Category: News

Suzanne Foster, of Tullahoma, has been named director of Area 13 Special Olympics.
With former director stepping down last year and no director for several months, the organization has had to cancel several events, and the upcoming Area 13 Summer Special Olympics events were in jeopardy.
With Foster accepting the voluntary position, the upcoming Summer Olympics for Area 13 will be held.
The event is set for April 26 at the Tullahoma High School.
Area 13 serves Coffee, Bedford, Franklin, Lincoln and Moore counties.

A Manchester man was arrested March 6 for drug possession.
Austin D. Florence, 20, of Big Falls Circle, Manchester was arrested by Manchester Police Officer Derek Bowles on charges of manufacturing/delivering/selling/possession of a controlled substance, tampering with or fabricating/destruction of evidence and unlawful drug uses and activities.
According to warrants obtained by the officer, police were called to Rivendell Apartments on Expressway Drive in Manchester to a person unresponsive. When the officer arrived, he found a person on the ground and unresponsive. Officers administered Narcan to the man and he became responsive.
According to the police report, witnesses advised Officers Bowles and Officer Daryn Gadeken that Florence had disposed of what looked to be drugs and paraphernalia in the rear of the apartment building. The officers found a syringe, a spoon with white melted residue and one plastic bag containing white powder believed to be Heroin. According to a police report, Florence told the officers that he attempted to hide the drugs because he was “afraid” he would go to jail.
The unnamed man who was first unresponsive, allegedly told officers that he had not felt well, and he called Florence and he told the man that he had “something to help” him. The man told officers that he “snorted” what he believed to be Heroin but was not sure how much he had snorted. He said the next thing he remembered was when he came too and saw the officers and EMS personnel.
Florence was arrested and booked into the Coffee County Jail on the charges. His bond is $36,000 and he is to appear in Coffee County General Sessions Court April 24.

Attention Coffee County residents: Phone calls are being made to people in our area from Police Officers Support Alliance asking for donations to help support police officers.
Coffee County Sheriff Steve Graves wants to let the citizens of the county know that his department is in no way associated with this company. The caller has actually called at least two employees of the department asking for a donation. Sheriff Graves and others at the department have researched the Police Officers Support Alliance and at last report their mailing address was shown to be a mailbox inside a UPS store in Massachusetts. They are listed as a Political Action Committee or PAC and filing documents show them to be located in Texas.
Sheriff Graves says if you do not feel comfortable with whom you are speaking to, you should not give out any personal information. Graves added, “This has not been confirmed as a scam, but it always good to be cautious.”

A group of 13 senators have introduced legislation to allow 100,000 public schools to improve school safety by using federal dollars for school counselors, alarm systems, security cameras and crisis intervention training.
The School Safety & Mental Health Services Improvement Act was introduced by Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker of Tennessee along with other leaders.
Senator Alexander said, “We have drafted this legislation to help states and communities keep schools safe. Safe schools are for the most part a local responsibility, but in this case, the federal government can and should help. One way to do this is to give states and local school boards the authority to use federal dollars in different ways to make schools safer. For example, this bill would allow Tennessee to use federal dollars to upgrade school safety procedures, hire school counselors and develop mental health programs.”
Under The School Safety & Mental Health Services Improvement Act, the federal government can help in the following four ways:
• encourages more school counselors and other mental health professionals
• encourages school safety infrastructure upgrades
• encourages the development of mental health programs for crisis intervention training and mental health assessments
• creates a presidential task force to increase interagency communication

The Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) will meet in a special session Tuesday, March 13, to consider and act on the recommendation for the next president of Motlow State Community College.
Following national searches by two separate search committees and visits to the campuses by finalists, TBR Chancellor Flora W. Tydings is recommending Dr. Michael L. Torrence to become the new president of Motlow State Community College.
Torrence is currently assistant vice president of academic affairs at Volunteer State Community College in Gallatin, TN.

