Former Chattanooga police chief charged with illegal voter registration and perjury

CHATTANOOGA, Tennessee — A former Chattanooga police chief has been charged with illegally registering to vote in Tennessee and forging government documents, state investigators said Thursday.

According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations, a grand jury in Hamilton County, which includes Chattanooga, indicted Celeste Murphy on 17 counts.

Murphy, 56, had led the Chattanooga Police Department since 2022 but resigned Wednesday without publicly stating a reason.

She turned herself in to the Hamilton County Jail on Thursday and was later released on a total of $19,000 bail, TBI said in a statement. Her appearance in Hamilton County Criminal Court is scheduled for July 12.

It was not immediately clear whether Murphy had an attorney and no contact information was provided.

The charges include one count of illegal voter registration, one count of making false statements in official documents, three counts of falsifying official documents, three counts of forgery, three counts of perjury and six counts of abuse of office.

The TBI has been investigating Murphy since April after the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported conflicting residency information on her Georgia tax returns and her Tennessee voter forms.

The investigation found that during her time as police chief, Murphy listed her primary residence in both Tennessee and Georgia. Chattanooga city policy requires public employees to reside in Tennessee.

The newspaper reported that every year since 2021, Murphy has claimed a property tax exemption on a home she purchased in Fulton County, Georgia — a tax break available to those who prove the property is their primary residence. Meanwhile, Murphy is registered to vote in Tennessee, where people must prove they live at their primary residence in the state.

“During the investigation, agents discovered that Murphy knowingly made false statements on several government documents related to the Chattanooga office, despite swearing to the truth when he signed the documents,” the TBI said in a press release.

Murphy had previously posted on social media that she could not disclose her Chattanooga residence location for safety reasons.