Category: News

Coffee County District Attorney Craig Northcott

The Coffee County District Attorney’s Office has been ordered by the State Court of Criminal Appeals to provide pretrial diversion in a case that occurred in 2006. The pretrial diversion would mean that the person accused of a crime can see the charges being removed from their record after a period of a year or two.
Susan Gail Stephens, a former substitute teacher in Tullahoma, was charged with two counts of statutory rape and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor in connection with an incident involving a teenage boy that occurred in 2006.
According to court documents, Tullahoma Police had reports in late 2005 and early 2006 that Stephens and her codefendant Kelley Renee Eaves had been “hosting parties for high school students in the Eaves’ home” on Albermarle Drive that allowed young boys to consume alcohol and smoke cigarettes.
In asking for the Criminal Court of Appeals for pretrial diversion, she says that since the incident in February 2006 she has been a fully law-abiding citizen.
Attorneys Edward Yarbrough and Alex Little represented Stephens. While Assistant District Attorney Jason Ponder prosecuted the case.
“We are upset over this ruling,” Coffee County District Attorney Craig Northcott said Thursday. “The District Attorney’s office have pursued a conviction against Ms. Stephens to fullest extent of the law. We fought against the diversion and are asking the State Attorney General to appeal this decision to the Tennessee Supreme Court. We have no control over the appeal but hope that they will seek to have the decision overturned. If this decision is overturned, we will continue to pursue justice in this case which would include a conviction. If the Court of Appeals is allowed to mandate that this defendant face no real consequences for her crimes and she complies with any and all terms of her probation, there will never be a conviction against her.”
Eaves was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and was placed on probation for her part in the incident.

The Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, with the cooperation of retired Director of Schools Rebecca Sharber, concluded a six month undercover operation (Operation “School Boy’) Tuesday July 7th, 2015 before a Franklin County Grand Jury, resulting in twelve people indicted, 2 juvenile petitions and multiple arrest warrants to follow.
According to case office Investigator Nick Watson, the operation was the culmination of an undercover operation initiated at Franklin County High School, beginning December 2014, and providing information that directed the operation into the City of Winchester and other parts of the county. Operations were conducted within FCHS resulting in the purchase of high grade marijuana, prescription pills and Schedule I hallucinogenic narcotics. Undercover operations then proceeded off campus to various locations in the county with the most concentrated efforts occurring at business parking lots in the Winchester area.
The investigative report goes on to state that several controlled buys were conducted on and off campus by undercover agents and information regarding drug activity in Franklin County was obtained as well as the type of drugs being made available at FCHS and locally within the city and county. The Hydroponic marijuana and hallucinogenic drugs i.e. mushroom laced tootsie rolls are examples of substances drug traffickers are attempting to make available to young adults and in some cases young teens.
The outlining charges include more than 30 individual charges with 12 adults and 2 juveniles involved along with other arrest warrants to be served in the immediate future along with four vehicle seizures. There is an ongoing investigation concerning the operation and further information will be released as appropriate.

State Senator Janice Bowling

Senator Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma) announced this week that the Tullahoma South Jackson Civic Association has received a $9,200 grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission in the category of Partnership Support. The grant is made possible through an appropriation of state funds by the General Assembly, Tennesseans who buy specialty license plates and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.
“The arts do have a positive impact on our community and the effects certainly trickle down: the creative thinking skills of students are improved, our local culture is communicated through various mediums, and the community’s beauty is enhanced for our residents and visitors,” said Senator Bowling.
“Tennessee is very fortunate to have elected leaders who support our communities through investments in arts and cultural assets,” said Anne B. Pope, Executive Director of the Tennessee Arts Commission.
The Arts Commission will award approximately 1,000 community grants in both urban and rural areas through the 2016 fiscal year, totaling $5.3 million. The allocation process involves a review by citizen advisory panels made up of Tennesseans with expertise in appropriate disciplines and a final review by the full 15-member Commission.

With eight such heatstroke deaths in the U.S. already this year, parents in Tennessee and nationwide are being reminded never to leave children inside a vehicle unattended. Photo credit: Inga Munsinger Cotton/Flickr.

With the Fourth of July holiday now in the books, it’s straight ahead to Tennessee’s hottest days of summer and parents are being reminded of the dangers when it comes to children, vehicles and heatstroke. There are children every year who die after being left in the heat in a vehicle unattended and while the voices that follow always exclaim, ‘Not me.’ Janette Fennell, president and founder with KidsandCars.org, says… “The worst mistake you can make is to think that this can’t happen to you or someone in your family,” says Fennell. “We are human and sometimes, our memories let us down. So, if we realize that everyone is capable of having something like this happen to them, we will put the correct safety measures into place.” Fennell says those safety measures include always looking before you lock or leaving an important item, such as a cell phone or handbag, in the back seat so you have to open the back door to retrieve it every time you park. On average, 38 children die each year from heat-related deaths after being trapped inside motor vehicles. While most of those deaths are from parents leaving or forgetting their child is in the back seat, Fennell says about a third are children who climb into a parked car unnoticed. So, she says you should always keep your vehicle locked even if it’s in your driveway or garage. “Another thing that’s very important is to make sure you have keys that are out of reach of children,” she says. “So many of them have remote openers and the kids want to use those and they make noises and the trunk pops open and all of those fun things. But it could be a death sentence in the hands of a child.” According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, temperatures inside a car can rise more than 20 degrees in only 10 minutes and even with an outside temperature of just 60, the temperature inside a car can reach 110 degrees.