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Oak Ridge has Water Safety Day on Saturday

Posted at 2:58 pm June 20, 2019
By Oak Ridge Today Staff Leave a Comment

The Oak Ridge Recreation and Parks Department will have its second annual Water Safety Day on Saturday, June 22, 2019, at the Oak Ridge Outdoor Pool on Providence Road. The event will be held from 12 p.m. until 2 p.m. (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge)

The Oak Ridge Recreation and Parks Department will have its second annual Water Safety Day on Saturday, June 22, at the Oak Ridge Outdoor Pool on Providence Road. The event will be held from 12 p.m. until 2 p.m. Saturday.

Water Safety Day is a partnership between the Recreation and Parks Department, Oak Ridge Fire Department, and Oak Ridge Police Department, as well as the Anderson County Volunteer Rescue Squad and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, a press release said. Demonstrations will include boating and lifejacket safety, open water rescues, lifeguard skills, and more.

“Please note that the pool’s open swim schedule has been adjusted due to the event and will begin immediately following Water Safety Day activities,” the press release said. Those who participate in the event will be eligible to stay for open swim at no cost.

[Read more…]

CTF: Meth, narcotics found during Friday morning searches

Posted at 10:57 am May 31, 2019
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Roughly an ounce of methamphetamine and other narcotics were found during searches on Ridgeview Drive in Oliver Springs on Friday morning, May 31, 2019, law enforcement officers said. (Photo courtesy Seventh Judicial District Crime Task Force)

Roughly an ounce of methamphetamine and other narcotics were found during Friday morning searches on Ridgeview Drive in Oliver Springs, law enforcement officers said.

The searches were led by the Seventh Judicial District Crime Task Force, which had three search warrants. The search operation included the CTF, Oliver Springs Police Department, Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, and Oak Ridge Police Department, a press release said.

ACSO and ORPD SWAT executed two of the three search warrants at the same time, the press release said. The third search warrant was executed shortly after the first two were clear, the release said.

[Read more…]

For members: Man charged with attempted murder of deputy has two homicide convictions

Posted at 11:15 am May 30, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Charles Edward Mason

CLINTON—The Anderson County man charged with attempted murder after allegedly pointing a gun at a deputy and pulling the trigger twice in April has previously pleaded guilty to homicides in Kentucky and Tennessee.

The first homicide conviction was in Knox County, Kentucky, in 1994. The second was in Anderson County, Tennessee, in 2010. The defendant, Charles Edward Mason, now 51, received a nine-year sentence in the first case and a seven-year sentence in the second. He had been accused of shooting a man with a pistol in the first case, the one in Kentucky, according to Knox County court records. He reportedly stabbed a man in the Anderson County case 15 years later.

When he was charged with attempted murder in Anderson County this year, Mason was on probation in a different case involving drug and driver’s license violations. He had pleaded guilty in January to possessing more than 0.5 grams of methamphetamine for resale and driving on a revoked or suspended license. He had received a 10-year sentence, and he had agreed to be declared a habitual motor vehicle offender as well, according to Anderson County court records.

Now, he is facing 24 new charges in Anderson County, including two counts of attempted first-degree murder, eight counts of aggravated assault, three counts of aggravated kidnapping, and three drug charges, among other counts.

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Warrants: Man charged with attempted murder after pointing gun at deputy, pulling trigger

Posted at 11:42 pm May 21, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

An Anderson County man is facing 24 charges, including attempted murder, after he allegedly showed a gun, threatened several people, refused to let two of them call for help, and pointed the weapon at responding deputies and pulled the trigger twice, officers said.

The gun did not fire after Charles Edward Mason, 51, pointed it at a deputy because Mason’s T-shirt got caught in the gun, according to arrest warrants filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Clinton by Anderson County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Jake Stone.

The charges filed against Mason include:

[Read more…]

For members: Man sentenced to 10 years in shooting death of girlfriend’s mother

Posted at 11:14 am May 18, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

William James McMillan

An Andersonville man was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Monday when he pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of his girlfriend’s mother four years ago.

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ACSO helps Florida agency with child sex abuse arrest

Posted at 2:02 pm May 15, 2019
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On April 4, the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office arrested David Andrew Cox, 55, on a warrant from Gilchrist County, Florida, alleging Cox engaged in sexual activity with a child under the age of 12 by a family member or custodial authority. The bond on the arrest was $1 million with nationwide extradition.

In late November, detectives with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office were contacted by Gilchrist County Sheriff’s Office about a possible child sex abuse act that occurred in their county, the ACSO said in a press release Thursday. The victim, a minor child, became pregnant after the alleged abuse. They advised that the alleged perpetrator, Cox, was living in the Oliver Springs community in Anderson County. The alleged act took place while Cox was visiting his family in Florida.

[Read more…]

For members: Drug case involved thousands of pills, overseas apprehension, possible deportation

Posted at 4:34 pm May 4, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

CLINTON—A drug case that started with an online search for Xanax ended with a police search that found more than 10,000 pills in an Anderson County home, an overseas apprehension, three plea deals, and a possible deportation.

The third and final plea deal was entered during a hearing in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton late Friday morning. The defendant, who had been brought to the United States after being detained at an airport in Dubai in July, wants to be deported, his attorney said.

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Driver identified in fatal crash at Bull Run Creek

Posted at 3:11 pm April 19, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Note: This story was updated at 3:40 p.m.

