CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Janet Hinds was sentenced to 11 years behind bars after a jury convicted her of vehicular homicide by intoxication.
After hours of deliberation throughout Friday and Saturday, jurors found the former Soddy-Daisy postmaster guilty on a total of eight counts, including reckless driving, leaving the scene of an accident and speeding, in the death of Chattanooga police officer Nicholas Galinger.
Vehicular homicide by intoxication was the only charge that carried mandatory prison time.
38-year-old Nicholas Galinger, a rookie Chattanooga officer, was killed just after 11 p.m. on February 23, 2019. According to police, the on-duty officer was checking an overflowing manhole cover in the rain when he was struck. He later died from his injuries.
Janet Hinds
A few hours before Galinger was killed, Hinds dined at the Farm to Fork restaurant. The establishment’s owner provided authorities with video surveillance footage showing Hines at the restaurant from 7:02 p.m. until 10:37 p.m. During the state’s opening statements this morning, the prosecutor showed screen grabs from surveillance footage of Hinds consuming five alcoholic beverages that night.
Investigators recovered footage from Galinger’s body camera. The affidavit read: The defendant, while traveling at excessive speeds, failed to maintain her lane, crossed the center double yellow line, and failed to observe and react to signs posted by Public Works covering exposed manhole covers due to excessive rain. The defendant struck a warning sign placed in the center of the roadway, cautioning motorists of the exposed manhole cover.
The affidavit also states that 55-year-old Hinds drove away from the scene after the accident. According to prosecutor Cameron Williams, Hinds made no effort to stop after her vehicle struck Galinger, whose injuries were catastrophic. Officers performed CPR on their colleague for 30 minutes before Galinger was pronounced dead.
On that Monday morning, February 25, 2019, Hinds was placed on the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s Top Ten Most Wanted list. She turned herself in later that same morning. Hinds was booked into Hamilton County Jail. Bond was set at $300,000.
Once she was released on bond, Hinds was placed under house arrest and forbidden from getting behind the wheel of a vehicle. Bond was notably higher because Hinds had a speeding record and had waited to turn herself in.
Hinds’ defense attorney, Ben McGowan, however, argued that the only reason she didn’t turn herself in on Sunday, the day after the hit-and-run, was that she believed a warrant had to be issued first.
Jury selection took place in Nashville so that the jury pool would not be swayed by the local notoriety of the case in Chattanooga. Jurors traveled to Chattanooga to serve and remained sequestered until the trial was over.
