A new two-hour “Dateline” on Friday will focus on the bank heists by Michael Benanti and Brian Witham, two men who pleaded guilty to or were convicted of their roles in a violent bank extortion and robbery spree in four states and several cities, including Oak Ridge and Knoxville, NBC News said this week.
Oak Ridge Today covered the case, and the Knoxville News Sentinel had extensive coverage.
Here is the official listing and preview link:
[Read more…]A group of Anderson County residents was part of an alleged methamphetamine distribution ring that involved 44 people and a conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine in East Tennessee and elsewhere, federal officials said Monday.
A 30-count indictment was returned against the 44 people by a federal grand jury in Greeneville in East Tennessee on January 9. Among those indicted were nine residents of Clinton, Oliver Springs, Powell, and Rocky Top, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Eastern District of Tennessee on Monday. There were also four Knoxville residents indicted and a dozen in Bristol and Kingsport in upper East Tennessee, among other defendants in Tennessee, Georgia, and Virginia.
Anderson County Sheriff’s Department, Clinton Police Department, Oak Ridge Police Department, Oliver Springs Police Department, and Seventh Judicial District Crime Task Force in Anderson County were among the agencies that helped with the investigation, the press release said.
Here are the people that were indicted in the alleged methamphetamine distribution conspiracy: [Read more…]
The Oak Ridge Police Department responded to a kidnapping and attempted robbery at the Y-12 Federal Credit Union on Lafayette Drive in Oak Ridge on Tuesday morning, April 28, 2015. (File photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Michael Benanti
A Pennsylvania man was sentenced Tuesday to four consecutive life sentences in federal prison, plus an additional 155 years, for his convictions involving a violent bank extortion and robbery spree in four states and several cities, including Oak Ridge and Knoxville, authorities said.
Michael Anthony Benanti, 45, of Lake Harmony, Pennsylvania, was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Thomas A. Varlan in Knoxville on Tuesday.
Benanti had been convicted by a jury after a trial in U.S. District Court in February 2017. The jury found him guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit robbery and armed bank extortion, two counts of attempted armed bank extortion, one count of armed bank extortion, three counts of carjacking, three counts of kidnapping, three counts of being a previously convicted felon in possession of a firearm, and 10 counts of using, carrying, and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
“Often, severe federal penalties, such as mandatory minimum sentences, are the most effective tool to protect the American public from a violent criminal like Benanti,” U.S. Attorney Nancy Harr said in a press release. “The consecutive sentences received by Benanti for firearms violations ensure he will never again be able to victimize families in East Tennessee or elsewhere. The U.S. Attorney’s office is, and remains committed to, prosecuting these crimes and seeking the highest penalties possible to help keep the American people safe.” [Read more…]
The FBI is investigating a bank robbery at the U.S. Bank at 8845 Kingston Pike in Knoxville at about 5 p.m. April 4, 2017. (Photo: FBI)
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating a bank robbery reported at a U.S. Bank on Kingston Pike in Knoxville on Tuesday afternoon.
The robbery was reported at the U.S. Bank at 8845 Kingston Pike at about 5 p.m. Tuesday.
The FBI reported that a white man entered the bank and demanded money with a note.
“After obtaining an undisclosed amount of money from the bank, the robber fled in a white, four-door sedan,” the FBI said.
The robber is described as a white male with gray hair down to his collar, and he is estimated to be about 6’0†and weigh about 250 pounds. He could be between 45-55 years old, and he was wearing a gray hooded sweat shirt, dark-colored sweat pants, white sneakers, glasses, and a dark-colored knit cap, the FBI said. [Read more…]
Michael Benanti
The federal trial is under way for a Pennsylvania man accused of kidnapping family members and robbing or attempting to rob banks and credit unions, including in Oak Ridge and Knoxville.
The trial for Michael Anthony Benanti, 44, of Lake Harmony, Pennsylvania, started with jury selection on Monday in U.S. District Court in Knoxville. It has continued this week.
Benanti and a co-defendant, Brian Scott Witham, 45, of Waterville, Maine, had been named in a 15-count indictment issued by a federal grand jury in December 2015. They were accused of kidnapping family members and robbing or attempting to rob three banks and credit unions in Oak Ridge, Knoxville, and Elizabethton. The Y-12 Federal Credit Union in Oak Ridge was one of the three financial institutions that was targeted.
Witham pleaded guilty March 1, 2016. He received a 42-year sentence and will be the star witness against Benanti, his co-defendant, according to Jamie Satterfield, a Knoxville News Sentinel reporter.
The trial for Benanti could last up to three weeks. Oak Ridge Today has not been able to cover the trial, but Satterfield has been covering it. You can see four of her News Sentinel stories here: [Read more…]
The air quality forecast for Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016. Yellow areas are moderate, orange areas are unhealthy for sensitive groups, and red is unhealthy. (Image courtesy AirNow.gov)
The air quality forecast for the Knoxville area on Tuesday is again unhealthy for sensitive groups.
The air quality in the Knoxville area at about 8 a.m. Tuesday was unhealthy due to particle pollution, according to AirNow.gov. That means people with heart or lung disease, older adults, and children should avoid prolonged or heavy exertion. Everyone else should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion.
Unhealthy for sensitive groups means the general public is not likely to be affected, but people with lung disease, older adults, and children are at a greater risk from exposure to ozone, while people with heart and lung disease, older adults, and children are at greater risk from the presence of particles in the air.
The poor air quality in the the Knoxville and Chattanooga metropolitan areas, as well as in the Great Smoky Mountains, is due to smoke from wildfires.
