Boyd discusses criminal charges, responds to claims he represented self as lawyer
JACKSON, Tenn. — A Jackson man responds to what he says are retaliatory charges brought against him.
Boyd leads protest in Henderson following officer-involved shooting of Anthony Jones, October 2020
Tuesday, the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office released a report regarding an investigation into a 2019 theft at Tennessee Correctional Services West, Inc., where Tracy Boyd was working as a probation officer. The report states that investigators determined Boyd stole at least $2,757 of fees collected from clients.
“I have never had a discrepancy within my receipt book. I have never had a discrepancy within my money bag,” Boyd told us. “If there was, where’s the write up for it? Where’s the reporting, the documents stating that there was hundreds or thousands of dollars missing?”
Boyd says when his employers questioned him about the missing funds, he declared that he was innocent, and claims he was the only employee questioned about the money.
Boyd was terminated from TCSW, however he says legal action over the alleged theft was not brought against him until years later.
Boyd stated that he believes he was charged in retaliation to a protest he led outside the office and home of District Attorney Jody Pickens in October 2020.
Boyd leads protest outside DA Pickens’ office, October 2020
According to Boyd, the protest came after multiple attempts to have a meeting with Pickens.
“As a public advocate, as an activist, I’ve reached out to him numerous times wanting to schedule sit down meetings with him to kind of address and, you know, to try to address some of the concerns that not only I had, but even other community members had, and he refused,” Boyd said. “He refused to meet.”
According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, on May 7, 2021, agents began investigating allegations of theft and the unauthorized practice of law by Boyd at the request of District Attorney Pickens.
On June 3, 2022, Boyd was arrested in Jackson with the assistance of the United States Marshals Two Rivers Violent Fugitive Task Force.
“[Pickens] had seven U.S. Marshals to burst in my mother’s front door to arrest me. A ‘Violent Task Force’ for charges that are not even violent,” Boyd said. “All of these charges are retaliatorily charges against me.”
Boyd also faced various other charges, including impersonation of a licensed professional, falsely representing self as a lawyer, and practicing law without a license.
“Those actually got dismissed by the state,” Boyd said. “None of my indictments give any kind of facts to constitute the charge that they brought against me.”
Boyd says that while he did attend law school, he has never claimed to be a lawyer. Boyd says he believes people associate him with being a lawyer because of the type of work that he does, but says he has always made things clear anytime he has the chance.
“I’ve never stepped in a court room attempting to represent anybody in a court of law,” Boyd said. “You will never find anybody to come and say, ‘Tracy represented himself as a lawyer to me.'”
Boyd, 2022
On November 14, 2022, Boyd pled guilty to one count of theft over $2,500 at Madison County Circuit Court. Boyd says he entered a guilty plea not because he was guilty of the crime, but to avoid jail time.
According to the Comptroller’s report, Boyd was sentenced to four years of supervised state probation, and ordered to pay $2,741 in restitution to TCSW.
Boyd says his goal has always been to be an advocate for his community.
Click here to view the full investigative report by the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office.
For more news in the Jackson area, click here.
