Oak Ridge Today

Sheriff’s Department announces enforcement partnerships to reduce traffic fatalities

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The Anderson County Sheriff’s Department and local law enforcement agencies have announced a partnership designed to reduce traffic fatalities in East Tennessee.

In a Friday press conference at the Knoxville office of the Tennessee Highway Patrol, Steve Dillard, East Tennessee Law Enforcement Liaison Officer for the Governor’s Highway Safety Office, reported an increase in fatalities last year in four East Tennessee counties: Anderson, Blount, Campbell, and Sevier. During the last five years, Anderson County alone has averaged 11 fatal crashes per year, with 13 fatal crashes in 2012, a press release said.

In response, Dillard and GHSO Director Kendall Poole outlined traffic safety activities for the next six months in the four counties. Authorities will focus on impaired and distracted drivers, and those violating speed limit and seatbelt laws. [Read more…]

Firefighters extinguish Palmer Road chimney fire

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Palmer Road Chimney Fire

The Oak Ridge Fire Department responds to a chimney fire on Palmer Road on Sunday afternoon. (Photos by Tom Scott)

Firefighters used pressurized water cans and ladders to extinguish a chimney fire on Palmer Road on Sunday afternoon.

Firefighters also used a pole to remove creosote in the chimney during the 2:30 p.m. fire, an Oak Ridge Fire Department report said.

Firefighters put out a fire in the fireplace and carried the contents outside, where they extinguished them, the report said. [Read more…]

Forty-two face federal charges for allegedly conspiring to make 50+ grams of meth

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Federal Meth Prosecution

Flanked by local, state, and federal law enforcement officers, U.S. Attorney William C. Killian, center, announces that 42 people, including many Anderson County residents, have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges related to manufacturing and distributing methamphetamine.

CLINTON—In an unprecedented case, 42 people, including many Anderson County residents, have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges they conspired to make 50 grams or more of methamphetamine.

U.S. Attorney William C. Killian announced the charges during a Tuesday afternoon press conference at the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton.

Other charges listed in a 17-count indictment filed March 19 in U.S. District Court in Knoxville include possessing the equipment, chemicals, products, and materials used to make meth; maintaining homes used to manufacture the illegal stimulant, including one residence within 1,000 feet of Claxton Elementary School; and federal firearms violations. [Read more…]

Three men allegedly invade home; steal shotgun, watches

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Note: This story was updated at 4:13 p.m.

Three men pushed their way into the home of a 78-year-old man on Ulysses Lane on Wednesday night and allegedly stole a 12-gauge shotgun, a wallet, and three watches, authorities said.

The Oak Ridge Police Department said the home invasion happened at about 9:40 p.m. Wednesday. The victim answered a knock at the door, and three men wearing dark clothes, blue jeans, and masks allegedly pushed their way into the home, demanding jewelry, pills, and guns, according to a report by ORPD Officer Michael E. Swigert. [Read more…]

Driver ejected, dies in single-vehicle rollover near Horizon

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Horizon Center Fatal Crash

A driver died Tuesday night after being ejected from this vehicle, which left Oak Ridge Turnpike and rolled several times at about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday near Horizon Center. (Photo by Tom Scott)

A Cleveland, Tenn., man died after he was ejected from an eastbound minivan that left Oak Ridge Turnpike and rolled several times at about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday near Horizon Center, authorities said.

Benjamin Park Birdwell, 33, was driving the 2004 Toyota Sienna near Imperium Drive, the Oak Ridge Police Department said. [Read more…]

Car crashes into utility pole, knocks out power to few stores

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Lafayette Drive Utility Pole Crash

A car driven by an Oak Ridge man crashed into a utility pole near Lafayette Drive on Saturday, knocking out power to about 10 customers, including Walmart and Chick-fil-A. (Photos by Tom Scott)

A car crashed into a utility pole along Lafayette Drive on Saturday afternoon, knocking out power to a few large customers, including Walmart and Chick-fil-A.

