SUMNER COUNTY, Tenn. (WTVF) — A former Tennessee police officer has been convicted of assault and attempted official oppression after prosecutors said he handcuffed a crying 3-year-old child during a planned "scared straight" intervention.
A Sumner County jury convicted Kyle Hunter Scott, 23, following a two-day trial, according to Thomas Dean, the district attorney general for Sumner County.
Prosecutors said the incident happened May 25, 2025, inside the child's home and was recorded by a bystander.
According to the district attorney's office, video showed Scott, who was wearing his Lawrenceburg Police Department-issued service vest, entering the home as the child was crying. Prosecutors said Scott confronted the child about allegedly damaging property in the home.
The district attorney's office said the child promised to behave, but Scott picked him up, placed him on his stomach and put him in handcuffs as the child cried and asked to be released.
Prosecutors said Scott repeatedly told the child to "stop resisting" before picking him up and taking him outside, leading the child to believe he was being arrested. The video showed the child reaching for and calling out for his mother as they left the home, according to the release.
Dan Hunter, a sergeant with the White House Police Department, began investigating after the video circulated and eventually obtained a copy, prosecutors said.
Investigators later determined the encounter had been planned by Scott, his girlfriend and the child's mother, who prosecutors said was frustrated with the child's behavior. The district attorney's office said the child had been diagnosed with autism several months before the incident.
A Sumner County grand jury indicted Scott in July 2025 on charges of child abuse and official oppression. The jury ultimately found him guilty of the lesser offenses of assault and attempted official oppression.
The misdemeanor convictions carry a sentence of up to 17 months and 29 days in county jail, according to prosecutors. Scott is scheduled to be sentenced next year by Criminal Court Judge Dee David Gay.
The district attorney's office said the Lawrenceburg Police Department fired Scott after the incident came to light. The Tennessee Department of Children's Services also removed the child from the home, according to prosecutors.
The child's mother was charged with child neglect and failure to report abuse, while other adults who were in the home at the time were charged with failure to report child abuse, the release said. The district attorney's office did not provide the current status of those cases.
Dean condemned Scott's actions, calling them an abuse of the authority and trust placed in him as a police officer.
"What the victim endured was not discipline, was not public service, and will not be tolerated in Sumner County," Dean said.
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