The Sixth Annual Drug Awareness Day is Saturday at the Oak Ridge Municipal Pool.
It’s hosted by the Oak Ridge Chapter of the Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks.
The pool is located at 172 Providence Road.
Drug awareness demonstrations will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. inside the pool area Saturday. [Read more…]
The law enforcement search at McGuire—a store that sells used books, compact discs, digital video discs, and electronics—is expected to last hours and continue through the night Thursday, May 24, 2018. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was last updated at 9:45 a.m. May 25.
The law enforcement search at McGuire—a store that sells used books, compact discs, digital video discs, and electronics—is expected to last hours and continue through the night (Thursday night).
The Seventh Judicial District Crime Task Force of Anderson County executed search warrants at McGuire Used Books, CDs, DVDs, Games, and More starting at about noon Thursday. There were reported to be about a dozen employees in the store at the time the search began.
Authorities declined to say why they were searching the store on Thursday afternoon. But they had a stack of moving boxes ready to be folded and numerous boxes folded and ready to be used, and there were several moving trucks parked near the store, including one right in front of it.
Crime scene tape blocked entry to the store, and a Seventh Judicial District Crime Task Force crime scene truck was parked out front.
At about 10 p.m. Thursday, it appeared that boxes with items inside were occasionally being brought out of the store and loaded into the moving truck parked in front of McGuire. [Read more…]
Justin Wade Welch
An Anderson County man who allegedly took two cars by force and tried to take another in Clinton in March 2017 has been indicted on carjacking and assault charges by the Anderson County Grand Jury.
Justin Wade Welch, 31, was charged in an eight-count indictment filed April 3. At the time of the indictment, he had been jailed at the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton since March 30, 2017, the date of the alleged incident.
The charges against Welch include three counts of carjacking and one count each of attempted carjacking, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon (a vehicle), evading arrest, driving on a suspended or revoked license, and resisting a stop, search, or arrest involving a weapon (a vehicle).
Charges against Welch had been waived to the Grand Jury in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Clinton on September 6.
He pleaded not guilty to the eight indicted charges in Anderson County Criminal Court in Clinton on April 30. [Read more…]
A fatal crash involving a pedestrian was reported in Marlow on Wednesday morning, and a a serious crash that required three ambulances and a medical helicopter was reported near Interstate 75, authorities said.
The first crash was on Andersonville Highway at Bethel Road just east of Interstate 75 around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, said Mark Lucas, Anderson County Sheriff’s Department chief deputy.
Three ambulances were needed, Lucas said. A UT Lifestar medical helicopter responded, and it flew one person to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, Lucas said. Anderson County EMS drove two injured people to UT Medical Center as well. There were serious injuries, Lucas said.
The second crash, the fatal crash, was reported a few hours later, at about 10 a.m. Wednesday on Oliver Springs Highway at Old Batley Road. In that crash, a pedestrian was hit by a vehicle, Lucas said. [Read more…]
Anderson County residents have organized a rally to show support for the Second Amendment and the U.S. Constitution in Clinton on Saturday.
“Aware of the threat to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution of our great nation, some very concerned citizens of Anderson County, Tennessee, have banded together to demonstrate to those who attack our liberties that they will not be successful in their attempts to destroy America,” a press release said.
“While recognizing there is no immediate threat to to our liberties in East Tennessee, we feel strongly that we must stand with those in other parts of our county who are seeing immediate threats to their right to keep and bear arms, a right that is guaranteed and protected by the Constitution of our country,” the press release said.
The rally is scheduled to start at noon Saturday, April 21, on the steps of the Anderson County Courthouse in Clinton. It is meant to “show support and solidarity with freedom-loving citizens throughout the United States,” the press release said. [Read more…]
Anderson County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Kim Lay has been named School Resource Officer of the Year for Anderson County Schools by The Education Foundation of Clinton City and Anderson County Schools. (Submitted photo)
Anderson County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Kim Lay has been named School Resource Officer of the Year for Anderson County Schools by The Education Foundation of Clinton City and Anderson County Schools.
