Category: News

Jon Canada Lovvorn

The search is over for a wanted man. The Coffee County Sheriff’s Department had been assisting other area law enforcement officers looking for Jon Canada Lovvorn. The 41-year-old was wanted for auto theft.
Lovvorn eluded police in Shelbyville last Thursday, but was captured on Saturday night in Murfreesboro.
The wanted man was spotted on U.S. 231 South by Rutherford County deputies headed toward Shelbyville, but then turned around and headed back toward Murfreesboro.
Lovvorn reached Interstate 24-South Church Street intersection, with one wheel down to the rim. Lovvorn was stopped on Interstate 840 by a Rutherford County deputy and arrested.

Tennessee officials hope a new state law will end legal disputes between emergency communications districts and telecommunications companies over 911 fee collections.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported Monday that the law puts the Tennessee Department of Revenue in charge of ensuring companies like AT&T and others collect and turn over state-mandated surcharges on landline and cellphone bills. The fees go to county 911 centers.
Previously, telecommunications companies turned over collection reports and payments on many of their charges to the Tennessee Emergency Communications Board.
Tennessee 911 districts also alleged in lawsuits that sometimes companies don’t charge fees on the lines they should or don’t remit them all to the government.

Gov. Bill Haslam

Gov. Bill Haslam says he is making the case for Japanese automakers Toyota Motor Corp. and Mazda Motor Corp. to build a new assembly plant in Tennessee.
But the Republican governor says Tennessee is far from alone in its efforts to land the $1.6 billion facility that could create up to 4,000 jobs.
Mazda and Toyota announced last week that the joint facility will have an annual production capacity of 300,000 vehicles, producing the Toyota Corolla sedan and a new Mazda crossover.
Tennessee is home to General Motors, Nissan and Volkswagen plants.

Dr. Kim-Sue Tudor, Director Medical Laboratory Technology Program… Photo provided

Dr. Kim-Sue Tudor has been selected to lead the newly approved medical laboratory technology (MLT) program at Motlow State Community College, according to Pat Hendrix, dean of allied health. The goal of the Smyrna campus-based program is to obtain state approval and to be positioned to attain national accreditation by the summer of 2018, when MLT classes are scheduled to begin.
Tudor comes to Motlow State with the blended background needed to establish as well as to grow a first-class, competitive, and successful MLT program. She has worked on staff at John Hopkins University and Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland among other leading hospitals in Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Ohio, Kentucky, and Virginia.
She most recently served as program director of the MLT program at Volunteer State Community College.

Colton Young

On August 3, 2017 Coffee County Sheriff’s Department Investigator James Sherrill received a call from Sheriff Patrick Ray with DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department who advised that he may have a suspect in a trailer theft that occurred on the Woodbury Hwy on April 6, 2017. Colton Young was being held in the White County Jail for multiple trailer thefts.
Sherrill and Investigator Kerry Farrar went to speak to Young and he allegedly admitted to multiple trailer thefts and the theft of some wheels from Ragsdale and Bushy Branch Road in Coffee County. Young said he took the trailer to his father’s residence in Oakdale Tn. Colton advised that his father allegedly bought most of the trailers that he stole. Colton advised his father would grind the VIN numbers off and repaint the trailer.
Young and the two investigators went to Morgan County and made contact with the man’s father, Ricky Young. Sherrill advised Ricky Young that they had information that he had stolen trailers on his property and that Morgan County had a warrant for him for theft over $1,000 on another unrelated case. The man gave consent to search a field for trailers saying the only trailer he had there was the flat bed, which Colton Young said was stolen out of Rockwood, which had been recently painted and U-Haul trailer.
Sherrill hooked up to the U-Haul trailer and took it to the Morgan County Sheriff’s Department. They called around and at the time did not find where the other flatbed trailer could have come from. Colton said that he stole trailers from multiple counties and took them to his father. Colton said that is how his father makes his living, by selling the trailers that Colton steals.
Colton Young will face charges in Coffee County once he’s released from jail in White County.

Students and parents and all motorists have until January to adjust to a new state law that makes talking on a cell phone – with the device in hand – illegal in an active school zone.
Not only texting or reading texts, but also talking on a phone in your hand.
The Tennessean reports State Sen. Jim Tracy, who sponsored the legislation with state Rep. John Holtsclaw, said constituents and law enforcement have said “they don’t think that anybody ought to be using a handheld cell phone during an active school zone.”
The law states that it’s an offense, Class C misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $50, for a person to knowingly operate a motor vehicle in any marked school zone in this state, when a warning flasher or flashers are in operation, while talking or texting on a hand-held mobile telephone while the vehicle is in motion.
However, the offense is not committed if the telephone is equipped with a hands-free device, for drivers 18 years of age and older.
A driver under age 18 is breaking the law by talking either using a hands-free or handheld device while driving through an active school zone.
Tracy said lawmakers contemplated pushing legislation that outlawed driving while talking on a handheld phone completely during the past legislative session. However, the state senator said like-minded legislators are waiting for feedback.

A higher percentage of people living with a disability live in Tennessee’s rural areas, indicating the need for more transit options, according to an analysis by ThinkTennessee. (Steve Johnson, flickr)

Tennessee skews older than the nation overall, and overall, the state’s disability rates are higher in rural communities, according to Census data analyzed by the nonpartisan think tank ThinkTennessee.
Shanna Hughey, the group’s president, says she hopes ThinkTennessee’s study of the population data gives state lawmakers access to information that helps them help their constituents.
“So knowing who Tennesseans are, and who will be in decades to come, is a really important part of that,” she states. “We’re hoping this information honestly inspires legislators from urban and rural areas to work together on issues that will affect them both.”
According to the report, 1 in 7 Tennesseans is older than 65, which is older than the national average of just above 15 percent. Additionally Hughey says ThinkTennessee found diverse populations in rural and urban areas.
Understanding that the state has an older population, and a high percentage of people with a disability living in rural communities, may help justify investments in transportation or modifications of voting options.
“We know that these populations might benefit from policies like transit options or no-fault absentee voting or increased health care access, and those can be really important things both in our rural areas and in our urban ones,” Hughey states.
According to the data, 1 in 6 people living in rural communities in the state has a disability.

Joshua Coty Gilley… Photo provided by the CCSD.

On Thursday night (August 3rd 2017) Joshua Coty Gilley was stopped for a traffic violation on Lumley Stand Road. A check of his driving privilege revealed the subject was revoked / suspended 5th offense. While speaking with Gilley age 37, whose address is listed as homeless.
Coffee County Deputy Blake Simmons noted a smell of marijuana coming from the car, the deputy inquired if Gilley had anything in the vehicle and the man allegedly told Simmons that he had a small amount of marijuana in the car. The arrest warrant indicates the Gilley gave consent to search and approximately 1 gram of marijuana was allegedly found in a small bag along with 18 grams of crystal methamphetamine, in Gilley’s boot. The warrant goes onto state that also in his boot was 6 and a half Xanax bars, one 8mg Hydromorphone and one green unidentified pill. The man also allegedly had in his vehicle, baggies, digital scales and a spoon.
Gilley was charged with driving on revoked/suspended 5th offense, simple possession /casual exchange, manufacturing/delivering/possession of controlled substance, schedule II drug violation and unlawful drug paraphernalia. He booked in at the Coffee County Jail under a bond of $14,500 and he will appear in Coffee County Court on September 11, 2017.