Ten Mile News

Roane County Mayor Mike Farmer and Sheriff Jack Stockton have already said they will seek second terms. The following offices up are for election next Year:

* County Executive (or Mayor);

* Sheriff

* All 15 county commission seats;

* County attorney

* Circuit court clerk

An East Tennessee man was killed early Tuesday afternoon in a Monroe County industrial accident.

James Bales, 51 of Ten Mile died of injuries he received after being struck by glass at the SCHOTT Gemtron plant in Sweetwater according to the Monroe County Advocate. No foul play is suspected.

Commit incest/statutory rape with a teenage stepdaughter, father a child, then get out of jail after only nine months.

For details, contact the offices of District Attorney General Lawrence Russell Johnson and/or Ninth Judicial District Criminal Court Judge Elmer Eugene Eblen.

The annual Jimmy Liner Memorial Christmas Parade is scheduled for this evening, Monday, Dec.

An East Tennessee woman has been accused of embezzling more than $50,000 from a rural Baptist church where she is treasurer.

Photo by Anthony Dake Lori Maddorn of South East Bank Trust goes over donut sale plans with United Way's Stephanie Linkous and Amy Sewell.

A Meigs County man is under bond this week following his arrest after he allegedly car-jacked a vehicle at gunpoint from a rural convenience store parking lot, according to reports.

A man who pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder in connection with what a prosecutor called a "drug deal gone bad'' received an effective 15-year sentence Friday.

Stanley Brown, 37, of Nashville admitted to:

1. Shooting 27-year-old Tommy Morrell once in the head with a .38-caliber handgun, killing him, on Oct. 7, 2007;

2. Shooting Charles Ward, 39, in the arm and shoulder;

3. Stealing Morrell's 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass.

The shootings occurred inside a Moses Lane home in Roane County's Midtown community.

Leon Houston was taken back into custody Thursday after a judge ruled he violated a condition of his bond.

One Roane County brother has been sent to jail and the other has been sent home until they can both be retried in the shooting deaths of a sheriff's deputy and his passenger.

Special Judge David Hayes on Friday ordered Rocky Joe Houston taken into custody for violating the terms of his release and set his new bond at $500,000.

The judge ruled Leon Houston could remain on unmonitored house arrest for now.

Law enforcement officers fanned out across Meigs County Thursday morning with warrants in hand, rounding up individuals indicted by the Grand Jury.

At least 16 individuals are charged as a result of ongoing undercover drug operations and four individuals are charged with felony sex offenses, including aggravated statutory rape, violation of sex offender registry and one case of downloading multiple images of child porn. There are 28 total targets.

Roane County commissioners voted Monday night to pass a 9-cent property-ownership tax rate increase. Officials say the tax allows Roane County Sheriff Jack Stockton to hire nine full time corrections officers and one part time corrections officer.

Roane County’s proposed budget would raise the property ownership tax rate by 10 cents. Both opponents and proponents of the tax increase got to speak during a recent county commission hearing.

County Executive Mike Farmer said the new jail is the reason taxes on property ownership may increase.

Several environmental groups are coming together to fight a new nuclear reactor at Watts Bar.

The Sierra Club.. Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and the Tennessee Environmental Council are all joining forces.

On Wednesday, they asked the NRC for permission to challenge a new license for the plant.

TVA wants to complete the unit 2 reactor by 2012.

On Thursday, July 9th, Rocky Houston notified his attorney that, "The payment could no longer be made on the monitoring bracelets."

Paying for and wearing the monitoring devices is a condition of bond for Rocky and Leon Houston, Roane County brothers involved in a deadly shootout three years ago.

They said they will no longer pay for the tracking devices they wear while awaiting new trials. They put up a property bond this spring worth $1.5 million, and they think that should be enough.

Rocky and Leon Houston spent almost three years in jail after their arrest in May 2006.

"It is costing this family $800 a month between Rocky and Leon Houston, and we are financially devastated," Rocky Houston said. "It is a violation of our constitutional rights."

