Oak Ridge Today

Oak Ridge Police Department Junior Police Academy registration opens

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The Fourth Annual Junior Police Academy is being offered again by the Oak Ridge Police Department.

This year, the ORPD will offer one academy for the Junior Class, designed specifically for middle and high school students from June 22-26. Registration is also open to rising fifth-graders to middle school. The ORPD is also offering a Senior Class for former JPA graduates only. The Senior Class offers advanced training and activities. The Senior Class is scheduled from July 6-10.

JPA cadets will be given presentations by several Oak Ridge Police Department officers on topics that include K9 and SWAT operations, traffic stops, and much more, a press release said. Cadets will also visit the prestigious Law Enforcement Innovation Center, Anderson County Detention Facility, and Oak Ridge Police Department, and they will be given a presentation by the Allies for Substance Abuse Prevention, in reference to substance abuse through awareness, and education. [Read more…]

Police: Man found with suspected meth residue, $29K; charged with money laundering

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James Phillip Chase

James Phillip Chase

Police said they found large vacuum seal bags that contained suspected crystal methamphetamine residue and $29,000 in a pickup truck pulled over for speeding in Oliver Springs on Tuesday.

Also found in the vehicle were tracking numbers, numerous shipping envelopes and rubber bands, addresses, documents related to the sale of controlled substances, deposit slips, and packing tape, said Oak Ridge Police Department Officer John Wilson, an investigator with the Seventh Judicial Crime Task Force in Anderson County.

The defendant, James Phillip Chase, 53, of Dutch Valley Road, has been charged with money laundering, simple possession of a Schedule II drug (methamphetamine), and speeding. He remained jailed in the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton early Saturday morning. [Read more…]

ORPD arrests home intruder

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Thurman B. Bates

Thurman B. Bates

The Oak Ridge Police Department on Tuesday arrested a man who entered the home of his ex-girlfriend without permission and threatened to assault her, authorities said.

Officers responded to the home on Inn Lane at about 11:25 p.m. Tuesday. The man who allegedly entered without permission was later identified as Thurman Bates, 36, of Oak Ridge, a press release said.

Officers said the victim managed to escape the residence by crawling out a window and fleeing to a neighbor’s home to call the police. When they arrived, officers entered the victim’s residence in search of Bates, who had barricaded himself behind the door in the residence, the release said. Officers forced entry into the room and found Bates hiding in a closet.

The release said Bates was taken into custody with the assistance of a police canine after he briefly resisted arrest. Bates was arrested and transported to the Anderson County Detention Facility, where he was charged with aggravated burglary, domestic assault, and resisting arrest.

Man charged in attempted ATM theft with Bobcat on Christmas Day 2013

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Bobcat and ATM Safe from Y-12 Federal Credit Union

A Bobcat allegedly involved in a plot to steal a safe from an ATM in east Oak Ridge on Christmas Day 2013 is tipped over on its side in a small ditch next to the safe, which had not been opened. (File photo/December 25, 2013)

 

Stanley Wallace II

Stanley Junior Wallace

A Kingston man has been arrested and charged in the alleged conspiracy to steal an ATM safe loaded with $26,000 in cash using a Bobcat and pickup truck on Christmas Day 2013.

The plot to steal the 4,000-pound safe was unsuccessful. But the suspects were able to demolish the stand-alone Y-12 Federal Credit Union automated teller machine near Tractor Supply in east Oak Ridge and pull the safe several hundred feet across a field before the Bobcat tipped over in a small culvert next to Bogola Road. An attempt to remove the cash box with a stolen Ford F250 pickup truck also failed, so the suspects left the area, authorities said.

Stanley Junior Wallace, 25, of Lawnville Road in Kingston, has been charged in the case. He was arrested March 26 and faces charges of attempted theft of more than $10,000, vandalism of more than $10,000, attempted aggravated burglary, auto burglary, conspiracy, aggravated trespassing, and joyriding.

Oak Ridge Police Department Detective William Weaver said he interviewed Wallace at the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton on April 21, 2014. Wallace was given his Miranda warning and agreed to speak with Weaver, according to arrest warrants. [Read more…]

Two charged with robbery after alleged attack, skateboard theft

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Nicholas Anthony Turnbill

Nicholas Anthony Turnbill

Two East Tennessee men have been charged with robbery after allegedly attacking a boy riding a skateboard in a parking lot at Central Baptist Church in Oak Ridge on Sunday and stealing his skateboard.

Nicholas A. Turnbill, 19, of Harriman, allegedly came up behind the victim and hit him on the back of the head with a closed fist and “turned back around, kicking him in the head while the victim was on the ground,” according to a a warrant filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court.

“The defendant and his accomplice used violence and attacked the victim, committing theft by taking the defendant’s skateboard,” Oak Ridge Police Department Officer Thomas Bolling wrote. [Read more…]

Man accused of waving pistol at bystanders charged with aggravated assault

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Deshon Marquece Meadow

Deshon Marquece Meadow

An Oak Ridge man accused of waving a pistol at bystanders on Utica Circle on Monday night has been charged with seven counts of aggravated assault, authorities said.