The driver has been identified in a fatal single-vehicle crash into Bull Run Creek in Claxton on Thursday night.

The driver, Douglas A. Batson, 66, of Knoxville, was traveling west in a 2007 Toyota Highlander sport utility vehicle on New Henderson Road at about 9:20 p.m. Thursday when he turned on his signal to make a right turn, according to rescuers and a fatality report from the Tennessee Highway Patrol. Batson drove off the right side of the road, the report said.

“The vehicle then struck some wooden pylons and then went into the river and then sank to the bottom,” the report said.

[Read more…]

One dead in crash into Bull Run Creek

Posted at 10:48 pm April 18, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Note: This story was last updated at 12:45 a.m.

CLAXTON–One person is confirmed dead after a vehicle crashed into Bull Run Creek in Claxton on Thursday night.

The crash was reported to the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department on a straight stretch of New Henderson Road near Bull Run Park at about 9:19 p.m. Thursday.

The body of the man who died in the crash was removed from the water, but the vehicle remained submerged for several more hours until a dive team located it and a tow truck pulled it out at about midnight. The man is believed to have been alone in the vehicle, which appeared to be a silver sport utility vehicle.

[Read more…]

For members: Driver in fatal crash receives 12-year sentence

Posted at 8:32 pm April 18, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

The driver in a fatal two-vehicle crash on Clinton Highway in April 2016 has pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide by intoxication and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon, and he received a 12-year sentence.

The defendant served more than the statutory minimum of 45 days before his plea agreement—he served about one year and one month in the Anderson County jail—and the rest of his 12-year sentence was suspended, to be served on intensive probation, among other conditions, according to Anderson County court records.

The crash three years ago killed a 23-year-old Heiskell woman.

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Man, woman receive sentences of 3-5 years in robbery pleas

Posted at 2:27 am April 10, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Lindsay Elaine Pressley

A Powell woman received a five-year sentence and a Knoxville man received a three-year sentence when they pleaded guilty to a robbery in Claxton that authorities said started with an advertisement for escort services posted on backpage.com.

Lindsay Elaine Pressley, 29, entered her plea agreement in Anderson County Criminal and Circuit Court in Clinton on October 29.

Her co-defendant, Richard Paul Pressley, 32, entered his plea agreement last week, on Tuesday, April 2.

As part of their plea deals, an aggravated robbery charge filed against both Pressleys was reduced to robbery. Their charges of especially aggravated kidnapping with a deadly weapon were reduced to kidnapping. And charges of conspiracy to commit especially aggravated kidnapping were reduced to conspiracy to commit aggravated kidnapping. Charges of conspiracy to commit aggravated robbery remained unchanged. All four charges are felony charges.

In each case, the sentences for the individual charges run concurrently, or at the same time.

[Read more…]

CSX held train traffic out of area during Elza Gate fire

Posted at 10:26 pm March 25, 2019
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

Firefighters used back burns, controlled fires that eliminate fuel, to help contain a large fire that burned grass and brush near the railroad tracks at Elza Drive in east Oak Ridge on Friday afternoon, March 22, 2019. This view is looking north toward Elza Drive. The line at right crosses over Elza Drive. The line at left is now partially dismantled, and it ran through east Oak Ridge, past Jefferson Middle School, and to Y-12 National Security Complex. (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge/Oak Ridge Fire Department)

CSX said it held train traffic out of the area during a brush and grass fire near the railroad tracks in east Oak Ridge on Friday afternoon, March 22, 2019. This view is looking north toward Elza Drive. The line at right crosses over Elza Drive. The line at left is now partially dismantled, and it ran through east Oak Ridge, past Jefferson Middle School, and to Y-12 National Security Complex. (Photo courtesy City of Oak Ridge/Oak Ridge Fire Department)

CSX said it held train traffic out of the area during a brush and grass fire near the railroad tracks in east Oak Ridge on Friday afternoon.

The large fire was reported at about 3:30 p.m. Friday along the railroad tracks south of Elza Drive, just east of Elza Gate Park. The fire burned grass on the side of a steep embankment supporting the railroad tracks that cross over Elza Drive. It also appeared to spread to nearby brush and grass near an unused rail line that splits off near the Clinch River to enter east Oak Ridge at Melton Lake Drive. The fire sent up a large plume of black and gray smoke that was visible for miles.

“Flames were moving quickly, fueled by strong winds and excess brush in the area,” the Oak Ridge Fire Department said.

CSX and the City of Oak Ridge said the cause of Friday’s fire remains under investigation. The Oak Ridge Fire Department said it believes the fire was unintentional. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge has Water Safety Day on Saturday

CTF: Meth, narcotics found during Friday morning searches

For members: Man charged with attempted murder of deputy has two homicide convictions

Warrants: Man charged with attempted murder after pointing gun at deputy, pulling trigger

For members: Man sentenced to 10 years in shooting death of girlfriend’s mother

ACSO helps Florida agency with child sex abuse arrest

For members: Drug case involved thousands of pills, overseas apprehension, possible deportation

Driver identified in fatal crash at Bull Run Creek

One dead in crash into Bull Run Creek

For members: Driver in fatal crash receives 12-year sentence

Man, woman receive sentences of 3-5 years in robbery pleas

CSX held train traffic out of area during Elza Gate fire

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