A state trooper accused of engaging in oral sex with a porn star after he pulled her over can resign instead of being fired, authorities said.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol announced last week it sent James Randy Moss, 40, a letter of termination giving him the option of a hearing before he is officially dismissed. But earlier in the day, Moss had sent a letter of resignation.
Officials said that they didn't know about the letter until after they had notified him he was fired, but that they would honor it, patrol spokesman Mike Browning said.
The woman wrote in her blog that she was stopped by a trooper outside Nashville on May 7. When she told the trooper she had "happy pills in the car," he threw them into the brush by the highway, she wrote. After telling him she makes "dirty movies," they watched sex videos in his patrol car and he asked, "What does it cost for someone like me to get anything like you?" she wrote.
The Knoxville News Sentinel reported Tuesday that Moss admitted to the woman's claims, citing internal affairs records at the patrol. A police spokesman could not be immediately reached to comment. Most of the details of accusations against Moss were redacted from his termination letter.
Moss' attorney, Jack Lowery Sr., said he couldn't discuss the allegations because the district attorney general is looking over the case to determine whether charges should be filed. But he said the trooper is no longer accused of throwing out the drugs in exchange for a sexual favor.
The attorney said Moss did what many law enforcement officers have done when they find small amounts of drugs or alcohol. "It's like catching a kid with beer — 'I'm going to make you pour it out. I'm not going to charge you with it,'" Lowery said.
Moss declined to comment and referred a reporter to his attorney. In the letter he sent to police, he said he was resigning because he didn't want to further embarrass the highway patrol.
"I sincerely regret the allegations that have been made against me, and I regret the resulting discredit that has been leveled at the Tennessee Highway Patrol," he wrote.
