Donna Dillon has sued Knox County and its sheriff’s department, alleging that her June 2025 arrest was turned into television instead of handled as a routine criminal matter. She says deputies hauled her away on a misdemeanor charge that had already been dropped, then filmed and publicized the arrest for the REELZ-based show On Patrol: Live.
The lawsuit lands now because it follows an arrest that Dillon says was humiliating from the start. She said she was handcuffed in front of her 17-year-old son, told at first she was being arrested on a domestic assault accusation, and then heard an officer clarify that the matter was actually a 2022 warrant for misdemeanor assault against a former neighbor. That charge had not survived; the case was later dropped.
Dillon says the encounter did more than embarrass her. She said deputies used excessive force, placed her in a patrol vehicle and left her there for hours, and left her with persistent shoulder pain after the arrest. She also said the public nature of the stop damaged her mental health and personal life. “It was so obvious that it was just for fame. It wasn’t for justice,” she said in describing what happened.
The sheriff’s office had made the show part of its public image before this dispute, promoting the partnership as a chance to show professionalism, compassion and dedication. But Dillon’s suit turns that message back on the department, arguing that a real arrest on an old misdemeanor matter was used as content for an audience rather than as a straightforward law-enforcement action. That is the heart of her claim: not just that the arrest was harsh, but that it was performed for exposure.
There is also a gap in the record that hangs over the case. The department has not explained why it moved ahead with the arrest in June 2025 when the underlying matter had been dropped, and Dillon says the charge was fabricated. After the arrest, the sheriff’s department said the deputy who left her alone in the patrol vehicle was suspended for three days for keeping her confined there for an extended time. Dillon is now seeking compensatory and punitive damages for what she says were violations of her Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights, and she says she wants accountability.
