Category: News

Special Agents from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation have obtained indictments for a Bedford County man accused of possessing child pornography.
Acting on an investigative lead from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, TBI Special Agents began investigating Rodger Lee Mader on April 19th. During the course of the investigation, Agents developed information that on March 30th, Mader uploaded images consistent with child pornography to his Google E-mail account.
On October 20th, the Bedford County Grand Jury indicted Mader, charging the 33-year-old Shelbyville man with 47 counts of Sexual Exploitation of a Minor. He was arrested by deputies from the Bedford County Sheriff’s Department and booked into the Bedford County Jail, where at the time of this release, he was being held on $235,000 bond.

The Manchester Police Department received a nice donation this week. The Patel family donated a 2002 Nissan 300 ZX to the department in memory of the late Dipan Patel. Manchester Police will use the car as its DARE program vehicle. Police Chief Mark Yother said the cost of the striping and lights for the car will be paid for out of money from the community police fund. Most of the money is donated through various sources.
Yother said he hopes the sports car will attract young people so they can help them make the right choices.
The Nissan 300ZX will be used in the DARE program, parades and other community events.
Police officers will also take the car to various speaking engagements at schools, senior centers, community organizations and other requested groups. Yother says it’s all about sending out positive information.
Call 728-2099 to speak to someone about a visit from Manchester Police in the donated DARE car.

Coffee County Leadership is a personal development program designed to educate participants on community dynamics and issues while also motivating participants to develop and utilize their knowledge and leadership skills in addressing important community issues and needs for the economic well-being and quality of life of Coffee County and our region.
The highly structured ten-month program presents a wide range of opinions and perspectives through lectures, panel presentations, tours and group activities. A primary goal of these activities is to train persons for leadership and involvement in public affairs and to establish channels of communication among community leaders.
On Wednesday the group had a “Quality of Life” day. The future leaders visited several locations around the area including the Manchester Recreation Center, Manchester Chamber of Commerce, Drug Court/Anti-Drug Coalition, Manchester Art Center and in Tullahoma Hands on Science Center, South Jackson Civic Center and the Tullahoma Chamber of Commerce.

Tullahoma Police Investigator Rana Pawlowski has charged 47 year-old Georgia resident, Harold L. Wiley, with the September 28, 2014, burglary of Galaxy Skate, located on Ledford Mill Rd. in Tullahoma, in which several arcade machines were broken into and damaged. Wiley was identified by both Coffee County Sheriff’s Department and Manchester Police personnel after Investigator Pawlowski forwarded surveillance video footage of the suspect from another local business to the departments. Personnel were able to identify Wiley due to his having been released from the Coffee County Jail, where he had been serving time and his involvement in the burglary of the Portillo Mexican Restaurant in Manchester, TN, in 2012.
Pawlowski continued to gather evidence relating to the case and on Monday, October 20, 2014, arrested Wiley and charged him with the Burglary. Wiley is currently being held in the Coffee County Jail under a $50,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in Coffee County General Sessions Court on November 3, 2014.

U.S. oil production has soared to its highest level since 1985, placing downward pressure on oil and gasoline prices. Crude settled at $82.75 on Friday, after dropping below $80 a barrel for the first time in two years on Thursday. The savings at the pump, created by the US “Shale Boom”, comes as a relief to consumers as the holiday shopping season approaches.
“Motorists are paying $5 to $15 less to fill their tanks than they were around July 4th,” said Josh Carrasco, spokesman, AAA – The Auto Club Group. “This is extra money that consumers can use for the holidays, either to put presents under the tree, or dinner on the table.”
Gas prices slid 10 cents nationally to $3.11 a gallon compared to last week, the lowest average since February 2011. Motorists in Tennesseans are seeing gas prices at their lowest point since December 2010. The average price at the pump in Tennessee is $2.89, down 11 cents from last week.
In Coffee County gas prices are as low as $2.78 per gallon in Manchester and $2.75 in Tullahoma. Memphis has the lowest price in Tennessee at $2.55 per gallon at several stations.

Residents and businesses in Tennessee paid $47 billion in federal taxes in 2013, according to a new report analyzing the federal budget’s impact on individual states. Becky Sweger, director of data and technology for the National Priorities Project, said most of the federal taxes coming out of Tennessee were paid by or on behalf of individuals in the form of income tax, self-employment tax and payroll tax. “On a per capita basis,” she said, “taxes paid by Tennessee comes out to about $7,300 a person in 2013.” The analysis also looked at how much is received in Tennessee from the federal budget over the course of a year, which totaled $66 billion. Sweger said that figure includes federal grants and contracts, the salaries of federal employees in the state and direct federal assistance. “Most of the money coming is aid to individuals,” she said, “and that has certainly been trending up for a total of about $66 billion, so that’s about $10,000 per capita.” The aid-to-individuals category includes programs such as Social Security, Medicare, food stamps and unemployment benefits. The report’s data is online at nationalpriorities.org/smart.

Motlow College kicked off Breast Cancer Awareness Month with its annual ‘Pink-Out’ event on the Moore County campus recently.
The Student Government Association, Phi Theta Kappa and the Office of Student and Campus Relations worked together to plan the event. Motlow students, faculty, staff, and the public participated in a ‘Unity Walk’ to show that those affected by cancer are not alone in the fight.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which is an annual campaign to increase awareness of the disease. While most people are aware of breast cancer, many forget to take the steps to have a plan to detect the disease in its early stages. The National Breast Cancer Foundation encourages people to be tested.

A hearing on a motion for a new trial for a man convicted of murdering a 24-year-old Tullahoma nursing student in July 2012 will be held Nov. 21.
Donnie Jones of Tullahoma entered a plea of guilty on Feb 4, 2013, in the murder of Megan Sharpton. Her partially-burned body was discovered on the morning of July 2, 2012, off Awalt Road near Tims Ford Lake in Franklin County.
After pleading guilty he filed a motion later the same month with the Franklin County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office to withdraw the plea and in October of 2013 his new court-appointed attorney, Sam Hudson of Dunlap, filed an amended withdrawal motion asking for a new trial. The motion for a new trial claims that Jones was coerced into pleading guilty to the murder charge by his attorney at the time.
The motion for a new trial will be heard by Franklin County Circuit Court Judge Thomas Smith.
Jones was arrested Nov. 5, 2012, on a charge of first degree murder, especially aggravated kidnapping and aggravated rape of Sharpton.
In addition to claiming that he was coerced, he also claims that there is evidence that proves he was at another location at the time of the murder and that his former attorney Joseph Ford told him that information would not matter.
According to the motion, Jones said authorities told him if he did not plead guilty they would find a way to convict his wife, as well.
Jones’ lawyer will attempt to convince the judge that a new trial should be granted.
Jones is currently housed in the Morgan County Prison, serving life in prison. (Some information provided by the Tullahoma News)

Two people from Grundy County were killed in a single car crash on Highway 108 in Marion County early Sunday morning.
Tennessee Highway Patrol says the Pontiac Grand Am was going north on Highway 108 when the driver went off the road going around a curve.
The car crashed through a fence, and hit a tree before stopping in the field. The car was on fire when emergency crews arrived.
The driver and the passenger were ejected and died on the scene. They have been identified as 33-year-old Glenda White of Palmer and 28-year-old Jeremy Braden of Gruetli Laager.