Roane County Sheriff Jack Stockton said deputies will not pick up the Houston brothers if the tracking device is simply turned off for non-payment. "We wait until there's an issued order from the court" Stockton said.

All criminal charges in a case centering on an accidental shooting this past March in Meigs County were dropped by the DAG Russell Johnson’s office during a hearing in General Sessions Court Thursday, Jul;y 9th.

Shane Godsey was walking back to his vehicle after a day of hunting turkey along the Tennessee River. Another hunter, William Whaley of Decatur, allegedly mistook Godsey for a turkey and fired into the bushes, hitting him with approximately 30 shotgun pellets.

Originally, Assistant District Attorney Kristin Kelly had no plans to file charges against Whaley. Godsey's lawyer, Jes Beard, filed an affidavit that resulted in a reckless endangerment charge against Whaley.

Kelly approached Beard with a proposal to drop the charges against all three people involved with the state covering the court costs. Beard wanted to see the charges against Whaley pursued and advised Godsey not to accept the agreement.

Before a decision could be made, Kelly informed the court the state was dropping the charges against all three individuals without prejudice, meaning the issue cannot be raised again.

Beard objected to the decision, saying his client had not agreed to dismiss the charges against Godsey, but admitted the district attorney's office had almost total control in the matter.

The tenth annual Half-Moon Music Festival will be held on Sunday, July 12th from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Watts Bar Lake in Ten Mile, Tennessee.

It started out as a routine traffic stop on Highway 68 in Ten Mile. It ended with one person in jail on drug charges.

Friday afternoon Timothy Scott Ricker of Athens, Tenn. was stopped for speeding. A canine unit on the scene alerted officers to the smell of drugs.

Officers found four ounces of marijuana, and charged Ricker with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and sell.

Knoxville News-Sentinel editorial, June 26, 2009:

Justice was not served when prosecutors in the Ninth Judicial District agreed to five years' probation for a Lenoir City man who shot his girlfriend to death.

John Kenneth Harvey, 26, was originally charged with second-degree murder in the February 2008 death of Savannah Cass McMahan, 21.

Harvey admits he was arguing with McMahan when he picked up a loaded .22 from a nearby table. The two argued often, according to McMahan's father, who said Harvey bullied his daughter, and "she said she was going to leave him several times before the shooting."

The gun was a single-action revolver, and the detective in the case said it had to be cocked before it could be fired. The powder burns he found showed McMahan was shot at close range.......

If prosecutors could not do better than a no-jail-time deal in that case, they should have gone to trial and let 12 citizens decide who had the best ballistics expert.

This plea bargain simply undermines faith in the judicial process.

(The full editorial is longer than Topix allows on the news board. To read it in its entirety, visit the accompanying link. The Ninth Judicial District includes Loudon, Roane, Morgan, and Meigs counties.)

The parents of a Lenoir City woman shot and killed by her boyfriend are speaking out against a plea bargain that sentenced their daughter's killer to five years on probation.

The plea-deal was granted by the office of Russell Johnson, District Attorney General for Roane, Loudon, Meigs, and Morgan counties.

"I want justice for my daughter," said Sarah Berry, mother of Savannah Cass McMahan, 21, who was shot by John Kenneth Harvey, 26, in February 2008.

Harvey was originally charged with second-degree murder, and admits he shot the woman during an argument but claims it was an accident. The charge was reduced to reckless homicide.

The victim’s mother, Sarah Berry, said she met several times with the district attorney general's office. She says the office wanted to avoid a trial from the beginning,

The victim's father, John McMahan, said he witnessed the couple's frequent arguments and what he called "bullying" by Harvey. McMahan says his daughter was going to leave Harvey. He says:

I know that's why he shot her, because she said she was going to leave"

Assistant Attorney General Bill Reedy says one critical factor in not pursuing a murder charge was a "dying declaration" made by the victim that the shooting was accidental. The witness was said to be Nathan Lane, who called the ambulance that night.

Lane says that he never heard a dying declaration and never agreed to testify to hearing such a thing:

By the time I saw her she was already going into convulsions. She didn't say a thing to me."

For more details, see the full story.