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For members: Mason found guilty of federal gun, drug charges

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Charles Mason Preliminary Hearing July 25 2019

KNOXVILLE—An Anderson County man who has been convicted of two homicides and has been charged in state court with the attempted murder of a deputy was found guilty in federal court on Friday of gun and drug crimes that have potential sentences of life in prison.

A 12-person jury deliberated for about two hours Friday morning before reaching a unanimous verdict on the four federal charges.

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For members: Man charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine, heroin, meth

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Joshua Andrew Koch

 

A 42-year-old Anderson County man is facing federal charges of conspiring to distribute cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine after a search of a home in Claxton in July allegedly found about 230 grams of a white, crystal-like substance thought to be methamphetamine and roughly 69.5 grams of a brown powder substance suspected to be heroin, according to state and federal court records.

The defendant has also been charged with federal financial and firearms crimes, and he has seven co-defendants in the case, although the charges vary by defendant.

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For members: Man sentenced to more than 12 years on federal meth conspiracy charge

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Samuel McCoy Wade

 

An Oak Ridge man was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to a federal charge of conspiring to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine.

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For members: AC man accused of trying to kill deputy also faces federal charges

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Charles Mason Preliminary Hearing July 25 2019

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)

 

KNOXVILLE—An Anderson County man who has two previous homicide convictions and has been accused in state court of trying to kill a deputy this year now faces federal drug and gun charges that could result, depending upon the circumstances, in a lifelong prison sentence.

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For members: Company ordered to pay $500,000 fine after improperly shipping radioactive materials

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Federal Agents at Berthold Technologies

KNOXVILLE—An Oak Ridge company has been ordered to pay a $500,000 federal fine about two years after pleading guilty to criminal charges related to the improper shipping of radioactive materials in devices used in the oil and gas “fracking” industry.

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Exclusive: Federal judge dismisses lawsuit against CNS

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The sign at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The sign at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit that was filed three years ago after Consolidated Nuclear Security LLC began managing and operating the Y-12 National Security Complex and made changes to health care benefits.

The changes in benefits led to protests, mostly by retirees, near Y-12 and the U.S. Department of Energy Oak Ridge Office just before they took effect January 1, 2015.

Y-12 retirees Betty Hatmaker and Charlene Edwards, who had been among the protesters, filed the lawsuit that summer. The 31-page civil complaint was filed August 12, 2015, in U.S. District Court in Knoxville. Hatmaker and Edwards sought to make their lawsuit a class action complaint, meaning they could have represented other plaintiffs, possibly including several thousand former Y-12 workers who retired between 1975 and 2015.

A trial had been scheduled for June 25, but the case was dismissed by Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan on May 30.

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UPF lawsuit: NNSA considering new, supplemental environmental impact statement for Y-12

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The sign at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The sign at the main entrance to the Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

With a lawsuit pending, federal officials are considering whether a new or supplemental environmental impact statement is needed for the Y-12 National Security Complex after design plans changed for the Uranium Processing Facility, the largest federal construction project in Tennessee since World War II.

As part of the process, the National Nuclear Security Administration is preparing what is known as a supplement analysis, or SA. A draft of the new SA has been issued, and you can read it on the Y-12 website.

Comments on the draft supplement analysis can be submitted through June 20.

The final new supplement analysis and a record of decision could be issued by July 27, although the schedule is subject to change, according to a joint status report filed in U.S. District Court in Knoxville on May 11. The record of decision is expected to say whether a new or supplemental environmental impact statement is required for Y-12.

There was a site-wide environmental impact statement, or EIS, prepared for Y-12 in 2011. About five years later, in 2016, there was a supplement analysis prepared under the National Environmental Policy Act. It was connected to the decision by the NNSA and U.S. Department of Energy to not prepare a new or supplemental environmental impact statement after the NNSA decided on a new multi-building design for the UPF, rather than a single-building design, as part of an effort to keep project costs down, among other considerations. [Read more…]

Despite censure, lawsuit, calls for resignation, Jones still running in May 1 primary

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The Anderson County Commission, which is pictured above on March 20, 2018, unanimously censured Anderson County Circuit Clerk William Jones on Feb. 20, and asked him to resign after sexual harassment allegations were reported. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

The Anderson County Commission, which is pictured above on March 20, 2018, unanimously censured Anderson County Circuit Court Clerk William Jones on Feb. 20, and asked him to resign after sexual harassment allegations were reported. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)

 

Note: This story was updated at 10:40 a.m.

CLINTON—He’s been accused of inappropriate behavior that includes unwelcome sexual advances, unwanted touching, and lewd and vulgar text messages. He’s been unanimously censured and asked to resign by the Anderson County Commission. He’s been sued in federal court. And some residents have joined commissioners in asking him to resign, or at least not seek re-election.

Despite those pleas, though, Anderson County Circuit Court Clerk William Jones, who has denied many allegations and called others false, is seeking re-election in the Anderson County Republican Party primary election on Tuesday, May 1. Jones has filed counterclaims in federal court and filed a defamation lawsuit in state court.

