Repo man given jail time for his strong-arm tactics

A repo man who went too far will serve 48 hours in jail after the court found he tried to strong-arm a local woman into turning over her car, a shakedown reportedly witnessed by a room full of patients at a local clinic where the woman worked.

?You just can?t bully people and threaten them,? said General Sessions Judge Larry Ross to repo man Barry Gullett in passing sentence. ?I think you intended to intimidate this woman. If this is the way you do business, we won?t put up with it here.?

Ross made the statement while ordering Gullett to serve 48 hours behind bars and pay $250 plus court costs after finding him guilty on charges of disorderly conduct and criminal trespass. Judge Ross did not find sufficient evidence to convict the repo man on the additional charge of assault.

The charges came after Gullett arrived at the Urgent Care Clinic to repossess a car belonging to Barbara Reed, a car Reed said she had bought for her son and daughter-in-law who were having to drive back and forth to Erlanger in Chattanooga for serious medical reasons.

?She was 79 days behind and I was getting the runaround when I tried to find her,? Gullett said in his defense, denying he tried to intimidate the woman and was only trying to collect on a loan from Coffee County Bank. Gullett noted the woman ended up making payments on the vehicle later in the evening the night of the incident.

However, Reed along with witnesses from the clinic, testified the repo man was anything but nice as he became loud in demanding the woman tell him where the car could be found.

?He wasn?t a very nice person,? Reed said, noting the repo man?s face turned ?beet red? as he raised his voice and made veiled threats, saying he would ?get her? and ?get her son? in Chattanooga. She also said he repeated threats to seek warrants against her if she did not reveal where the car was being kept.

Justin Turner, a manager at the clinic and son of Reed, said he heard the loud yelling and came outside, ordering the man to leave the premises because he was disturbing the patients inside.

?He disturbed the customers and I had to spend a good deal of time explaining to them what had happened and apologizing to them,? Turner said. ?Then we had to take warrants and tell police what had happened so we ended up not being able to see many more patients. Mr. Gullett cost us a lot of money that day.?

Turner said Gullett continued yelling at his mother even after she sought refuge behind him. Gullett finally left after being ordered three times to leave the property.

In setting sentence, Judge Ross advised Gullett not to be conducting his questionable repo practices in Warren County anymore.