Oak Ridge Today

TBI agent to discuss human sex trafficking in Tennessee during Tuesday lunch

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Human sex trafficking has been defined as modern day slavery, a travesty that is hidden in plain sight. It happens in every zip code and crosses all socioeconomic, educational, and racial lines. Tennessee is no exception.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Special Agent-in-Charge Margie Quinn will give her perspective on human sex trafficking in Tennessee at the next Lunch with the League on Tuesday, November 1. The program will be at noon in the Social Hall of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church, which is located at 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike.

Quinn will discuss what’s being done to combat human sex trafficking in Tennessee, a press release said. [Read more…]

Anderson County Commission meets Monday (today)

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Information from WYSH Radio

The Anderson County Commission will meet Monday, September 19, at 6:30 p.m. in Room 312 of the Courthouse in Clinton.

Among the items on the agenda will be the election of a chair, vice chair, and parliamentarian.

Commissioners could head into executive session during the meeting as Anderson County Law Director Jay Yeager’s report to the Commission indicated that a settlement offer has been made in the wrongful termination lawsuit filed by former Public Works Department employee Lisa Crumpley, who sued the county alleging that she had been fired in retaliation for cooperating with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation on an investigation into her former boss David Crowley. Crowley was indicted last October on charges of illegally inspecting buildings without the proper certification, and he fired Crumpley the day the indictment was unsealed. He was ultimately acquitted in the spring by a jury. No details of that potential settlement have been made public, but it will require Commission approval. [Read more…]

TBI: Knoxville man arrested after threatening former Rockwood mayor

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Thomas Pierce

Thomas Pierce

A Knoxville man was arrested Friday after he made threats against a former mayor of Rockwood and was found with several guns in his vehicle, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Saturday.

TBI special agents helped the Rockwood Police Department and the Ninth District Attorney General’s office investigate threats made by Thomas William Pierce, 59, against a former Rockwood mayor, a press release said.

Ninth District Attorney General Russell Johnson asked the TBI to help, the press release said.

Pierce is a former long-time Rockwood city employee, and he is set to go on trial in Roane County for theft of money from the City of Rockwood, the TBI said. [Read more…]

Former ORPD officer pleads not guilty to statutory rape, official misconduct

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Cassen Jackson-Garrison

Cassen Jackson-Garrison (Source: TBI)

Note: This story was updated at 6:10 p.m.

CLINTON—A former Oak Ridge Police Department officer charged with aggravated statutory rape and official misconduct pleaded not guilty in Anderson County Criminal Court on Friday morning.

Cassen Jackson-Garrison, 31, was indicted on the two charges by the Anderson County Grand Jury on May 3. He was arrested May 6 by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and Anderson County Sheriff’s Department in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee.                                                                    

At the request of Seventh District Attorney General Dave Clark, TBI special agents began investigating Cassen Jackson-Garrison, who was an ORPD officer at the time, on August 13, 2015, on a complaint that he was having sexual contact with a minor. During the course of the investigation, Agents developed information that Jackson-Garrison had sexual contact with the teen in July 2015, the TBI said in a May 6 press release. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge man arrested, bond set at $100,000 in Knox trafficking case

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Zubin Percy Parakh

Zubin Percy Parakh

Note: This story was updated at 5:03 p.m.

An Oak Ridge man was arrested and booked into Knox County jail on a trafficking charge on Saturday, one day after Tennessee and Knoxville officials announced that 32 men and women had been arrested in an operation to combat human trafficking.

Bond for Zubin Percy Parakh, 32, of Golfcrest Lane in Oak Ridge, has been set at $100,000 on the trafficking charge. A preliminary hearing has been set for May 31, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Knox County Sheriff’s Office website.

The arrests and citations on prostitution and human trafficking-related charges were made as part of Operation Someone Like Me last week in Knoxville.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said two of the men, including a children’s minister, Jason Kennedy, 46, of Knoxville, responded to ads for what they thought were girls under the age of 18. Kennedy was a children’s minister at Grace Baptist Church on Oak Ridge Highway in Karns, but he has since been fired. [Read more…]

Children’s minister, local residents among those arrested, cited in human trafficking operation

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Jason Kennedy

Jason Kennedy

Note: This story was last updated at 2:30 p.m. May 23.

A three-day operation by special agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and detectives with the Knoxville Police Department to combat human trafficking in Knoxville has resulted in the arrest of 32 men and women on prostitution and human trafficking-related charges. Two of the men, including a children’s minister, responded to ads for what they thought were girls under the age of 18.

TBI identified Knoxville’s Jason Kennedy, 46, as the children’s minister arrested for patronizing prostitution and human trafficking. Kennedy was a minister at Grace Baptist Church in Karns, but he has now been terminated.

The TBI said there is a warrant out on a trafficking charge for Zubin Parakh, 32, of Oak Ridge. A spokesperson at Lifehouse Church in Oak Ridge said Parakh serves as a volunteer and “creative pastor” there, according to WBIR, a Knoxville television station. The church told the television station that Parakh has never worked with children.

Grace Baptist released a statement to the media after the Friday news of Kennedy’s arrest.

“The children’s pastor of Grace Baptist Church has been terminated as as result of an arrest in a police sting related to prostitution and human trafficking,” the church said. “The actions of the children’s pastor for which he has been arrested were part of his life outside the church, and we have received no questions or concerns related to his conduct within the church or its ministries.

“The children’s pastor was hired two-and-a-half years ago. The church’s background check turned up no issues that indicate any previous problem. In fact, the children’s pastor in his application affirmed that he had no issues in his background of a criminal or other nature.