Jeffrey Wells Wallace, 60, of Oak Ridge, was eastbound in a 2010 Toyota Prius four-door sedan on Lafayette Drive near Midway Lane when his vehicle went off the roadway and struck a utility pole about six feet off the road at about 2:45 p.m. Saturday, authorities said.

Wallace was conscious was police arrived, but he said he didn’t remember the collision, Oak Ridge Police Department Officer Brandan L. Sharp said in a crash report. [Read more…]

After large disturbance, ORPD warns restaurant to avoid over-serving alcohol

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One month after a large reported disturbance, the city’s deputy police chief told the owners of a popular restaurant and bar in central Oak Ridge that they need to monitor customers who are drinking and not serve people who have consumed too much alcohol.

The warning to the owners of Lincoln’s Sports Grille came during a Monday meeting of the Oak Ridge Beer Permit Board.

That board had called a show cause hearing for Lincoln’s, which is on South Illinois Avenue, after a Feb. 10 fight that reportedly started as an argument between two men over a woman and escalated into a large disturbance that required an entire shift of police officers to respond.

[Read more…]

Police: KKK-related fliers found in west Oak Ridge

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Fliers with a letterhead from the United Klans of America were left in driveways in a small west Oak Ridge neighborhood this week in zip-locked baggies anchored with rocks, authorities said.

“You can sleep well tonight knowing the UKA is awake,” said the fliers, which announced a neighborhood watch and provided a phone number and website address. The website consists of white supremacist propaganda related to the Ku Klux Klan, Oak Ridge Police Department Officer Garrett L. Robbins wrote in a report Wednesday morning.

[Read more…]

Firefighters put out two-acre grass, brush blaze on Pine Ridge

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Summit Place Grass Fire

Oak Ridge firefighters respond to a grass and brush fire that grew to more than two acres on a vacant lot on top of Pine Ridge on Thursday afternoon. (Photos by Tom Scott)

A brush and grass fire on Pine Ridge in south Oak Ridge grew to more than two acres on Thursday afternoon, authorities said.

The Oak Ridge Fire Department was able to use tank water and a fire hydrant to battle the blaze, which was reported in a vacant lot off Summit Drive at about 3:45 p.m. Thursday, a report said.

[Read more…]

Oliver Springs man accused of striking child at Walmart

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An Oliver Springs man charged with aggravated child abuse is accused of hitting a 14-month-old boy at Walmart in Oak Ridge on Tuesday, arrest warrants said.

A witness said she saw David Lambert, 61, hit the child several times in the face with his fingers in what “she called a downward reverse motion,” the warrants said.

[Read more…]

Man taken to hospital with facial cuts after head-on collision

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Edgemoor Road Crash

A Harriman man driving this Kia Optima was taken to a hospital after a head-on, two-vehicle collision on Saturday morning on Edgemoor Road near Solway Park. (Photos by Tom Scott)

A Harriman man was taken to the hospital with cuts on his face and forehead after a head-on collision between two vehicles on Edgemoor Road Saturday morning.

Sergio Apolonio Cruz, 25, was taken by ambulance to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, an Oak Ridge Police Department crash report said.

The other driver, Mark Allen Mays, 33, of Knoxville, was not injured, the report said.

[Read more…]

Robbery suspect allegedly threatened to kill Kmart cashier

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Devlin Seth Walker

Devlin Seth Walker

Arrested Friday, the suspect in two recent robberies at the Kmart  pharmacy in Oak Ridge allegedly used misspelled hand-written notes to demand drugs and money and threaten to kill cashiers, authorities said.

In the first robbery, which occurred on Feb. 26, suspect Devlin Seth Walker, 34, of Lancing in Morgan County, allegedly handed a cashier a note that said, “Give me all your money and a bottle of Percoset or I will kill you,” according to arrest warrants filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court.

The cashier handed Walker the money from the register and the note, the warrants said. Walker then allegedly walked around the pharmacy counter and threatened the pharmacist. The pharmacist was allegedly forced to open a locked cabinet where the narcotics are stored, and Walker took four bottles of 10mg oxycodone from the cabinet and fled the store, said the warrants, filed by Oak Ridge Police Department Officer John Criswell.

[Read more…]