Note: This story was updated at 10:20 a.m. Sept. 17.
Oak Ridge High School Principal Martin McDonald announced in a Facebook post on Tuesday that he is leaving his job at ORHS and starting a new job at Greeneville High School in East Tennessee.
On Wednesday, Oak Ridge Schools Superintendent Bruce Borchers said McDonald will continue at ORHS through the end of the first term and will transition to his new role in Greeneville during the first weeks of October.
Neither McDonald nor Oak Ridge Schools said why the principal is leaving Oak Ridge.
Sean Finnegan, one of two defendants in a series of gruesome alleged crimes in Oak Ridge some time between December 2019 and August 2020, including murder, sex crimes, and kidnapping, is pictured above in a mugshot from the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office.
A forensic evaluation has been ordered for Sean Finnegan—one of two defendants in a murder, sex crimes, and kidnapping case in Oak Ridge—at Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute.
The forensic evaluation was ordered last Tuesday by Anderson County General Sessions Court Judge Roger Miller. The order was based upon a petition by the defense and a recommendation from Ridgeview Behavioral Health Services. Finnegan, 52, had an evaluation scheduled at Ridgeview in Oak Ridge on August 31.
Under the new order, he is to be evaluated at the Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute—Intensive Services Program for a maximum of 30 days regarding his competency to stand trial and his mental condition at the time of the alleged crimes (the insanity defense).
IQ testing is to be included in the evaluation, the order said. The mental health evaluation is also expected to include a finding about whether Finnegan meets specific criteria for being committed.
It’s not unusual for defendants in homicide cases to have a mental health evaluation of this type. The results are generally not available to the public.
A husband and wife in Claxton allegedly told police officers during a narcotics-related search on Wednesday that they bought 20 grams of heroin per day for resale, and they had been selling the illegal drug for about six months, according to Anderson County court records.
Agents who searched the home on King Street with a warrant last week found a suspected fentanyl-heroin compound that weighed about 10 grams, according to court affidavits and Simon Byrne, director of the Seventh Judicial District Crime Task Force.
The agents also found seven guns, suspected marijuana, drug paraphernalia that included baggies and scales, ammunition and magazines, and a large amount of cash, according to the affidavits, which were filed by CTF agent Perry Lewis.
The suspected heroin was in several bags, and it tested positive for a fentanyl compound, said the affidavits, which were filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge. The husband and wife, Timothy Duane Fritz, 48, and Atosha Leann Fritz, 41, said they got the heroin from an unknown man in Knoxville, according to Lewis.
The weapons found during the search on Wednesday included a Smith and Wesson 9mm handgun, a Lorcin .22-caliber handgun, an Anderson AR15 rifle, a Taurus Curve .380 handgun, a Smith and Wesson .22 revolver, a Colt Police Positive .38 handgun, and an Escort Magnum 12-gauge shotgun, the affidavits said.
Troy Allen Stansberry, 29, of Knoxville, was arrested Aug. 27, 2020, after he allegedly kidnapped a 15-year-old Clinton girl in an ice cream truck and took her to a hotel in Caryville “for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity,” according to the Clinton Police Department. (Photo courtesy CPD)
The ice cream truck driver who allegedly kidnapped a Clinton girl in July had a pistol and threatened to shoot the girl if she didn’t get into his vehicle, according to a court affidavit.
Troy Allen Stansberry, 29, of Knoxville, took the 15-year-old girl, who had been reported as missing, from a Clinton neighborhood to a Budget Host Inn in Caryville “for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity,” according to the affidavit and the Clinton Police Department.
The girl, who is not being publicly identified, told police that she entered the Pela Ice Cream truck after Stansberry showed her the pistol and threatened to shoot her if she did not get in, according to the affidavit. The girl did not want to make Stansberry mad, so she got into the vehicle, said the affidavit, which was filed by Clinton Police Department Sergeant Scott Gregory.
Stansberry has been charged with aggravated kidnapping. Stansberry took the girl without consent or permission, the affidavit said.
Keys Fillauer is seeking to be re-elected to the Oak Ridge Board of Education in November.
Fillauer has served on the school board for 19 years, and he has served as chair for the last 11 years, a press release said. He also currently serves as vice president of the Tennessee School Board Association Board of Directors, the press release said.
Fillauer is a retired Oak Ridge teacher and coach. He taught and coached at Robertsville Junior High for 27 years and at Oak Ridge High School for four years. Fillauer has been recognized as a member of the All Tennessee School Board, as a Tennessee Teacher of the Year, and Freedom Foundation Award winner, and he received the Governor’s Outstanding Tennessean Award, the press release said.
Fillauer has also received the Service Above Self award from the Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club, the press release said. He is a member of the Oak Ridge Sports Hall of Fame and the Anderson County Hall of Fame.
Bottles of Tennessee wine not found in stores will be for sale at the Nine Lakes Winemaker’s Market at Melton Lake Park in Oak Ridge on Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020. (Photo courtesy Nine Lakes Wine Festival)
The fourth annual Nine Lakes Wine Festival has been converted to a safer, spread out, open-air “Winemaker’s Market” on Saturday, September 12, a press release said. The festival is scheduled from 3 to 7 p.m. Saturday at Melton Lake Park in Oak Ridge.