Some of the sexual harassment allegations appear to have been forwarded to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies, including the Tennessee Attorney General, Tennessee Department of Labor, and Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts, according to records released by Anderson County. It’s not clear which outside agencies, if any, might be investigating the complaints, or whether the local district attorney general might be investigating.

Willliam T. Jones

Willliam T. Jones

Commission censures Jones, asks him to resign

The accusations against Jones, who is seeking his second four-year term, were publicly disclosed during a review of a sexual harassment complaint at an Anderson County Commission meeting on February 20.

During that meeting, Kim Jeffers-Whitaker, Anderson County’s chief deputy director of human resources and risk management, said her department had received five reports of inappropriate workplace behavior by Jones.

“The five reports create a harassing pattern,” Jeffers-Whitaker said.

She said the reports are supported by two affidavits and four sworn statements that the county’s human resources department obtained from the victims, who include four past or present employees and one citizen.

According to Jeffers-Whitaker, the alleged instances of unprofessional conduct include: [Read more…]

UPF lawsuit moved from DC to Knoxville

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A rendering of the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex. (Image from May 2017 courtesy of NNSA)

A rendering of the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex. (Image from May 2017 courtesy of NNSA)

 

The federal lawsuit that asks for an environmental review of the new multi-building design for the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex has been transferred from Washington, D.C., to Knoxville.

The transfer of the civil complaint had been requested in September by the defendants, U.S. Energy Secretary James Richard “Rick” Perry and Frank G. Klotz, former administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration. The NNSA is an agency within the U.S. Department of Energy that manages nuclear weapons programs and facilities, including Y-12, among other activities.

United States District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich, who was assigned the case in December, granted the motion to transfer the lawsuit from the District of Columbia to U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, which includes the Knoxville division, on March 23.

The 44-page federal lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on July 20, argues that a new environmental impact statement should be prepared for the new design for the UPF, the largest federal construction project in Tennessee since World War II. The plaintiffs allege that the NNSA’s decision to use several new buildings for the UPF, rather than just one, and continue to use some old buildings at Y-12 for some nuclear weapons work is risky because the old buildings could collapse during a major earthquake, possibly leading to a nuclear accident that could release radiological materials.

Federal officials denied that allegation and others in a 29-page response filed September 29. They’ve called some allegations vague, ambiguous, or speculative, and they have said that safety and technical analyses are under way at Y-12. Some buildings may require seismic upgrades, depending upon evaluation results, and an Extended Life Program is meant to ensure that two buildings—Building 9215 and Building 9204-2E—will safely support future operations, federal officials said. [Read more…]

Oak Ridge man sentenced to 14 years for child pornography

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James Edward Hiatt

James Edward Hiatt

 

Note: This story was last updated at 10:38 p.m.

An Oak Ridge man was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison on Wednesday for distributing and possessing child pornography, authorities said.

James Edward Hiatt, 33, was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan in U.S. District Court in Knoxville.

He had been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of distributing and possessing child pornography on February 17, 2016.

A sentencing memorandum filed September 11, 2017, said seized computer equipment found that Hiatt had about 2,900 digital images of child pornography and 1,400 digital videos. The child pornography included prepubescent minors engaged in sexually explicit activity, including “disturbing depictions of sadistic conduct, bondage, and bestiality involving very young children,” the sentencing memorandum said.

Hiatt consented to be interviewed during a search and admitted to knowingly downloading child pornography, the sentencing memorandum said. [Read more…]

Anderson County residents among 44 indicted in meth distribution conspiracy

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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…]

DOE, NNSA deny alleged risk of ‘catastrophic collapse’ of old Y-12 buildings

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Y-12 Building 9212

A low-level aerial shot of Building 9212 at the Y-12 National Security Complex, one of the buildings mentioned in a federal lawsuit filed in July over the proposed Uranium Processing Facility.

 

Note: This story was updated at 8:30 a.m.

The plaintiffs in a civil lawsuit filed in federal court in July alleged that there is a risk of a catastrophic collapse of old buildings containing nuclear weapon components at the Y-12 National Security Complex, possibly due to a large earthquake. A catastrophic collapse “would likely” result in the release of nuclear or toxic materials and place the environment and local residents in “extreme peril,” the plaintiffs said.

But federal officials denied that allegation and others in a response filed in late September.

The 44-page civil complaint, which is related to the planned Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12, was filed July 20 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. The seven plaintiffs include three public interest organizations—Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, Nuclear Watch of New Mexico, and Natural Resources Defense Council of Washington, D.C.—and four people who live in Oak Ridge and Knoxville.

The federal lawsuit asked for an environmental review of the new design for the UPF, where design plans have changed from one building to three. The lawsuit alleged that the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration have violated a federal environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, as they implement the major design change.

Specifically, the plaintiffs have requested a new supplemental environmental impact statement or a new site-wide environmental impact statement for the revised UPF design. They cited the decision to build several new buildings and the plan to continue using existing buildings that the plaintiffs say have significant structural defects. They want the U.S. District Court to vacate, or void, a supplement analysis and an amended record of decision prepared by the NNSA in 2016. [Read more…]

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