KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) – Allison Tsiumis is a 33-year veteran of the FBI. In her time at the bureau, she led an intelligence team for six years. Her father had a legacy with the agency. Her husband worked as a special agent. That decades-long career and family history is one of the reasons she was so uneasy spending months in the defendant’s seat, fighting a DUI charge she never deserved.
Tsiumis is now trying to hold the Knoxville Police Department accountable, suing Officer Christian Ferraras and the city itself over the matter. She’s also calling for change across Tennessee law enforcement as others across the Volunteer state report similar experiences.
The exonerated DUI suspect was in her home office Thursday, speaking to us about what happened to her. Tsiumis sat at her desk, surrounded by artifacts of a decades-long career at the chief investigating agency in the country. Behind her are FBI credentials — stamped with an obvious “RETIRED” notice — declaring her the section chief of the cyber national security intelligence branch…