State investigators are still looking into the Knox County Trustee’s Office, but that hasn’t stopped prosecutors from beginning to review material.
Blount County District Attorney Ryan Desmond’s office has taken over any potential criminal case after Knox County District Attorney Charme Allen recused her office May 6. The Blount County office is already at work.
“My office has already begun the process of getting brought up to speed by the Comptroller’s Office,” Desmond told Knox News in an email. “We do not have to wait for the investigation to be completed to begin reviewing materials already collected. We will not need to reinterview.”
Trustee Justin Biggs is at the center of a Knox News exclusive report into how he and some of his staff members overspent on high-end hotel rooms and used trustee-leased trucks for personal travel.
The investigation goes beyond the trustee’s office. Since Knox News published its investigation, Property Assessor Phil Ballard and Matt Myers, the county’s procurement director, have been snagged by investigators for using county vehicles for personal travel.
Knox County Trustee Justin Biggs, left, listens as Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs, not pictured, presents the county’s budget for Fiscal Year 2025-2026 at the Main Assembly Room of the City-County Building in downtown Knoxville on May 5, 2025.
Allen filed an order in Knox County Criminal Court on May 6 recusing her office from “all matters pertaining to and arising from certain allegations of possible violations of the laws of the state of Tennessee.” Any follow-up from the investigation will instead be handled by Desmond’s office.
About Knox News’ investigation into the trustee’s office
Knox News published an investigative report April 14 detailing excessive spending by Biggs and his staffers and revealing the state watchdog agency, the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury, was investigating the trustee’s office. Knox News also revealed the county had conducted an internal audit of Biggs’ office and turned over the results to the comptroller.
The comptroller does not discuss ongoing investigations or the timeline for the release of its findings.
The comptroller’s investigation into misuse of taxpayer money by Biggs and some staffers, including using taxpayer dollars to pay for upgraded rooms and access at high-end hotels, as well as using county vehicles for personal travel.
Biggs and his staff incurred $4,716.59 in costs that exceeded the county rate for hotel rooms.
Additionally, the office is paying the leases for six new Chevrolet Silverado 1500 pickup trucks equipped with four-wheel drive. In the five years of the lease agreement, the trustee’s office will pay $397,968 for the trucks, $200,000 more than taxpayers would have paid for the typical vehicles used by other county offices.
Biggs frequently travels in the trucks, according to GPS data reviewed by Knox News, but he shouldn’t because he receives an annual travel allowance from the county worth $4,999.80.
Separately, Knox News reported Jason Dobbins, former trustee’s director of operations, had access to insider information when he paid $3,732 for two lots with unpaid taxes, then flipped them eight months later for $67,000.
The two properties were included in a “prospect list” emailed to Dobbins by a colleague two months before he purchased the lots in 2024. He was interested in building on the lots before he instead sold them in March 2025 for $67,000.
Dobbins was fired April 14 hours after Knox News posed questions to his boss, Trustee Justin Biggs, about questionable spending by the office.
Tyler Whetstone is an investigative reporter focused on accountability journalism. Connect with Tyler by emailing him at tyler.whetstone@knoxnews.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @tyler_whetstone.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Prosecutors already reviewing Knox County Trustee investigation material