Knoxville News-Sentinel
June 24, 2005
Campfield Evicts Sex Offender Roommate
By Hayes Hickman
State Rep. Stacey Campfield said Thursday that he has told a roommate who rents a room at his Knoxville home to leave after learning the tenant is a convicted sex offender.
Campfield said he previously did not know about Christopher Eatherly’s statutory rape conviction until this week. Nevertheless, he acknowledged the situation’s appearance of impropriety, as he is a public official.
It’s not clear how long Eatherly was a Campfield tenant, but records indicate he has lived at a Campfield-owned address since at least late 2003.
The Republican’s Flagler Road residence, included on the state General Assembly Web site, is the same as that listed for Eatherly on the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s online Sex Offender Registry.
The outspoken freshman legislator called the issue nothing more than an “obvious” attack by his political enemies. He has drawn criticism from some of his colleagues over the conservative Web blog he hosts, poking fun, for example, at state Democrats and deriding gay adoption and abortion.
“I don’t feel I should be attacked for the actions of someone else anymore than (U.S. Senate candidate) Harold Ford Jr. should be attacked for the actions of his uncle,” said Campfield, referring to former state Sen. John Ford, D-Memphis, who was arrested last month on bribery and extortion charges.
Eatherly could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Aside from his work in the Legislature, Campfield, 37, also renovates and leases houses.
When he first began speaking with a reporter Thursday, Campfield said the two men initially met through a newspaper ad that Campfield placed for a roommate at the Flagler address.
“Did I have any knowledge (of Eatherly’s crimes)? No. He answered an ad in the paper,” he said. “It’s not like I’m condoning what he did.”
Although they shared a house, Campfield said he did not know the tenant well, nor did he have much interaction with him.
In 2002, Eatherly was convicted in Anderson County Criminal Court on three counts of having sex with a 13-year-old girl. In 2003, Eatherly, now 30, was charged with failing to register a subsequent Knox County address with the TBI.
That address was 1409 Henna St. with a 37921 ZIP code, according to Knox County General Sessions Court records.
There is no Henna Street in Knox County. There is, however, a 1409 Hannah Ave., with the same 37921 ZIP code, which Campfield also owns.
During his first, and unsuccessful, attempt at the 18th District seat in 2002, Campfield changed his voter registration address from 1409 Hannah to a West Knoxville apartment in the 18th District the day before he filed his qualifying petition as a candidate.
When asked about the discrepancy of Eatherly’s address, the state representative revised his statement about first renting to Eatherly on Flagler Road.
He said he originally rented Eatherly and another man the Hannah Avenue home. When the other man moved out, Campfield explained, he rented a room in his own Flagler Road home to Eatherly.
Campfield purchased the house at 2011 Flagler in December 2003. It is one of seven properties he owns in Knox County and the only one of those within the 18th District, according to city and county property records.
“People are going to believe what they want to believe,” Campfield said. “But I haven’t broken any law and I don’t know what I could have done differently.”
