The Anderson County Sheriff’s Department has promoted Marty Blackwell to the rank of corporal, and he will oversee courthouse security, a press release said.
Blackwell has been in law enforcement for 33 years, the press release said. He most recently served as court officer for General Sessions Judge Don A. Layton.
[Read more…]
Four local attorneys were added to the memorial plaque titled “In Memory of those who served Justice†at the Anderson County Courthouse in Clinton, a press release said. The attorneys served in multiple legal professional roles during their careers, the press release said.
Robert “Bob†Stivers had a legal career of more than 50 years. He worked with Union Carbide and Martin Marietta.
W. Clark Meredith was a partner in the firm of Joyce, Anderson, and Meredith. He later practiced with the firm of Joyce, Meredith, Flitcroft and Normand.
[Read more…]
One count of attempted first-degree murder and five aggravated assault charges filed against Charles Edward Mason, 52, of Anderson County, were sent to the grand jury after a preliminary hearing in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Clinton on Thursday, July 25, 2019. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
CLINTON—One charge of attempted first-degree murder and five counts of aggravated assault, among other charges, were sent to the grand jury after a two-hour preliminary hearing in July for an Anderson County man accused of pointing a revolver at two deputies and pulling the trigger two or three times.
The defendant, Charles Edward Mason, 52, had faced 24 charges, including two counts of attempted first-degree murder, eight counts of aggravated assault, three counts of aggravated kidnapping, and weapons and drug charges, among other violations. Eleven charges were sent to the grand jury, although it is possible that the grand jury could consider the charges that have been dismissed.
Mason, who unsuccessfully sought to represent himself during the hearing, has a violent crime history. He has previously pleaded guilty to two homicides, one in Knox County, Kentucky, in 1994 and the other in Anderson County, Tennessee, in 2010.
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Charles Edward Mason
CLINTON—The Anderson County man charged with attempted murder after allegedly pointing a gun at a deputy and pulling the trigger twice in April has previously pleaded guilty to homicides in Kentucky and Tennessee.
The first homicide conviction was in Knox County, Kentucky, in 1994. The second was in Anderson County, Tennessee, in 2010. The defendant, Charles Edward Mason, now 51, received a nine-year sentence in the first case and a seven-year sentence in the second. He had been accused of shooting a man with a pistol in the first case, the one in Kentucky, according to Knox County court records. He reportedly stabbed a man in the Anderson County case 15 years later.
When he was charged with attempted murder in Anderson County this year, Mason was on probation in a different case involving drug and driver’s license violations. He had pleaded guilty in January to possessing more than 0.5 grams of methamphetamine for resale and driving on a revoked or suspended license. He had received a 10-year sentence, and he had agreed to be declared a habitual motor vehicle offender as well, according to Anderson County court records.
Now, he is facing 24 new charges in Anderson County, including two counts of attempted first-degree murder, eight counts of aggravated assault, three counts of aggravated kidnapping, and three drug charges, among other counts.
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CLINTON—The defendant in a criminal homicide case in Rocky Top in August had planned to rob the 83-year-old man who died because “it would be easy,” according to court testimony Tuesday.
The body of the victim, J.C. Copeland, who has been described as a “sweet old man,” was found partially wrapped in a pink blanket underneath a porch at a mobile home on Jacksboro Avenue on August 31, according to Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Agent John Hannon. Copeland is believed to have been strangled until he died, according to court records. There was white rope around Copeland’s neck and other parts of his body, including his wrists and ankles, Hannon testified during a preliminary hearing in Anderson County General Sessions Court in Clinton on Tuesday.
Inside Copeland’s home, investigators found a fresh brown stain on the floor near his front door, white strings similar to the material found around his neck, and in one possible sign of a struggle, cigarettes on the floor, according to Hannon’s testimony. An acrylic painted press-on fingernail was found in the living room, Hannon said. It’s similar to the type of press-on fingernail that a woman might wear, Hannon said when questioned by prosecutor Emily Faye Abbott.
Outside the home, Copeland’s vehicle was missing.
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CLINTON—A Clinton man accused of threatening to harm three Anderson County judges has a trial scheduled this week in Anderson County Criminal Court.
Details about the alleged threat aren’t available in an indictment filed by the Anderson County Grand Jury in October.
The 53-year-old man has had a dispute with Anderson County officials about searches of people at the security checkpoint near the elevators on the third floor of the Anderson County Courthouse in Clinton. He has told deputies that they do not have the right to search him, objected to the metal detectors there, claimed that civil rights are being violated, and asserted the right to defend himself with deadly force against an unlawful act by a police officer, according to court records.
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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…]
Anderson County’s newest dispatchers graduated from the Communications Deputy Training Academy on Friday, Jan. 27, 2017. (Photo by Anderson County Sheriff’s Department)
Anderson County’s newest dispatchers graduated from the Communications Deputy Training Academy on Friday, January 27.