A Manchester man was arrested March 3 after a house in the northern part of the county was allegedly burglarized.
According to a report by Coffee County Sheriff’s Deputy Sgt. Stephen Sharketti, officers were dispatched to Green Grass Way Road which is off Highway 280 where the owner of a house spotted a silver Mercedes SUV leaving. The homeowner stated that the rear door had been kicked in.
As the deputy was headed to the residence he spotted a silver Mercedes SUV in a field on Gnat Hill Road. The deputy states in a report that Silk Delonina Trapp, 54, of Murfreesboro Highway, Manchester was standing outside the vehicle on the driver’s side. There were tire skid marks nearby and there were tracks in the muddy field leading to the vehicle. Trapp told the officer that he was not injured but an ambulance was summoned to check him out to make sure.
The deputy states in his report that he saw a bronze colored coin bank in the rear floor board of the vehicle. Trapp told deputies that he was traveling from Tullahoma back to his residence on Murfreesboro Highway. The deputy asked him if he knew where he was, and he said that he was unsure of what road he was on.
The deputy’s report states that he smelled alcohol and Trapp told him that he had consumed a “shot” of earlier. He said that a shot was three ounces of vodka.
Deputies Joey Ricco and Hassan Peterson then drove to the house that had been burglarized. Meanwhile Sharketti saw woman’s purse laying in the field directly across the roadway from the SUV. The purse appeared to have “fresh mud” on it. While the deputy was taking pictures of the purse a female from the house that had been burglarized arrived that the coin bank in the SUV was like one that she and her husband owned. She then was asked to describe any purse she might have which she did, and it matched the one in the muddy field. She told the officer that her purse had a handgun located in a zipper closed side pocket. The officer retrieved a loaded .38 Special revolver from the side pocket of the purse and saw identification of the woman.
Trapp denied having been at the residence on Green Grass Way. He was then told that the homeowner had security video of the man entering the house and leaving it.
Trapp was booked into the Coffee County Jail on his charges of DUI, aggravated burglary and illegal possession of a weapon. His bond was set at $62,500 and he is to appear in Coffee County General Sessions Court March 19.

On Tuesday (March 6th, 2018) Tennessee Highway Patrolman Jason Boles was notified of a stolen vehicle in the area. The officer found the vehicle at Trucker’s Inn on the Hillsboro Highway in Manchester.
A female was on video as being the only person in the vehicle when it pulled in.
The woman attempted to buy gas 10 different time using two different
credit cards not belonging to her. When taken into custody she
had in her possession 2 Georgia driver’s licenses not belonging to her.
When inventorying the vehicle, Boles allegedly found a checkbook with
several checks written out. One was made payable to the woman for
$1,000, along with other checks. The officer called the bank and
the checks were reported stolen. Also, allegedly found was 3 oz of a green leafy material believed to be marijuana, located in the glove box area. A pack of what is considered blunt papers were found in the floor on the passenger’s side.
Jahmaya Rashay Harris age 22, Waukegan, IL was taken into custody and charged with theft of property, criminal simulation, forgery, manufacturing/delivering/selling/possession of a controlled substance,
unlawful drug paraphernalia uses and activities, 2 counts of identity theft/use of another’s information. Her bond was set at $70,500 and Harris is scheduled to appear in court on April 17, 2018.

A Tullahoma woman was arrested March 5 for possession of drugs by Tullahoma Police Officer Taylor Gannon.
According to warrants, officers saw her walking in the early morning hours on Jeffeson Street and stopped to do a welfare check. In speaking with Alisha Suzette Burks, 30, of East Grundy Street, she allegedly had a “strong smell of marijuana coming from her person.” The officer asked her if she had anything and she produced a small bag of marijuana from her pocket.
As the officer was checking her he noticed a small box coming from her pants and hitting the ground. The officer allegedly found three packages of Zanax bars individually wrapped as well as another prescription drug individually wrapped.
She also had in her front pocket a small piece of methamphetamine.
As she was being booked into the Coffee County Jail, correction officers allegedly found a small piece of meth wrapped in a $10 bill in a body cavity.
Burks was charged with manufacturing/delivering/selling/possession of a controlled substance, possession of schedule IV, possession of schedule II, simple possession and contraband into a penal institution. Her bond was set at $21,000 and she is to appear in Coffee County General Sessions Court March 29.