Romance, obsession and a weird suit over an alleged beat-down
by P.J. Tobia
Tucked away in the corner of a strip mall off of Charlotte Pike is Martial Arts Inc., a self-defense school run by Chris Garland. There probably isn't another martial arts instructor like him in Nashville. Or for that matter, on this planet.
He's equal parts Hulk Hogan and Rex from Napoleon Dynamite (the guy who yells, "Bow to your sensei!"). His phrasing is liberally sprinkled with the word "brother," and he demands total compliance from his pupils.
"You know how I can trust you?" Garland says upon meeting a reporter. "Because you look me in the eye, brother."
He's also something of an international man of mystery. During an interview, he repeatedly mentions that he'll soon "go overseas to do some work for the government." But when asked what that will entail, he fixes his inquisitor with a stony glare and a curt "I can't talk about it." Then, with a toss of his curly black mane, he turns his back.
But one thing he will talk about is Debi Dowdy. She's a former student with unpleasant things to say about Garland. In a lawsuit filed last month, she asserts that Garland "slammed her to the ground...grabbed her face under her cheekbones...raised his foot above her head and kicked her in the face."
The entire Metro government is also named in the suit. Dowdy alleges that Garland used cops who are his students to run unauthorized background checks on her. It's a claim police employees close to the case firmly deny, and no criminal charges have been filed against Garland.
But as he tells it, this is a case of obsession gone bad. For months, Garland claims, Dowdy went "like Fatal Attraction" over him, calling repeatedly, sending bizarre letters and hanging around his studio. He denies that he ever hurt her or any of his students.
"We don't even spar here!" he says, pointing in exasperation to a cluster of punching bags in the corner. "I would never hit any of my female clients."
As two clients prepare to leave the studio, they nod in agreement, describing Dowdy as "crazy."
For her part, Dowdy is adamant that Garland did her wrong. She says that during a training session with a more advanced female student, she accidentally kicked the woman's face, blacking her eye. And that, she says, is when Garland responded with the aforementioned beat-down, leaving her with an eye injury that still has her seeing white flashes.
Dowdy asserts that she only hung around and sent letters after the incident because she wanted to give Garland "a chance to apologize." But judging from the letters and photos she sent, their relationship was a bit closer than sensei and Grasshopper.
"My ninja," begins one letter, before devolving into pleas and questions about abandonment (hers) and reconciliation (theirs). Other letters included pictures of Dowdy as a baby and toddler.
Garland insists they shared nothing more than a professional relationship. "I've had a woman for 10 years. She's beautiful," he says, referring to his current girlfriend. He raises his hands for visual emphasis, as if holding ripe melons before him, then invokes the hotness factor in his defense. "If you took a look at [Dowdy] and then took a look at my woman, you'd know there was no way in hell..."
"Nothing happened, but she did want to sleep with me though," he says eventually.
Dowdy also says nothing happened, but insists that Garland was in amorous pursuit, not her. "His thing is that he thinks that every woman wants to sleep with him."
Garland does have a history of stumbling over the truth. A Scene profile three years ago ("Karate Kidder," April 21, 2005) revealed how he misled newspaper and television reporters by telling them he joined the Special Forces at age 17 and served as an Army Ranger.
"He told outward lies," John Renken, a civilian contractor for 5th Special Forces, told the Scene at the time. "He told them that he jumped into Panama."
He now says he has gone to dangerous places with the Army and trained soldiers in the way of the fist. He presents the bullet scars—and a letter from Gen. John F. Mulholland—to prove it.
But perhaps the most serious allegations in Dowdy's lawsuit aren't directed at Garland.
She claims that mere days after she complained to police about Garland, he confronted her, telling her the cops "brought your police report to me the night you filed it."
Dowdy further claims they've been doing background checks on her.
Kennetha Sawyers, who heads the Metro police internal affairs division, says Dowdy is not to be believed.
"Dowdy tells different stories depending on the audience," says Sawyers. "She's venue shopping. We reviewed the computer logs and there is absolutely no evidence that anybody ran her records. I believe that Ms. Dowdy is a little bit confused."
Email pjtobia@nashvillescene.com, or call 615-844-9400.
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