The local Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Center of Rutherford County is among the latest to file a formal complaint with the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility calling for an investigation and disbarment of Coffee County District Attorney Craig Northcott. This comes after Northcott's public statements that he does not file domestic assault charges if the violence occurred between same-sex spouses, does not recognize "homosexual marriage," and would not prosecute Tennessee county clerks who deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Partner station WMSR in Manchester, TN said they reached out to Northcott for comment on this story, but he said that he cannot comment at this time.

Several non-profit groups fear that DA Northcott's comments may deter LGBT people from reporting domestic assault, hate crimes, or other violence against them and create a substantial obstacle to accessing the criminal legal system. In Tennessee this is of grave concern, as the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations (TBI) reported that in 2018 it had received 1,424 reports of domestic violence occurring within same-sex relationships. In addition, according to TBI's 2018 Tennessee Hate Crime Report, 21.9% of all hate crimes last year were motivated by sexual bias, which includes crimes against LGBT and gender nonconforming people. Tennessee is home to approximately 130,000 LGBT adults according to a report from the Williams Institute, nearly 25% of whom are people of color.

The complaint filed Tuesday arises from public statements Northcott made on March 13, 2018 at the Chafer Theological Seminary Bible Conference during a presentation titled "The Local Church's Role in Government." During the presentation, Northcott stated that he charges defendants with simple assault when a domestic violence incident occurs within the marriage of a same-sex couple, rather than the charge of domestic assault that he files when the incident occurs in the marriage of a different-sex couple. Simple assault is a lesser charge with reduced punishment implications. He justified his reasoning by arguing that domestic violence charges are to recognize and protect the "sanctity of marriage" but "there's no marriage to protect" when it comes to same-sex marriages. In Tennessee, marriage is only one of the many relationship types that can qualify an assault as a domestic assault.