“We are praying for his family and will continue to provide the services of our ministry to them.”

Oak Ridge Today has not been able to reach LifeHouse Church for comment.

The TBI said the arrested men also include an engineer and a volunteer firefighter.

Kennedy has been charged and booked. Most of the others were charged on a citation, the TBI said. [Read more…]

Wanted by TBI, Rogersville fugitive captured in Hawkins County

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Gary Simpson

Gary Simpson

A Rogersville man who was added to the TBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted list Thursday was captured later that afternoon in Hawkins County, authorities said.

Gary Simpson, 57, was wanted by the Rogersville Police Department and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation for especially aggravated kidnapping.

On May 4, Simpson kidnapped 9-year-old Carlie Marie Trent from school, the TBI said. He had no custodial rights to Carlie.

Simpson was the suspect of the AMBER Alert issued this month for Carlie Trent. [Read more…]

Updated: TBI issues Amber Alert for 9-year-old in East Tennessee

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TBI Endangered Child Alert Rogersville

Image by Tennessee Bureau of Investigation

 

Note: This story was updated at 10:52 a.m.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has issued an Amber Alert in East Tennessee and Middle Tennessee for 9-year-old Carlie Trent. The Amber Alert was issued on behalf of the Rogersville Police Department.

The TBI initially issued an Endangered Child Alert but has since upgraded the alert to help find the missing child.

Carlie was removed from school Wednesday by her uncle by marriage, Gary Simpson, under false pretenses, the TBI said. He has no custodial rights to Carlie, authorities said. Warrants have been issued for Simpson for kidnapping, the TBI said.

Authorities don’t know the current location of Simpson and Carlie Trent.

Carlie is 4’8″ and she weighs 75 pounds. She has blonde hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a black and gray tank top shirt with blue jeans. [Read more…]

Reward offered in Coalfield murder of Vietnam vet who retired from Boeing, B&W

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Jerry Pete McCarroll

Jerry “Pete” McCarroll. Photo via Facebook/BBB-TV

Family and friends are offering a $10,000 reward for specific information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for the death of Jerry “Pete” McCarroll, a Vietnam veteran and cancer survivor who was retired from Boeing and B&W Clinch River in Oak Ridge, authorities said.

McCarroll was found murdered on April 18 outside of Allied Metal Recovery and Refining on Gouge Hollow Road in the Coalfield area of Morgan County, according to the Office of the District Attorney General in the Ninth Judicial District, which includes Loudon, Meigs, Morgan, and Roane counties.

McCarroll worked at Allied Metal Recovery and Refining, a press release said. His body was found at 6:30 a.m. Monday, April 18, and he had been beaten and shot, the press release said. McCarroll was known to carry cash, and the motive may have been robbery, authorities said. [Read more…]

TBI investigating death of Anderson County inmate

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Princess Wyomina Shifflett

Princess Wyomina Shifflett

 

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating the death of an Anderson County inmate last week, officials said Monday.

The TBI was asked to investigate the death of Princess Wyomina Shifflett, 58, by Anderson County District Attorney General Dave Clark on Thursday, officials said.

Shifflett died at the Anderson County Detention Facility in Clinton, officials said.

Shifflett had some sort of medical emergency, and emergency medical services were called to take her to a medical center, where she died, TBI spokesperson Susan Niland said in an email. [Read more…]

No proof that anything illegal occurred between ORHS teacher, student, ORPD says

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Oak Ridge Police Department Badge

The Oak Ridge Police Department investigated an allegation of sexual misconduct between an Oak Ridge High School teacher and a student, but the police investigation has been closed due to a lack of evidence that anything illegal occurred, according to an incident report released Monday.

But the Oak Ridge Schools investigation continues, Superintendent Bruce Borchers said.

The Oak Ridge High School teacher, who wasn’t named, was suspended from all teaching duties without pay in February pending the investigation by the Oak Ridge Police Department.

The allegation stemmed from a note that was reportedly seen by two students in a high school class, the ORPD report said. The note had these words written on it: “you are cute #smoosh,” according to students. The report said the term “smoosh” is commonly used to refer to having sex.

The teacher told investigators that he had written the note, but it was meant for a few other male students as a joke, according to a 16-page incident report released Monday. He said he had not known what “smoosh” meant. He told investigators that he thought it was “smoosh someone’s face or to punch them, but not really.”

“He had a hard time explaining this to us, and we had a hard time understanding what he was trying to say,” Oak Ridge Police Department Detective John Criswell said in the report. “When we asked him now the ‘note’ made it into the hands of his students, he stated that one of the students had written something inappropriate on their paper so he took that paper and replaced it with his.” [Read more…]

TBI investigation of Oak Ridge apartment death still open, ongoing

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Thomas Stephen "T.S." Thrasher

Thomas Stephen “T.S.” Thrasher

The investigation of the death of an Oak Ridge man in an apartment in December 2014 remains open and ongoing, a state official said Monday.

Thomas Steven Thrasher Jr., 29, also known as “T.S.,” died December 8, 2014. He was found dead in a second-floor apartment when the Oak Ridge Police Department responded to a report of a possible intruder at about 4:40 a.m. that Monday at 615 West Vanderbilt Drive.

Anderson County District Attorney General Dave Clark said that month that a criminal investigation was under way, but there had not been an arrest and no charges had been filed. Clark said at the time that an autopsy had been performed by the Anderson County medical examiner.

“As a result of the circumstances, the Oak Ridge Police and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation have been conducting a criminal investigation,” Clark said. “There has been no arrest or charges filed at this time.” [Read more…]