Oak Ridge Today

DA: Crime down 1 percent in Anderson County in 2015

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Dave Clark

Dave Clark

Crime was down 1 percent in Anderson County in 2015, Anderson County District Attorney General Dave Clark said Wednesday.

In a press release, Clark said crime in Anderson County and its cities has continued to drop during the last nine years. He cited Tennessee Bureau of Investigation statistics.

Clark called it good news issued on behalf of the law enforcement leaders of Anderson County.

“Crime is down in Anderson County by 43 percent over the last nine years,” Clark said. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge man indicted on aggravated robbery, aggravated assault charges

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Duran Maszae Lee

Duran Maszae Lee

An Oak Ridge man has been indicted on charges of aggravated robbery and aggravated assault for an alleged home-invasion robbery on Dewey Road three years ago.

Duran Maszae Lee, 32, has been charged with aggravated robbery, two counts of aggravated assault, tampering with evidence, and possession of more than 14.175 grams of marijuana. The indictments were returned by the Anderson County Grand Jury on October 4.

Lee has an arraignment scheduled for Monday in Anderson County Circuit and Criminal Court in Clinton.

He remains jailed in the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton, according to jail records.

Arrest warrants filed after the alleged robbery on Dewey Road on November 22, 2013, said an Oak Ridge man was allegedly hit in the head and face with a pistol and a woman who was nine months pregnant at the time blacked out from fear when a suspect pointed a silver revolver at her during the Friday night home invasion.

The suspects allegedly stole a Sentry safe containing $3,000 from a closet and fled in a vehicle before officers arrived, according to affidavits attached to the arrest warrants and filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

Sheriff’s Department offers Halloween safety tips

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Halloween will be Monday, October 31, and neighborhoods will once again be scattered with trick or treaters. For a fun and safe Halloween, the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department is offering the following safety tips: [Read more…]

Domestic Violence Symposium on Friday in Clinton

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Anderson County General Sessions Court Judge Don Layton is pictured above on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

There is a Domestic Violence Symposium scheduled for Friday in Clinton.

The symposium has been announced by Anderson County General Sessions Court Judge, Division I, Don A. Layton, in partnership with Probation Services Incorporated, or PSI.

The symposium is scheduled from 9 a.m. to noon Friday, October 28, in the PSI conference room at 135 South Main Street in Clinton, a press release said.

The symposium will feature presentations from Anderson County District Attorney General David Clark and others, including Russell Barker, Rex Lynch, Mary Ann Young, and Chad McNabb, the press release said. [Read more…]

Fire destroys vacant home in Rocky Top

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Information from WYSH Radio

A fire Monday afternoon destroyed a vacant house on Old Bryant Lane in Rocky Top.

Anderson County Sheriff’s Department deputies were called to the scene shortly before 3 p.m. and reported that the house was still on fire and almost completely destroyed upon their arrival. [Read more…]

Sheriff’s Department investigating stabbing

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Information from WYSH Radio

Anderson County Sheriff’s Department deputies are investigating a stabbing that occurred Monday afternoon.

Deputies responded to the emergency room at Methodist Medical Center and made contact with Randy and Courtney Roach. Randy Roach was unable to provide too much information as doctors tended to his wounds before he was airlifted to the University of Tennessee Medical Center, but he did tell officers that he and Courtney had been walking along Old Lake City Highway on Monday afternoon when a small silver Honda or Toyota car stopped and two men jumped out and stabbed them. Both Randy and Courtney Roach said that they did not know either of the men and that the suspects did not steal anything from them during the incident. [Read more…]

Claxton brush fires investigated as arson

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Anderson County Sheriff's Department Badge

Information from WYSH Radio

The Anderson County Sheriff’s Department is investigating several small brush fires in the Claxton area.

Just before noon on Monday, deputies were notified of three small brush fires burning in the 600 block of Edgemoor Road. When Deputy Roger Sexton arrived, the Claxton Volunteer Fire Department was already on scene dousing the fires, which were located within 50 yards of one another about 20 feet from the roadway.

While Sexton was still on the scene of the Edgemoor fires, a call came in about another brush fire on Old Emory Road near Crawford Lane, and he went to investigate. When he arrived, he found a homeowner putting out the fire with a garden hose. That fire, too, was about 20 feet from the roadway. [Read more…]

Two killed, four injured in four-vehicle crash on Clinton Highway

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A Georgia man and a Powell man who were in a vehicle that fled a traffic stop in Knox County were killed in a four-vehicle crash on Clinton Highway in Anderson County late Friday morning, authorities said. A short section of Clinton Highway was closed for about five hours between Mehaffey Road and Old Clinton Pike as the Tennessee Highway Patrol investigated the fatal crash, which also injured four people. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

A Georgia man and a Powell man who were in a vehicle that fled a traffic stop in Knox County were killed in a four-vehicle crash on Clinton Highway in Anderson County late Friday morning, authorities said.