The Oak Ridge Police Department responded to the Utica Circle Apartments at about 11:23 p.m. Monday, April 6, in response to a complaint of a man threatening others with a firearm, a press release said.

“Upon arrival, officers found Deshon Meadow on the premises waving a pistol at bystanders,” the City of Oak Ridge release said. [Read more…]

Former nurse indicted on false report charge in prisoner death

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Billy Joe Brockman

Billy Joe Brockman

A former nurse at the Anderson County Detention Facility has been charged with filing a false report in the death of a prisoner in July 2014, authorities said.

An autopsy revealed that the prisoner, Christopher C. Sullivan, died accidentally from a combination of alcohol and morphine, Anderson County District Attorney General Dave Clark said in a press release.

An indictment against the former nurse, Billy Joe Brockman, 49, of Clinton, “indicates that he unlawfully reported to Anderson County Sheriff’s Department investigators that he had measured and recorded the vital signs of Christopher C. Sullivan while knowing that he had, in fact, not measured or recorded the information,” Clark said. [Read more…]

Police: Calif. man arrested, questioned by feds after demanding tours of New Hope, ORNL

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Rishi Chatterjee Malakar

Rishi Chatterjee Malakar

Note: This story was updated at 12:18 p.m. March 9.

A California man was arrested by police and questioned by federal agents after he demanded tours of the New Hope Center at the Y-12 National Security Complex and Oak Ridge National Laboratory on Friday evening, authorities said.

The Oak Ridge Police Department responded to the call at about 6:22 p.m. Friday. A man had been found trying to get into the New Hope Center at 602 Scarboro Road through a rear door, Oak Ridge Police Chief Jim Akagi said.

An employee at the New Hope Center confronted the man, who demanded a tour of the building, Akagi said.

After he was denied a tour, the man reportedly left the area in a maroon-colored Jeep sport utility vehicle bearing a Texas license plate. [Read more…]

Updated: Driver charged with DUI in four-car crash that damaged home

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Robertsville Road Car and House Crash

No one was injured in a crash involving four vehicles and a house on Robertsville Road on Thursday night.

 

Note: This story was last updated at 4:20 p.m.

The driver of a car that allegedly caused a four-vehicle crash and damaged a home on Robertsville Road has been charged with driving under the influence, authorities said.

Officers located Brandon Kyle Baez, 18, of Oak Ridge, after he walked away from the crash at 184 Robertsville Road and tried to hide in a wooded area, Oak Ridge Police Department Officer Ben Higgins said in a warrant.

The crash occurred at about 10:40 p.m. Thursday just east of North Illinois Avenue. An SUV-type vehicle driven by Baez allegedly left the road, drove through the front yard of one home on Robertsville Road, crashed into a Ford four-door sedan parked in the driveway, and pushed it about three or four car lengths into a neighbor’s front yard—and reportedly caused a collision with two cars parked in the neighbor’s driveway (the home of Mike and Judy Coen).

[Read more…]

Warrants: Man armed with knife tried to kidnap two children

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Justin Len Williams

Justin Len Williams

An Oak Ridge man allegedly broke into a home this month, assaulted the mother of his children, threw a five-inch kitchen knife at a man at the home, and tried to kidnap two kids, authorities said.

Justin L. Williams, 23, is accused of going upstairs at the Knoll Lane home armed with a five-inch kitchen knife and confronting the woman in the hall, shoving her against a door and to the floor, and assaulting her again outside while taking her car keys to get child seats, according to arrest warrants filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court.

The woman, who had a laceration to her right big toe, reportedly called 911 on her cell phone during the assault at about 4:18 a.m. January 14, the warrants said. [Read more…]

Toys For Tots can be dropped off at AC Detention Facility through Dec. 15

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Toys for Tots

The staff at the Anderson County Detention Facility has volunteered to let the facility be used as a Toys For Tots drop-off center for Christmas 2014.

Gifts for children that are new or unopened will be accepted in the drop-off box located in the Detention Facility lobby at 308 Public Safety Lane in Clinton. The box will be available to the public from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day until Monday, December 15.

Toys For Tots is an official activity of the United States Marine Corps and a mission of the Marine Corps Reserve, a press release said. First founded in 1947, the U.S. Marine Corps adopted Toys For Tots and expanded it into a nationwide community action project.

Now an international project, in 2012 Toys For Tots distributed almost 17 million toys to more than seven million children across the world, the release said. [Read more…]

Grandson charged with aggravated robbery after alleged knifepoint theft

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Joseph Tyler Collins

Joseph Tyler Collins

The 18-year-old Anderson County man accused of robbing his grandfather with the help of a second man armed with a knife was arrested Tuesday, authorities said.

Joseph Tyler Collins has been charged with aggravated robbery and is being held in the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton, said Mark Lucas, Anderson County Sheriff’s Department chief deputy. Collins’ bond has been set at $75,000.

Collins’ grandfather, Genis Hawkins, reported that he was robbed at knifepoint by his grandson and the second unidentified man, who was wearing a green rag over his face and holding a 15-inch-long knife, on November 20. Collins was arrested at a Clinton home on Tuesday afternoon.

Lucas said Sheriff’s Department investigators are still working to identify the others involved in the robbery. [Read more…]