Judge Richard Baumgartner, who presided over the Knoxville Horror trials, received a suspended sentence, as he pled guilty to official misconduct. He was secretly buying pills from a probationer in his own court.
Jamie Satterfield writes:
At the time, the pair's dealer-buyer relationship launched, Baumgartner was in the middle of a series of trials in the torture slayings of Channon Christian, 21, and Christopher Newsom, 23, amid the glare of television cameras and internet coverage that allowed watchers across the globe access to the judge's courtroom.Although people could watch the live stream of the trials on the internet, the national media ignored the trials. The exception was TruTV’s In Session showing the replay of the first trial. TruTV didn't cover any of the other three. The case was heavily covered locally only.
