Roane County News

The EPA has approved TVA's plan to transfer ash from its spill site in Roane County to the Arrowhead Landfill in Perry County, Ala.

After two days of testimony, the fate of a Roane County constable accused of intimidating and harassing law enforcement officers, elected officials and residents now rests with a judge.

Elected Roane County officials and police officers testified Monday that they've been harassed, intimidated and frightened by a constable with a penchant for making obscene gestures.

According to testimony, Constable Mark Patton has: doused three young men with pepper spray; made improper traffic stops; frightened a would-be opponent into dropping out of the constable's race; made repeated threats toward police and local elected officials, often accompanied by gestures made with his middle finger.

Patton, 49, is fighting to stay in his nonpaying job as a Kingston-area constable.

Editorial, By Joe Webb

I have been following the story of the tragic death of Savannah Cass McMahan and the subsequent re-victimization of her family by a lazy, distracted, certainly incompetent, and probably ethically-compromised District Attorney General's office. My emotions have swung from excruciating sorrow for the young woman's family, to an almost blind fury at the notion of allowing her alleged killer to walk free. This infuriates me (fathers of daughters reading this will understand).

As I read the coverage of this tragedy and the compounding epic farse that is the criminal justice system in the 9th Judicial District under Russell Johnson, something caught my eye and it added a new dimension. Maybe this is a teachable moment in our lives. Maybe there is something important to be learned in this horror. Maybe something good can come from something so terribly bad.

The thought came reading Hugh Willet's excellent coverage of this story for the Knoxville News-Sentinel. In his story "Family critical of plea deal in shooting", Mr. Willet writes of John McMahan, the victim's father "McMahan said he witnessed the couple's frequent arguments and what he called "bullying" by Harvey." Willet goes on to quote Mr. McMahan "She said she was going to leave him several times before the shooting," he said. "I know that's why he shot her, because she said she was going to leave."

Did you catch it? Did you see the teachable moment? I'll give you a hint: The key word is "bullying" suggesting domestic violence that just didn't get addressed in time. Tragically, many don't and maybe that lesson is the silver lining here. This tragedy may have given us an opportunity to think deeply and critically about domestic violence, and our response as a community to domestic violence.

(Click the headline to view the full article)

A joint public meeting on the TVA ash spill recovery effort was held at Roane State Community College Tuesday night, but it wasn't just local residents who expressed their concerns.

Knoxville News-Sentinel editorial, June 26, 2009:

Justice was not served when prosecutors in the Ninth Judicial District agreed to five years' probation for a Lenoir City man who shot his girlfriend to death.

John Kenneth Harvey, 26, was originally charged with second-degree murder in the February 2008 death of Savannah Cass McMahan, 21.

Harvey admits he was arguing with McMahan when he picked up a loaded .22 from a nearby table. The two argued often, according to McMahan's father, who said Harvey bullied his daughter, and "she said she was going to leave him several times before the shooting."

The gun was a single-action revolver, and the detective in the case said it had to be cocked before it could be fired. The powder burns he found showed McMahan was shot at close range.......

If prosecutors could not do better than a no-jail-time deal in that case, they should have gone to trial and let 12 citizens decide who had the best ballistics expert.

This plea bargain simply undermines faith in the judicial process.

(The full editorial is longer than Topix allows on the news board. To read it in its entirety, visit the accompanying link. The Ninth Judicial District includes Loudon, Roane, Morgan, and Meigs counties.)

The Tennessee Valley Authority's waiting for approval from the Environmental Protection Agency to move millions of tons of spilled fly ash from Roane County.

The U.S. Geological Survey confirms a small earthquake rocked East Tennessee on Sunday morning.

On Thursday, June 18th, in Knoxville, U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Varlan, Jr. sentenced Roy Lynn Oakley, 67, of Harriman, to six years in prison for trying to sell parts of uranium enrichment equipment that he had stolen from a U.S. Department of Energy facility in Oak Ridge.

When Oakley pled guilty in January, he admitted that he had tried to sell these materials for $200,000 to a person he believed was an agent of a foreign power.

The parents of a Lenoir City woman shot and killed by her boyfriend are speaking out against a plea bargain that sentenced their daughter's killer to five years on probation.

The plea-deal was granted by the office of Russell Johnson, District Attorney General for Roane, Loudon, Meigs, and Morgan counties.

"I want justice for my daughter," said Sarah Berry, mother of Savannah Cass McMahan, 21, who was shot by John Kenneth Harvey, 26, in February 2008.

Harvey was originally charged with second-degree murder, and admits he shot the woman during an argument but claims it was an accident. The charge was reduced to reckless homicide.

The victim’s mother, Sarah Berry, said she met several times with the district attorney general's office. She says the office wanted to avoid a trial from the beginning,

The victim's father, John McMahan, said he witnessed the couple's frequent arguments and what he called "bullying" by Harvey. McMahan says his daughter was going to leave Harvey. He says:

I know that's why he shot her, because she said she was going to leave"

Assistant Attorney General Bill Reedy says one critical factor in not pursuing a murder charge was a "dying declaration" made by the victim that the shooting was accidental. The witness was said to be Nathan Lane, who called the ambulance that night.

Lane says that he never heard a dying declaration and never agreed to testify to hearing such a thing:

By the time I saw her she was already going into convulsions. She didn't say a thing to me."

For more details, see the full story.

Roane County Attorney Tom McFarland has filed a restraining order in Roane County Chancery Court against his ex-wife to keep her from taking their two children swimming again in the Emory River near the scene of TVA's coal ash spill.

TVA could become the first utility company in the nation to try out a new type of nuclear reactor and it's getting support from Roane County Executive Mike Farmer.

A Lenoir City man who admitted shooting and killing his girlfriend during an argument last year will receive five years' probation for the crime.

John Kenneth Harvey, 26, was arrested in February 2008 and charged with second-degree murder in the death of Savannah Kathy McMahan, 21.

Prosecutors said they reduced the charge to reckless homicide and agreed to five years' supervised probation after reviewing the evidence in the case.

According to the Rockwood Fire Department, an early morning fire consumed the gas station and convenience store that was known as both Super Stop and the House of Tobacco in Rockwood on Tuesday.

Roane County Attorney Tom McFarland has filed a restraining order in Roane County Chancery Court against his ex-wife to keep her from taking their two children swimming again in the Emory River near the scene of TVA's coal ash spill.

Joan McFarland said Monday that both TVA and public officials have given assurances that there are no safety concerns.

McFarland said there have been conflicting reports about "what's in that water".

Some people didn't like the way Tony Brown lost his job as Roane County administrator of elections.

A federal health agency is set to spend 22 weeks testing samples from the site of the coal ash spill site at the Kingston Fossil Plant.

The Roane County grand jury has indicted two people in two separate murder cases.

Ralph Oneal, 33, of Harriman was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Ronnie Dean Cofer in August 2007.

Lonnie Lee White, 46, who was originally charged with reckless homicide, has now been charged with second-degree murder in the death of Misty Dawn Wilmeth on March 10.

Roane County Sheriff Jack Stockton says one of his deputies is on leave after fatally shooting a Harriman man over the weekend.

The woman who walked into a Westel convenience store and held a Sharpie pen in her pocket to make the clerk think she had a handgun has gone to prison after accepting a sentencing agreement in Cumberland County Criminal Court.