“All of our winemakers will be wearing masks, and we ask that the public does, too,” said event director Rebecca Williams. “They will be spread out in the park, with at least 10 feet between vendor tents, and we may have to limit ticket sales to allow for social distancing.”
The event will not offer wine samples to taste this year.
“The state will not allow it, and we agree it would not be a safe thing to do,” Williams said. “Instead, we’re offering a unique shopping event, sort of like a farmer’s market for wine. Tennessee wines are not generally sold in stores, so you really have to come to an event or drive out to a winery to find them.”
Thirteen local wineries will be represented at the event. General admission tickets are $10, and they benefit United Way of Anderson County. They include a wine tote and tasting glass to take home, the press release said.
Four of the “Oak Ridge 85” students at a recent music event. From left to right are Larry Gipson (Oak Ridge 85), Eric Dozier (musician), Deloise Mitchell (Oak Ridge 85), Emma McCaskill (Oak Ridge 85), and Mary Guinn (Oak Ridge 85). (Photo by Barbara McCord)
Oak Ridge is celebrating the 65th anniversary of its school desegregation this weekend.
“Sixty-five years ago this September, 85 brave and dedicated young African American students entered all-white classrooms in the Oak Ridge High School and the Robertsville Junior High School in Oak Ridge, Tennessee in a historic school system desegregation,” organizers said in a press release.
It wasn’t the first public school desegregation in the nation, but organizers said it was the first public school desegregation in the Southeast.
“As such, it challenged the racist and sometimes dangerous Jim Crow culture,” the press release said. “This desegregation stands as an important milestone in American civil rights history.”
The anniversary events are being held with the Oak Ridge school system. Public participation in some events had to be scaled back because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fulin’s Asian Cuisine restaurant at the Westcott Center in Oak Ridge is pictured above on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2020.
Fulin’s Asian Cuisine in Oak Ridge has closed.
The restaurant cited the pandemic in a Facebook post announcing its closing on Wednesday. That post and the restaurant’s page appear to have been removed since then, or they are no longer visible to the public.
A Knoxville man was sentenced to eight years in prison last week after he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of aggravated assault after originally being charged with attempted first-degree murder in Oak Ridge.
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Daniel Ray Price
A Knoxville man was sentenced to eight years in prison last week after he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of aggravated assault after originally being charged with attempted first-degree murder in Oak Ridge.
Daniel Ray Price, 38, had a plea agreement hearing in Anderson County Criminal Court on Wednesday, August 26.
A Knoxville man was sentenced to eight years in prison last week after he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of aggravated assault after originally being charged with attempted first-degree murder in Oak Ridge.
The rest of this story, which you will find only on Oak Ridge Today, is available if you are a member: an advertiser or subscriber to Oak Ridge Today.
An attempted murder charge filed against an Oak Ridge man was sent to the grand jury on Tuesday after a woman was allegedly shot in the face at an apartment complex in May.
There was a preliminary hearing for Miccarrow D. Trice Jr., 25, in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge on Tuesday.
After the hearing, Anderson County General Sessions Court Judge Roger Miller bound over an attempted first-degree murder charge against Trice. That means the Anderson County Grand Jury in Clinton could now consider whether to file charges against Trice. There is no timeline for when the grand jury might hear the case, but the process can take six months or so. A grand jury indictment moves the case from general sessions court to criminal court.
The shooting was reported at Manhattan Apartments on North Purdue Avenue at about 9:45 p.m. Wednesday, May 20.
A graph shows confirmed new cases of COVID-19 in Anderson County through Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2020. (Image courtesy Tennessee COVID-19 Case Tracking
Coronavirus-19 Outbreak Response Experts (CORE-19) at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville)
The daily average of new COVID-19 cases in Anderson County the past week fell to a level last seen in early July, about five new cases per day.
Last week’s average of 5.4 new cases per day is about a 40 percent drop from the average nine new cases reported per day during the previous week.
It’s the third straight week of a decline in the average number of new cases per day in Anderson County.
Although it’s falling, the seven-day average remains higher than it was in late June, before the case growth started to accelerate in the county.
The highest seven-day average, as calculated by Oak Ridge Today, was in late July, when Anderson County averaged more than 24 new cases of COVID-19 per day. July appears to have been the worst month of the pandemic so far.
Sean Finnegan, one of two defendants in a series of gruesome alleged crimes in Oak Ridge some time between December 2019 and August 2020, including murder, sex crimes, and kidnapping, is pictured above in a mugshot from the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office.
Psychiatric and mental health evaluations have now been scheduled for the two defendants charged with murder, sex crimes, kidnapping, and abuse of a corpse in a series of gruesome crimes allegedly committed against a 36-year-old woman in a home in east Oak Ridge between December 2019 and August 2020.
The mental health evaluation for Sean Finnegan, 52, the first co-defendant, is scheduled for Monday at Ridgeview Psychiatric Hospital in Oak Ridge. His evaluation was ordered by Anderson County General Sessions Court Judge Roger Miller on Friday, August 21.
Finnegan’s evaluation by Ridgeview is expected to include his competency to stand trial and his mental capacity at the time he allegedly committed the crimes against Jennifer Gail Paxton, the 36-year-old Knoxville woman who was killed, according to arrest warrants. Finnegan’s evaluation is also expected to include an IQ test and an evaluation of his ability to assess his conduct.
The results of the evaluation will be reported to public defender Kathy Kroeger, the court, and prosecutors. The results are usually not available to the public.