“Everyone should limit prolonged outdoor exertion,” the National Weather Service in Morristown said Tuesday. [Read more…]
Jacob Daniel Baxter
An Anderson County man allegedly fled a crash where his juvenile son, who was partially ejected and injured, was trapped between a van and a barn, and the man later fled from a hospital nude, authorities said.
The crash was reported at about 11:29 p.m. Saturday, September 3, on Old Lake City Highway.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol said Jacob Daniel Baxter, 33, of Black Oak Road in Anderson County, was driving west in a white 1999 Dodge Caravan on Old Lake City Highway when he lost control while going round a curve. The van went off the right side of the road and stopped at a metal barn on the side of the road, according to the THP.
A 15-year-old boy, who is identified as Baxter’s son, was trapped between the van and the barn, according to arrest warrants filed by the THP in Anderson County General Sessions Court, Division I, in Clinton.
While Anderson County Rescue Squad personnel were helping to remove the trapped boy, Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Isaiah Lloyd began searching for the driver. [Read more…]
Rescuers recovered the body of a missing Anderson County boater in Norris Lake on Monday, Sept. 5, 2016. (Photo by TWRA)
Information from WYSH Radio/Oak Ridge Today
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has identified the man who drowned on Norris Lake on Monday as Roy McClenney Jr., 71, of Norris.
McClenney’s body was recovered from 46 feet of water at around 6:40 p.m. Monday.
The TWRA said they were called shortly after noon when the man jumped off of a pontoon boat anchored in a cove near Sugar Camp Lane in Maynardville in Union County and never resurfaced.
Rescue crews from Union County and Knoxville joined TWRA in the search for the man, who was located with help from a remote operated vehicle, or ROV. TWRA officers located the man’s body, and divers from the Knoxville Rescue Squad made the recovery. [Read more…]
The body of an Oak Ridge man was found Saturday afternoon in Ft. Loudoun Lake, authorities said.
The man has been identified as Tomas Skyler Ledford, 25, and he has an Oak Ridge address, the Knoxville Police Department said.
The KPD said it responded to a report of a body being discovered in Ft. Loudoun Lake below the River Towne Condos in Knoxville at about 2:27 p.m. Saturday.
According to the preliminary investigation, a couple of male friends had gone to the bluffs overlooking the river, where they consumed alcohol late Friday night, the KPD said. The pair became separated at about 3 a.m. Saturday morning, authorities said. [Read more…]
Zubin Percy Parakh
Note: This story was updated at 5:03 p.m.
An Oak Ridge man was arrested and booked into Knox County jail on a trafficking charge on Saturday, one day after Tennessee and Knoxville officials announced that 32 men and women had been arrested in an operation to combat human trafficking.
Bond for Zubin Percy Parakh, 32, of Golfcrest Lane in Oak Ridge, has been set at $100,000 on the trafficking charge. A preliminary hearing has been set for May 31, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Knox County Sheriff’s Office website.
The arrests and citations on prostitution and human trafficking-related charges were made as part of Operation Someone Like Me last week in Knoxville.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said two of the men, including a children’s minister, Jason Kennedy, 46, of Knoxville, responded to ads for what they thought were girls under the age of 18. Kennedy was a children’s minister at Grace Baptist Church on Oak Ridge Highway in Karns, but he has since been fired. [Read more…]
Jason Kennedy
Note: This story was last updated at 2:30 p.m. May 23.
A three-day operation by special agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and detectives with the Knoxville Police Department to combat human trafficking in Knoxville has resulted in the arrest of 32 men and women on prostitution and human trafficking-related charges. Two of the men, including a children’s minister, responded to ads for what they thought were girls under the age of 18.
TBI identified Knoxville’s Jason Kennedy, 46, as the children’s minister arrested for patronizing prostitution and human trafficking. Kennedy was a minister at Grace Baptist Church in Karns, but he has now been terminated.
The TBI said there is a warrant out on a trafficking charge for Zubin Parakh, 32, of Oak Ridge. A spokesperson at Lifehouse Church in Oak Ridge said Parakh serves as a volunteer and “creative pastor” there, according to WBIR, a Knoxville television station. The church told the television station that Parakh has never worked with children.
Grace Baptist released a statement to the media after the Friday news of Kennedy’s arrest.
“The children’s pastor of Grace Baptist Church has been terminated as as result of an arrest in a police sting related to prostitution and human trafficking,” the church said. “The actions of the children’s pastor for which he has been arrested were part of his life outside the church, and we have received no questions or concerns related to his conduct within the church or its ministries.
“The children’s pastor was hired two-and-a-half years ago. The church’s background check turned up no issues that indicate any previous problem. In fact, the children’s pastor in his application affirmed that he had no issues in his background of a criminal or other nature.
“We are praying for his family and will continue to provide the services of our ministry to them.”
Oak Ridge Today has not been able to reach LifeHouse Church for comment.
The TBI said the arrested men also include an engineer and a volunteer firefighter.
Kennedy has been charged and booked. Most of the others were charged on a citation, the TBI said. [Read more…]
Jordan Antwan Jones
Note: This story was last updated at 10:25 p.m. May 9.
Eleven Oak Ridge and Knoxville residents were indicted May 3 on charges that they conspired to manufacture, distribute, and sell 300 grams or more of cocaine-based products last year.
The alleged cocaine conspiracy occurred between May 14 and December 23, 2015. The indictments were filed May 3, 2016.
The 11 indicted are:
They are each facing Class A felony charges of:
They have also been indicted on Class A felony charges of: [Read more…]