Lay is a 16-year law enforcement veteran, and she has served as a school resource officer, or SRO, for the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department for the last eight years.
“She is truly a dedicated, experienced law enforcement professional,” a press release said. [Read more…]
A 22-year-old driver was seriously injured in a crash with a train in Anderson County on Saturday, authorities said.
The driver has been identified as Benjamin Sharp. After the crash, he was taken by an Anderson County EMS ambulance to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville with what were reported to be life-threatening injuries. Information on his current condition wasn’t immediately available Monday afternoon.
The crash was reported at about 5:30 p.m. Saturday on Patterson Lane off Old Lake City Highway.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol said Sharp was trying to cross the railroad tracks to a home off Old Lake City Highway when the 2009 Jeep Commander he was driving was hit by the train. [Read more…]
Ron Walter Austin
An Andersonville man died after jumping into a pond in Claxton while fleeing from Anderson County Sheriff’s Department deputies on Thursday night, authorities said.
The man has been identified as Ron Walter Austin, 41.
The chase started at about 11:45 p.m. Thursday when Anderson County Sheriff’s Department narcotics investigators observed what was believed to be a drug transaction between people in two vehicles in a business parking lot near North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard in Clinton, Chief Deputy Mark Lucas said Friday night.
Deputies attempted to stop both vehicles as they left the parking lot, Lucas said. One vehicle did stop, but the other fled from North Charles G. Seivers Boulevard onto Interstate 75, where deputies saw the driver throw out an article out of the car window, Lucas said. [Read more…]
An 86-year-old man died in a two-vehicle crash on Clinton Highway late Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.
Fred Lay, who has a Clinton address, was driving east on Bull Run Road in Claxton in a 2005 Mercury Sable car when he turned onto southbound US Highway 25W (Clinton Highway), the Tennessee Highway Patrol said in a report. His vehicle turned into the path of a 2005 Chevrolet Trailblazer sport utility vehicle driven south in the inside lane of Clinton Highway by Marissa N. McCormick, 27, of Powell, and the two vehicles collided, the report said.
Southbound Clinton Highway heads toward Knoxville.
Lay died due to the crash, which was reported at about 4:56 p.m. Tuesday, the THP said. McCormick was not injured. [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…]
Rebecca L. Vanasse
An Oak Ridge woman was arrested on a probation violation charge after a fatal crash in Poplar Creek in Roane County on Tuesday, authorities said.
Rebecca L. Vanasse, 26, of North Purdue Avenue, was arrested by the Oak Ridge Police Department on the violation of probation charge on Tuesday, according to Anderson County court and jail records. A hold has also been placed on Vanasse for Rhea County, and she remained jailed at the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton on Thursday morning, according to those records.
Anderson County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Mark Lucas confirmed that Vanasse is the same woman who has been identified as the driver in the fatal creek crash on Poplar Creek Road on Tuesday. She was arrested by ORPD after she was treated and released from the emergency room, Lucas said.
“We had a probation violation warrant and Rhea County had a warrant as well,” he said. [Read more…]
Jacob Lynn Rutherford
CLINTON—An attempted first-degree murder charge has been sent to the grand jury in a case involving an Oak Ridge man accused of shooting and injuring two men and shooting near a woman but not hitting her.
Two charges of reckless endangerment were also bound over, or sent to the grand jury. Those charges had initially been filed as attempted first-degree murder.
A preliminary hearing for Jacob Lynn Rutherford, 23, was held Wednesday, March 7, in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Clinton.
Rutherford had originally been charged with a total of three counts of attempted first-degree murder and one count of reckless endangerment. One count of reckless endangerment was dismissed during the preliminary hearing last week, meaning Rutherford faces the one attempted first-degree murder charge and the two counts of reckless endangerment that were originally attempted murder. [Read more…]
