An indicted Knox County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant pulled his disability benefits application hours before a county retirement board subcommittee planned to sift through his medical records and determine whether the application was warranted.
Lt. Franklin "Rocky" Lowery's attorney, Scott Lanzon, pulled the application Aug. 18 in a letter to the county retirement office. Lanzon did not respond to emailed questions about the decision.
In July, the retirement board paused Lowery’s disability application because, they said, the circumstances didn’t add up. Lowery applied for disability weeks after he faced felony conspiracy charges and was placed on unpaid leave. The injury that qualified him for disability, he said, reportedly did not occur in the line
of duty.
Lowery, 48, is not eligible for retirement. He was indicted in May along with nine others tied to the sheriff’s office in one of the largest law enforcement corruption crackdowns in Tennessee history. An 11th man, a civilian, also was indicted.
The county's retirement policy says those with a felony conviction cannot collect a pension or receive disability insurance, but similar to the board’s approval of the retirement of three of the indicted employees, there is no mechanism for denying a disability application while under indictment.
But the board can deny an application if it finds it is not merited.
A new review came to a different conclusion
Committee members did not discuss Lowery's application at the meeting, but they discussed the process. Alight Solutions, the third-party company that vets disability claims for the county and previously approved Lowery’s application, was asked to rereview his claim with new information provided by the county.
Knox News could not confirm whether Alight's second reading resulted in a different outcome.
The retirement board has been busy
In June, the retirement board approved retirement applications for Assistant Chief Deputy David Amburn, Capt. James Hammond and Capt. Aaron Yarnell, all of whom were indicted.
If convicted, the three men could lose their pensions and be on the hook for sizable portions of what they’ve earned in retirement payments since state law allows for a claw-back provision in retirement plans for those convicted of wrongdoing in their work.
Former Knox County Sheriff’s Office Assistant Deputy Chief David Henderson, for instance, must pay back $339,015 to Knox County taxpayers following his guilty plea to a single felony count in federal court.
What are the men charged with?
The indictments stem from yearslong federal and state investigations into the department's troubled narcotics unit. A federal investigation resulted in the 2025 conviction of Henderson, the unit's former leader, on a single federal count of conspiracy to commit program fraud.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation picked up the work, and its investigation led to state charges of conspiracy to commit theft of property over $250,000; theft of property over $250,000; and theft of services over $60,000 for all 11 men. Each one entered a not guilty plea.
All the charges are felonies and all have potential serious prison sentences:
- Conspiracy to commit theft of property over $250,000: 8-12 years
- Theft of property over $250,000: 15-25 years
- Theft of services over $60,000: 8-12 years
The indicted men are:
- Assistant Chief Deputy David Amburn, who oversaw the sheriff’s office narcotics unit
- Curtis Nathan Cole, a former narcotics unit detective
- Capt. James Hammond
- David Henderson, a retired KCSO assistant chief deputy, who pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit federal program fraud in August 2025. His sentencing hearing has been rescheduled several times and is now scheduled for this fall.
- John "Hoppy" Hopkins, a retired KCSO captain
- Sgt. Timothy Isaacs
- Jimmy "J.J." Jones, a former Knox County sheriff
- Michael Ray Kidd, a civilian. Kidd's brother is Ronnie Kidd, a former KCSO fleet manager who pleaded guilty to a felony charge of official misconduct in October 2020 and was sentenced to two years of probation.
- Lt. Franklin "Rocky" Lowery
- Lake Lowry, a former KCSO sergeant
- Capt. Aaron Yarnell, who supervised the agency's technology division.
Tyler Whetstone is an investigative reporter focused on accountability journalism. Email: tyler.whetstone@knoxnews.com; X: @tyler_whetstone; Signal: twhetstone141924.39
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Indicted KCSO lieutenant pulls disability application just before meeting | Exclusive
