Category: News

A Fayetteville man is in custody after agents said he unlawfully took pictures of a woman.
According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, 32-year-old Andrew Laten Williams accessed the victim’s phone while she was sleeping and took photos of her partially covered without her consent.
Agents said Williams sent the pictures from her phone to a male acquaintance of the victim.
TBI also learned that Williams took screenshots of photographs of the victim from her phone and sent those to another male acquaintance of the victim.
Last week, Williams was indicted by the Lincoln County Grand Jury on two counts of unlawful photographing in violation of privacy.
He was arrested Thursday and booked into the Lincoln County Jail on $25,000 bond.

Melinda Keeling who worked for the Coffee County Department of Codes and Safety from 2006 to 2010, filed a claim under the Tennessee Public Employee Political Freedom Act (PEPFA) following her dismissal.
A jury found in favor of Keeling on Jan. 12, 2017 and awarded her damages in the amount of $10,000. Those damages, according to state law, were tripled to $30,000.
An order by the Circuit Court of Coffee County, filed on May 1, states that the plaintiff is entitled to back-pay damages and front-pay damages. The order also states that back- and front-pay damages should be tripled, as well.
The total amount the court ordered to be paid to Keeling by the county was about $490,000.
On Aug. 25, the court also ruled the amount the county pay her lawyer, Jerry Gonzalez would be $79,000 for attorney fees.
According to County Attorney Bob Huskey, Keeling was laid off because there was not enough work to justify keeping her position.
After the county appealed the decision, last week, an opinion issued by the Tennessee Court of Appeals affirms the judgement of the trial court in the case Melinda Keeling v. Coffee County. That means county taxpayers will have to pay more than $1 million in damages and attorney fees.
Keeling was fired from the county’s codes department on May 27, 2010. At that time, Glenn Darden was the department director and David Pennington served as a county mayor.
Darden retired in September 2015, and Pennington didn’t seek re-election after his term ended in 2014.
Keeling claims she was disciplined and ultimately fired because she brought up her concerns about Darden being unavailable to answer questions and address concerns brought by the public.
Coffee County Attorney Robert Huskey says that he will recommend the county file an application with the Tennessee Supreme Court in an effort to reverse the decision.
The county has 60 days or Nov. 17, 2018 to file application with the Tennessee Supreme Court to review the application and decide if the case will be re-evaluated by the court.

Education Commissioner Candice McQueen announced the 2018 Reward and Priority schools, which are two key designations under Tennessee’s school accountability system. This was the first year Tennessee implemented its new school accountability model, which was developed with educators and stakeholders across the state and which looks at multiple measures of success.
Reward status is the top distinction a school can earn in Tennessee. Reward schools are those that are improving overall student academic achievement and student growth for all students and for student groups, and they are identified annually. In 2018, 318 schools in 85 school districts – about 20 percent of schools in the state – earned Reward status.
Priority schools are identified at least every three years, and they are the schools most in need of support and improvement. Priority schools fall into the bottom 5 percent of schools in the state test scores over the past three years and have low graduation rates. Following legislation passed this spring, 2017-18 TNReady data was not used to identify Priority schools.
Hillsboro Elementary was listed as a Reward school along Robert E Lee Elementary in Tullahoma. No schools in Coffee County were listed as Priority schools.

An early Friday morning fire destroyed a home, a pickup truck and killed several chickens at 3510 Morris Ferry Bridge Road.
The fire broke out at a home just after 1 am Friday. Fire departments from Capitol Hill, Alto/Oak Grove, Decherd, Estill Spring and Hillsboro assisting in putting out the blaze.
The fire at 3510 Morris Ferry Bridge Road destroyed the home, a pickup truck and livestock.
No person was injured in the blaze.

Everyone has read and seen news stories about the devastation caused by Hurricane Florence on the Carolina coasts. Thanks to the initiative of a Tullahoma citizen, help from Tullahoma is on the way to a hard-hit small North Carolina community.
Thursday afternoon, a Tullahoma citizen stopped by the Cedar Lane Church of Christ and suggested to Minister Steven Hovater that the churches of Tullahoma should do something to help Swansboro, North Carolina, a suburb of Jacksonville, North Carolina. Swansboro experienced 34 inches of rain from Tuesday through Sunday, and much of the town is flooded. According to their Mayor, the town broke the state record for the most rain.
Items on the list include: Gas gift cards, Visa gift cards, Grocery gift cards for items like milk, eggs and cheese, fast food/casual dining gift cards, diapers of all sizes, wipes, baby formula, baby food, feminine hygiene products, fruit cups, applesauce cups, canned fruit, juice boxes, Gator-Aid, kid-friendly foods like individual bags of chips, granola bars, fruit snacks, etc. (things you would pack in a lunch box), socks and underwear (all sizes), batteries and cleaning supplies.
Hovater has agreed to serve as the point person. He can be reached at 455-4665.

On Sunday morning Coffee County Deputy Dwayne Mullins responded to a call at the Asbury Community Center for property damage.
The owner, Jeffrey Harrell stated he had received a call Saturday night that the building had been damaged. Harrell stated he checked the building and it appeared a semi-truck and trailer had turned around in the parking lot striking the right front gutter of the community center. About 30′ of gutter had been ripped off and the end corner of roof was damaged. The deputy stated in his report that there where tire tracks in the parking lot from a semi-truck turning around.
If you know anything that could help with the investigation please call the sheriff’s department at (931) 570-4421.