Lions offensive coach Cooter's arrest records vanish

The Detroit Lions' newly-named offensive coordinator was arrested twice in Tennessee in the past 10 years; but strangely, a booking photo from 2009 appears to be the only scrap remaining from the records.

James "Jim Bob" Cooter, now 31, was arrested and charged with aggravated burglary in 2009 and with drunken-driving in 2006, according to previous reports from the Associated Press and The Tennessean. In June 27, 2009, a woman said he climbed through an apartment window, stripped down to his underwear and got into bed with her, the AP reported July 2, 2009. Knoxville police spokesman Darrell DeBusk said at the time that there was no indication Cooter knew the woman.

But on Friday, DeBusk said there is no arrest record for Cooter.

"What I may have said with regard to an incident years ago does not mean that I can confirm that record again," he told the Free Press. "There's no record. There's nothing."

On June 2, 2006, The Tennessean reported that Cooter had been arrested on suspicion of drunken driving after his car crossed the center line several times and drove on the wrong side of the road. Police at the time said Cooter failed three sobriety tests and was charged with his first offense of driving under the influence. He was transported to University of Tennessee Police Department in Knoxville, where he registered a 0.19 on the breathalyzer test, more than double the state's legal limit of 0.08, the Tennessean reported.

Neither case exists in records of the Criminal Court for Knox County, said Deputy County Clerk Brittany Warwick. That means there's no public proof at the courthouse whether the charges were dropped, dismissed, expunged, acquitted or dealt with some other way. Warwick said that any criminal case, from a traffic ticket to a felony, would appear in courthouse records if it existed.

In response to a request for comment on the two cases, Detroit Lions spokesman Bill Keenist wrote in an e-mail that the charges were dropped.

Cooter, who was promoted to offensive coordinator on Monday after Joe Lombardi was fired, joined the Lions last year as quarterbacks coach. On Feb. 21, 2014, Lions general manager Martin Mayhew was asked by news media whether previous arrests raised a red flag.

"No, we got a good explanation on those things that happened. I think that's behind him and I'm excited about working with him, yeah," Mayhew said at the time.

Cooter played as a backup quarterback for the University of Tennessee Volunteers in 2003-06. He worked as a staff assistant for the Indianapolis Colts at the time of his 2009 arrest. Lions coach Jim Caldwell was coaching the Colts at that time.

The Knox County Sheriff's Office still had the booking photo, but that was all.

"I'm actually not showing a criminal history on him. My guess is that it's been expunged," sheriff's office spokeswoman Hillary Martin wrote in an e-mail to the Free Press.

But according to Tennessee law, only certain crimes are eligible for expunction -- they must be non-violent, non-DUI and non-sexual crimes. Crimes eligible are most misdemeanors and some Class E felonies, including forgery, theft, vandalism and fraudulent or false insurance claim, among others.

A spokesman for the Knox County District Attorney General didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Free Press staff writer David Birkett and content coach for visuals Rashaun Rucker contributed to this report.

Contact Robert Allen at rallen@freepress.com or @rallenMI.