Four other people were injured in the crash, according to the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

The men who died were driver Roy Simmons, 29, of Helena, Georgia, and passenger Charles Miller, 25, of Powell, Tennessee, the THP said in a fatal crash report. The two men were in a 2001 Ford TSS driven by Simmons.

The crash was reported at about 11:32 a.m. Friday on Clinton Highway near the intersection with Old Clinton Pike in Anderson County, near the Anderson-Knox county line, the THP said.

The fatal crash report said a Knox County Sheriff’s Office deputy was trying to stop the car driven by Simmons in the northbound lanes of Clinton Highway near West Beaver Creek in Knox County, but the car fled. While fleeing, the car lost control and crossed the center line while going left around a curve, the crash report said. [Read more…]

THP investigates fatal crash on Clinton Highway near Anderson-Knox county line

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A short section of Clinton Highway was closed at Mehaffey Road going into Knox County on Friday, Sept. 30, 2016 as the Tennessee Highway Patrol investigated a fatal crash. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was last updated at 5:40 p.m.

Clinton Highway was shut down in both directions near the Anderson-Knox county line on Friday afternoon as the Tennessee Highway Patrol investigated a fatal crash, authorities said.

The road will be closed “until further notice,” the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department said early Friday afternoon. “Please avoid this area.”

It’s a multi-vehicle crash, said Mark Nagi of the Tennessee Department of Transportation. [Read more…]

Anderson County Sheriff’s Department joins U.S. Marshals’ Smoky Mountains Fugitive Task Force

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Six deputies from the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department have been sworn as special deputy U.S. marshals and form an Aggressive Criminal Enforcement (ACE) Unit. The ACE Unit is made up of Sergeant Wally Braden, Corporal Rick Coley, and deputies Charles Relford, Jason Leach, Shawn Williams, and Matt Forsyth. They will work part-time as needed with the Smoky Mountains Fugitive Task Force and the U.S. Marshals Service. Also pictured above at left is Chief Deputy Mark Lucas. (Photo courtesy Anderson County Sheriff’s Department)

 

Six officers from the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department have been sworn in as task force officers with the United States Marshals Service’s Smoky Mountains Fugitive Task Force, or SMFTF.

The Anderson County Sheriff’s Department is the latest local law enforcement agency to become part of the specialized fugitive apprehension team, which is made up of the East Tennessee agencies listed at the end of this press release.

Task force officers are state and local police officers who receive special deputations with the Marshals Service, the press release said. While assigned to the SMFTF, these officers can exercise U.S. Marshals’ authorities, such as crossing jurisdictional lines.

Jimmy Fowler, U.S. marshal for the Eastern District of Tennessee, administered the oath of office to the deputies at the Marshals Service office in Knoxville.

“We are very excited about our new partnership with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department,” Fowler said in the press release. “Our communities are safer when local, state, and federal officers get to work together, and that is what the Smoky Mountains Fugitive Task Force is all about. The Task Force is made up of great officers from throughout East Tennessee. From Chattanooga to Bristol, these officers work together to ensure the safety of everyone by apprehending dangerous fugitives and reducing violent crime.” [Read more…]

Two Anderson County students charged with social media threats

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Two Anderson County High School students, a 14-year-old girl and a 15-year-old girl, are being charged in Anderson County Juvenile Court with making threats on social media after an investigation by the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department, authorities said.

Sheriff’s Department investigators and school resource officers began to follow up on reports of threats posted on a social media site that ultimately led to the identification of these students as those responsible, the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department said. Both girls have been expelled from school pending a hearing by school administrators.

These threats were similar to those being made across the country, including yesterday in Claiborne County, concerning “clowns” coming to do harm in schools. [Read more…]

Sheriff’s Department warns of text message scam

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scam-alert

The Anderson County Sheriff’s Department warned on Monday that cell phone users across the area are receiving text messages claiming to be alerts from Knoxville TVA Employees Credit Union.

“These messages are not from the credit union, and the credit union says they will not contact consumers in this manner and ask for personal information,” the Sheriff’s Department said.

If you have called the number in the message and given them any information, you are urged to call the credit union at (800) 554-8969 to close your debit card and order a new one.

More information will be added as it becomes available.