A routine traffic stop on I-40 West near Pellissippi Parkway turned into the arrest of a man wanted on a sweeping Knox County indictment that includes five counts of rape of a child, Knoxville police said. The driver was identified as 47-year-old Samuel Hatmaker of Rutledge, who police said was taken into custody without incident late Tuesday night.
According to the Knoxville Police Department, officers stopped a Dodge Durango for a traffic violation at around 10:45 p.m. on Tuesday. During the stop, officers identified the driver as Hatmaker and determined he was wanted on a 12-count indictment out of Knox County.
What the Indictment Alleges
Police said the indictment against Hatmaker includes five counts of rape of a child, three counts of aggravated sexual battery, three counts of continuous sexual abuse of a child, and one count of attempted aggravated sexual battery. Knoxville police said officers arrested a man wanted for multiple counts of rape of a child in Knox County, though no further details about the underlying allegations have been released.
Tennessee law defines continuous sexual abuse of a child as a pattern of multiple qualifying acts under specified circumstances, including repeated incidents involving the same minor or acts involving multiple minors who share common characteristics or circumstances. The statute sets additional conditions for when those acts can be charged as this offense. The charge description alone does not show which statutory basis prosecutors allege in this case. Tennessee’s statute on continuous sexual abuse of a child lays out those requirements.
Booking and Next Steps
Police said Hatmaker was taken into custody without issue and transported to the Knox County detention facility. The department's report noted that additional information was not released.
No details about a court date, legal representation, or Hatmaker's current custody status beyond the reported transport have been made public. Knoxville police have not indicated whether further charges or information will be released as the case moves forward.
A court date may become available through the county’s public docket system as the case moves forward. The Criminal Court Clerk’s searchable database provides daily dockets for criminal cases and allows searches by date range and other fields. Knox County’s docket search is the official place to check for a listing; the arrest announcement itself did not identify a hearing date.
An indictment is a formal accusation, not a finding of guilt. In Knox County, a 13-member grand jury decides whether there is probable cause to send a case to trial; after an indictment, the defendant appears in Criminal Court for arraignment and is advised of the charges. The Knox County District Attorney’s explanation of the process says the court may then schedule later proceedings, while the state must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.
