Oak Ridge Today

Feds divvy up drug money

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Information from WYSH Radio

Ten Tennessee state and local law enforcement agencies are among 19 dividing up $4 million seized during an investigation into a Mexican drug trafficking ring.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, information gained through wiretaps helped them identify and stop a semi driven by Armando Guzman Villegas and Javier Cruz-Ramirez as it headed along I-40 through East Tennessee. Searching the tractor-trailer, they found several pallets of shrink-wrapped bottled water. One of the shrink wrapped pallets, though, held more than $4 million in cash in about 200 duct-taped bundles. [Read more…]

Tips lead to arrest of Clinton man after alleged bank robbery

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Information from WYSH Radio

Following up on a story from earlier this week, tips from citizens led to the arrest of a 38-year-old Clinton man on charges that he robbed the Enrichment Federal Credit Union branch on Schubert Road in Knoxville on Tuesday afternoon.

A television viewer recognized Charles Edward Harmon from broadcast footage from the bank security camera and called in a tip, which led to Harmon’s arrest on Wednesday. Harmon spent five months behind bars after he robbed a Y-12 Federal Credit Union in Clinton in 2006.

With holiday approaching, Anderson DA reminds residents not to drink and drive

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Dave Clark

Dave Clark

The Labor Day holiday is this weekend, and Anderson County District Attorney General Dave Clark is reminding people to not drive under the influence.

Citing statistics that indicate that nearly one out of every three traffic deaths in America occur in impaired-driving crashes, Clark in a press release said all of the county’s municipal police departments and Anderson County Sheriff’s Office are taking part in a high-visibility enforcement campaign aimed at reducing impaired driving fatalities and serious injury crashes. If you are driving under the influence, the minimum penalty in Tennessee includes 48 hours behind bars, a one-year suspension of your driver’s license and a $350 fine—plus the other severe financial consequences such as rising insurance rates, attorney fees and court costs, lost time at work, as well as potential job loss and the personal and professional embarrassment, Clark said. [Read more…]

Neighbors respond to alleged knife attack with gun, videotape, but no suspect found

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Kayla Pesterfield

Kayla Pesterfield

An Oak Ridge woman who alleged she was attacked and cut with a knife by an unknown man in her home on Tuesday afternoon was charged with false reporting after police checked the Beverly Circle property and reviewed a neighbor’s videotape, which showed no man had entered or left the residence, authorities said.

Kayla Pesterfield, 21, reported the alleged assault at about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. She said the stranger was in her bedroom and attacked her by pushing her up against a wall. The man then cut her right thigh and the front of her shorts with a knife, Pesterfield told police, according to an arrest warrant.  [Read more…]

Two Knox robberies solved with arrests of Clinton men

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Information from WYSH Radio

Two Clinton men were arrested Wednesday on charges stemming from two, unrelated Knox County bank robberies.

The first robbery occurred Saturday morning at the ORNL Federal Credit Union branch on Kingston Pike in West Knoxville. Authorities say that 32-year-old Jason Ronald Brown walked into the branch Saturday morning, said he had a bomb, and demanded money. He fled with an undisclosed amount of cash but left the purported bomb behind. The Knoxville Police Department’s Bomb Squad determined that it was not a real bomb. [Read more…]

Former Powell Clinch utility chief pleads guilty to theft charges

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Information from WYSH Radio

Former Powell Clinch Utility District president and general manager Del Roberts pleaded guilty Wednesday in an Anderson County courtroom to stealing almost $94,000 from the utility.

Roberts pleaded guilty to charging $93,856 on a PCUD credit card and hiding the charges in a special account between January of 2007 and May of 2010. Roberts spent the money on things like vacations, college tuition, dental care, and other personal expenses. [Read more…]

Woman reports stranger in home, police find insufficient evidence to confirm

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Police had insufficient evidence to either prove or disprove a report that a woman returned home to find an unknown man in a South Beverly Circle house on Tuesday afternoon and might have been injured by him, a spokesman said Wednesday.

The Oak Ridge Police Department received a call at about 4:30 p.m. Tuesday that a woman had returned to the house in west Oak Ridge and was surprised by the man inside.
[Read more…]

Teen indicted in crash that killed classmate has Sept. 9 court hearing

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Evan Nathaniel Weaver

Evan Nathaniel Weaver

The Andersonville teen indicted on charges connected to a fatal accident in January that killed a passenger in the car he was driving will be arraigned on Sept. 9.

Evan Nathaniel Weaver, 18, was indicted by an Anderson County grand jury on Aug. 13 and arrested last week. He faces four felony charges: vehicular homicide by intoxication, vehicular homicide by recklessness, and two counts of reckless endangerment when a deadly weapon was involved. He also faces misdemeanor charges of reckless driving and possession of drug paraphernalia. [Read more…]

Andersonville Fire Department to hold open house, grand opening today

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Information from WYSH Radio

The Andersonville Volunteer Fire Department will officially open its third fire hall in mid-September, but the department is offering citizens a chance to get a look at the new station during an open house and grand opening celebration set for today (Tuesday) at 4 p.m.

The Belmont station, built by volunteers at a cost of $110,000, is located at the intersection of Park Road and Sequoyah Lane on the former site of the Belmont School, which burned down in the mid-1960s. The new fire station is 5,000 square feet in size. [Read more…]

Girl on bike hit by car, now in stable condition at UT, authorities say

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Note: This story was updated at 1:50 p.m.

A nine-year-old girl who was riding a bicycle when she was hit by a car on Highland Avenue on Sunday night is in stable condition at the University of Tennessee Medical Center, authorities said.

The girl was struck at about 5:38 p.m. near Hillside Drive, according to a Monday morning news release from the Oak Ridge Police Department. The car was a 2002 black Lexus driven by Roy Kirk, 67, of South Hollywood Circle in Oak Ridge. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge fire officers receive national accreditation

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Darryl Kerley

Darryl Kerley

Josh Waldo

Josh Waldo

The Center for Public Safety Excellence recognized four officers of the Oak Ridge Fire Department for their national accreditation at the Fire Rescue International Conference-CPSE annual Accreditation banquet in Chicago this month.

Fire Chief Darryl Kerley and Assistant Fire Chief Josh Waldo have been approved for the designation of chief fire officer. Kerley has held the designation of chief fire officer, or CFO, since 2004 and was notified that his designation has been renewed. He is required to renew his CFO designation every three years and submit a package outlining his career progress for the past three years to ensure he is continuing to work toward professional excellence through continued education, training, and community service. [Read more…]

Home invasion call labeled a ‘hoax,’ but Linden school administrators notified

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A Friday morning call of a home invasion on Butler Road in west Oak Ridge led officers to notify administrators at nearby Linden Elementary School, but the home invasion report was determined to be unfounded, authorities said.

“It was a hoax,” Oak Ridge Police Department Lt. Robin Smith said. “There was nothing to the call at all.” [Read more…]