the false-imprisonment charge.
The incident report says Kilgore then resisted. Karteron wrote that Kilgore yelled, pulled away, and later again tried to pull away after being removed from the patrol vehicle so his handcuffs could be adjusted. The records also include a vandalism allegation tied to damage to the rear passenger door of a Ford Explorer. Kilgore was transported to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office for booking, and the arrest packet lists false imprisonment, vandalism, and resisting arrest.
Charges Came Apart in Court
What started as a local arrest did not stay local for long. It landed in federal court.
As reported by the Observer, Kilgore later sued Raline, Karteron, Treva Baker, and the Town of Monteagle in federal court, alleging the Sept. 15 arrest was unlawful and that officers used excessive force against him. In that suit, Kilgore claims that Tennessee law allowed him to retain possession of the vehicle until payment was made and alleges that Karteron arrested him only after consulting with Raline by phone. He also alleges he was injured after being handcuffed and forced back into a patrol vehicle. Those claims remain allegations in civil court.
The criminal case, however, did not hold. A judge dismissed the false-imprisonment charge on Jan. 6, 2026, after finding no probable cause, and the vandalism and resisting-arrest charges were later no-billed by a Marion County grand jury.
In court, the same encounter was recast as something far more serious: an arrest Kilgore says never should have happened, followed by a prosecution that fell apart.
Fight Over Karteron Moves to Town Hall
That conflict returned to public view Monday night.
At the Monteagle Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting on Monday, March 30, a motion to fire Karteron from the Monteagle Police Department failed on a 3-2 vote, with Greg Maloof, Grant Fletcher, and Nate Wilson voting against the motion. The decision drew applause from the crowd.
Kilgore was in attendance. During a heated exchange over the process for launching an investigation, he told Alderman Fletcher, “You’re a joke, Grant.” A few moments later, Kilgore told another member of the gallery he would “knock the piss out of you.” He was then asked to leave the meeting.
By that point, the dispute was no longer confined to police reports and court filings. It was in the meeting room, in the split vote, in the applause, and in the threat that ended the exchange.
Raline’s Role Draws Added Scrutiny
The federal suit has also sharpened attention on Raline, now a candidate in the 2026 Moore County sheriff’s race.
In the Sept. 15 arrest file, Raline is listed not as the arresting officer but as the approving officer. In the federal complaint, Kilgore alleges Karteron consulted with Raline before making the arrest, placing the chief closer to the disputed decisions at the center of the case.
Another file contains a separate police report from April 2022 in which Kilgore is accused of threatening Raline. That report, filed by Raline and approved by then-chief Tony Fulmer, lists the offense as harassment under Tennessee Code 39-17-308 and classifies it as intimidation.
The Case Faded. The Division Didn’t.
The paper trail now shows an arrest officers defended in real time, a criminal case that later collapsed, a federal lawsuit alleging abuse of power, and a town still split over whether Karteron should still wear the badge.
By Monday night, that split was not subtle. It was there in the failed 3-2 vote, in the applause that followed, and in the anger that sent Kilgore out the door.
