Oak Ridge Today

Worried about city judge’s reaction, tenant concocted home invasion story after alleged rampage, police say

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An Oak Ridge man who allegedly went on a rampage and broke bedroom windows inside his home concocted a story about a home invasion to try to avoid trouble with his landlord, City Judge Lawrence Tunnell, authorities said.

Derek Scott Fitzpatrick, 26, has been charged with false reporting, a felony. He remained jailed at the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton early Friday morning.

The alleged home invasion on North Hollywood Circle was reported one week ago at about 1 a.m. Friday, Nov. 1. The Oak Ridge Police Department quickly set up a perimeter in the Highland View neighborhood and searched for the two suspects for about 30 minutes before “finding out the story was made up,” Officer Garrett Robbins said in an affidavit filed in Anderson County General Sessions Court. [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…]

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…]

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…]