Oak Ridge Today

Lead trial court prosecutor retires

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Pictured above are Seventh Judicial District Attorney General Dave Clark, left, and Deputy District Attorney General Anthony Craighead. (Photo courtesy Dave Clark)

Anthony Craighead, deputy district attorney general in Anderson County, has retired.

“This week marks the well-deserved but bittersweet retirement of my friend and crime fighting partner, Deputy District Attorney General Tony Craighead,” Seventh Judicial District Attorney General Dave Clark said on Saturday. “Tony has been fighting for justice and victims for 30 years in Tennessee, and for the last eight years, he has been our leading trial court prosecutor here in Anderson County.

“The job of being a chief law enforcement officer for a portion of our state is a great privilege and an awesome responsibility. The pressure, emotional, physical and psychological burden of the responsibility for resolving the homicides, child abuse, home burglaries and child pornography cases collectively wear on one’s soul. Tony has carried that load for all of us for a long time.”

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After guilty plea in fatal hit-and-run, man faces separate traffic charges

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Dannon Cole pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident involving a death or injury in Anderson County Criminal Court on Monday, Dec. 12, 2022.

After pleading guilty to a fatal hit-and-run crash, a 51-year-old man is facing separate criminal charges after he was allegedly found passed out behind the wheel with an open bottle of whiskey and a bag of a white powdery substance believed to be cocaine.

This alleged case of driving under the influence (third offense) occurred in downtown Clinton on Halloween day 2021, just three weeks before the fatal hit-and-run crash in south Clinton.

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Evaluation ordered for teen who allegedly shot mom over cell phone

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Shawn Willis

An evaluation was scheduled Wednesday for an Anderson County teenager who allegedly shot and killed his mother while she was sleeping after she punished him by taking away his cell phone, according to court records.

The evaluation for Shawn Tyler Willis, 19, of Rocky Top, had previously been ordered by Anderson County Criminal Court Judge Ryan Spitzer at the request of defense attorney Brennan Lenihan.

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Packard accused of filing false tax returns

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Russell Barker, who is now Anderson County sheriff, and the Seventh Judicial District Crime Task Force executes search warrants at McGuire Used Books on Thursday afternoon, May 24, 2018. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Already charged with money laundering and retail crime, an Oak Ridge business manager has been accused by the state of filing false tax returns and not paying sales taxes.

John McGuire Packard, 38, was indicted on nine counts by the Anderson County Grand Jury in June. The indictment charged him with one count of evade/defeat use tax for each month from September 2017 to May 2018. Those are Class E felonies.

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Man sentenced to 11 years for attempted rape with knife

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Michael C. Simonds

A 42-year-old man was sentenced to 11 years on Monday after being convicted of attempted aggravated rape in Anderson County during a jury trial in June.

It was the same sentence the prosecution had asked for, with the time to be served in prison.

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Lawsuit filed by terminated employee who refused COVID-19 vaccine

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The Howard H. Baker Jr. United States Courthouse is pictured above in Knoxville on Jan. 19, 2020. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

A lawsuit was filed this year against a federal contractor in Oak Ridge that terminated an employee after she refused to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

In her lawsuit, the former employee argued that it is illegal under state law to compel her to provide proof of vaccination if she objects to the vaccine.

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Bond in murder case set at $1 million

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Nathan Newport

Bond for an Oliver Springs man accused of murdering his wife Monday morning was set at $1 million.

The bond order for Nathan Lee Newport, 60, was signed by new Anderson County General Sessions Court Judge Matthew Tuck on Tuesday.

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Man sentenced to one year, 9 months for fatal hit-and-run 

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Dannon Cole pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident involving a death or injury in Anderson County Criminal Court on Monday, Dec. 12, 2022.

Note: This story was updated at 1 p.m. Dec. 13.

CLINTON—A 51-year-old man was sentenced to one year and nine months when pleading guilty Monday to a fatal hit-and-run crash between a pickup truck and motorized bicycle in Clinton about one year ago.

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TBI: Man fatally shoots woman, denies aid

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Nathan Newport

A 60-year-old Oliver Springs man allegedly killed a 52-year-old woman with a shotgun Monday morning and, during a police standoff, refused to let officers give her medical aid, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

The man, Nathan Newport, 60, has been charged with criminal homicide—first-degree murder. He is alleged to have killed Janice Newport, 52, in a home in Oliver Springs at about 6:30 a.m. Monday.

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Appeals court upholds 30-year robbery sentence

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A Tennessee appeals court this summer upheld a 30-year prison sentence against an Oliver Springs man convicted of aggravated robbery in Clinton, finding that the Anderson County trial court did not err in sentencing him as a career offender.

Wallace Wade Tidwell, 44, had been accused of robbing a Shell gas station on Charles Seivers Boulevard in Clinton in June 2015. A clerk testified at trial in April 2019 that Tidwell came out of the store’s bathroom, ordered her to give him the money in the cash register, lifted his shirt, and showed her what she thought was the butt of a gun in his waistband, according to a 14-page opinion filed by the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals in Knoxville.

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Court defers decision on separate trials for Finnegan, Dishman

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A motion hearing is pictured above for Sean Shannon Finnegan and Rebecca Elizabeth Dishman in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton on Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

Note: This story contains graphic content. Reader discretion is advised.

A decision was deferred Thursday about whether to separate the trials of a man and woman charged in a gruesome rape and murder case in Oak Ridge three years ago.

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Man receives two-year sentence after fatal hit-and-run

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The Oak Ridge Police Department investigated a deadly hit-and-run crash involving a pedestrian between Brussels Road and Bogola Road on Oak Ridge Turnpike on Tuesday morning, Aug. 11, 2020. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

A 31-year-old man received a two-year sentence and was placed on supervised probation when he pleaded guilty Friday to charges filed after a fatal hit-and-run crash on Oak Ridge Turnpike more than two years ago.

The defendant received credit for time served in jail from August 11, 2020, to June 29, 2021.

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