The new communications deputies are Tiffany Haines, Amy Purkey, and Brittany Streetman. They have spent the last 10 weeks in an intensive training program to prepare them to answer the call for help from citizens, dispatch the appropriate emergency responders, and render life saving medical care until those resources arrive, a press release said.
The training program included basic public safety telecommunicator training, CPR and emergency medical dispatcher training, specialized courses in criminal law, incident command (NIMS), best practices response for missing and exploited children, area familiarization including ride-a-longs with EMS (emergency medical services) and law enforcement personnel, and many other topics, the press release said. [Read more…]
Anderson County General Sessions Court Judge Don Layton is pictured above on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
There is a Domestic Violence Symposium scheduled for Friday in Clinton.
The symposium has been announced by Anderson County General Sessions Court Judge, Division I, Don A. Layton, in partnership with Probation Services Incorporated, or PSI.
The symposium is scheduled from 9 a.m. to noon Friday, October 28, in the PSI conference room at 135 South Main Street in Clinton, a press release said.
The symposium will feature presentations from Anderson County District Attorney General David Clark and others, including Russell Barker, Rex Lynch, Mary Ann Young, and Chad McNabb, the press release said. [Read more…]
Scott Gray, who has been charged with vehicular homicide, among other counts, is pictured above in Anderson County General Sessions Court, Division I, in Clinton on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
CLINTON—Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers testified Thursday that a driver charged with vehicular homicide smelled of alcohol and said he had been drinking and had taken two anti-anxiety pills before a two-vehicle crash on Clinton Highway in April that resulted in the death of a 23-year-old Heiskell woman.
There was a half-empty bottle of whiskey found between the driver’s seat and the rocker panel of the 1993 Eagle four-door sedan, according to testimony by a crash witness and THP Trooper Isaiah Lloyd, the lead trooper in the investigation. Lloyd testified that he saw a glass marijuana pipe with residue in the center console of the car, a marijuana joint inside a prescription bottle, and at least six beer cans on the passenger floorboard of the car, although it wasn’t clear if the cans were empty or full.
The THP said Scott Gray, 26, of Knoxville, was driving north on Clinton Highway in the Eagle sedan near Mehaffey Road on Thursday evening, April 28, when he turned into the path of a southbound 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee sport utility vehicle driven by Kimberly Williamson, 32, of Knoxville. The SUV driven by Williamson hit the car driven by Gray.
The passenger side of the Eagle had significant damage, and passenger Jessica Miner Taylor, 23, of Heiskell, was trapped and critically injured. After she was extricated, she was flown by a Lifestar medical helicopter to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, authorities said. She was immediately taken into the operating room because her bladder was torn from the crash, Lloyd said in arrest warrants filed in May.
Gray was taken by ambulance to UT Medical Center the day of the crash. Williamson had minor injuries, and she was taken in a personal vehicle to Tennova North, where she was treated and released, authorities said earlier.
Miner died from her injuries about a week after the crash, on Friday, May 6, according to her obituary. [Read more…]
The lease on Anderson County General Sessions Court, Division II, on Bus Terminal Road in Oak Ridge expires Dec. 31, but officials will ask for a one-year lease extension while courthouse options are considered. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
CLINTON—Several alternative locations have been proposed, including a city-owned building at A.K. Bissell Park and a county-owned building on Emory Valley Road, but for now, the Anderson County General Sessions Court in Oak Ridge could remain at a privately owned building on Bus Terminal Road.
Once housed at the Oak Ridge Municipal Building, the General Sessions, Division II, courthouse has been on Bus Terminal Road since January 2009.
But the lease expires December 31.
On Monday, November 16, the Anderson County Commission voted 15-0 on a voice vote to ask for a one-year lease extension with no penalty and to work with Oak Ridge to share courthouse costs.
“That year buys us time to look at all the options,†said County Commissioner Myron Iwanski, who represents District 8, which includes Emory Valley, Woodland, and Hendrix Creek. [Read more…]
First elected in August, Judge Roger Miller, left, is pictured in Anderson County General Sessions Court, Division II, in Oak Ridge before a bond hearing this summer. (2015 file photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)Â
CLINTON—Anderson County officials could ask for a one-year extension of the lease on the General Sessions Court, Division II, in Oak Ridge. The current lease expires at the end of the year, on December 31.
The county has an option to renew the lease for five years from January 1, 2016, through the end of 2021, but it’s not clear if officials want to do that. There are questions about whether they want to keep a courthouse in Oak Ridge, particularly if the City of Oak Ridge is not providing financial support. But if Division II court does stay in Oak Ridge, there is a question about whether it should remain at the current location at the former Oak Ridge Utility District building on Bus Terminal Road.
Officials have limited time, about 80 days, to weigh the alternatives before the lease expires, and there are holidays in the meantime, said Anderson County Commissioner Mark Alderson, who made a motion to seek a one-year lease extension during an Operations Committee meeting on Monday. The committee unanimously approved that proposal on a voice vote. [Read more…]
