A trooper with the Tennessee Highway Patrol dies after a battle with cancer.
Trooper Grant Gouldie was diagnosed with colon cancer earlier this year, and back in July, family friends decided to help him out, raising thousands of dollars by making and selling hand-painted wooden crosses.
Gouldie was a devoted husband and father to three children.
A former Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency officer pleads guilty to using state funds for personal use over the course of several years.
District Attorney General Russell Johnson’s office says an investigation into former agent Travis Buchanan began in February of 2023 after TWRA officials noticed discrepancies in the amount of gasoline purchased for his TWRA-issued pickup truck.
Buchanan, who worked for the TWRA for 19 years, was caught on surveillance using a state credit card to purchase more gasoline than his truck would use.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation then began surveillance of Buchanan, which documents repeated trips to a Morgan County gas station to fill up several gas containers in the back of his truck.
This resulted in him being indicted in September of 2023.
He was sentenced to six years probation and required to make an immediate restitution payment by certified check to TWRA in the amount of $46,000.
He also forfeited all rights to any pension funds and annuities that accumulated through the state retirement system, and he is barred from employment with the State of Tennessee.
A Knoxville man is sentenced after he crashed into another car head-on on Tazewell Pike after drinking several margaritas in September 2021.
Knox County District Attorney Charme Allen says 68-year-old Dennis Hill drove partially off the right side of Tazewell Pike then into oncoming traffic, where he hit the victim’s car head-on, killing him.
Hill was convicted of vehicular homicide by intoxication and driving under the influence, he was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Sevierville, TN (WOKI) The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Friday issued a Silver Alert for a man last seen in Sevierville.
According to the agency, 58-year-old Hank Brackins was last seen on Thursday near Arch Rock Drive.
TBI says Brackins also has a medical condition that could put him in danger and that he could be driving a 2000 Toyota 4Runner with license plate 26325PD.
Those with information are being asked to call 865-453-4668 or 1-800-TBI-FIND.
Jefferson County, TN (WOKI) A Jefferson County Schools bus driver has been charged with sex crimes.
Officials with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Friday announcing 56-year-old James Robert Smith was arrested and charged with 14 counts of sexual contact by an authority figure.
The arrest comes after the Department of Child Services reached out to the school system informing them of a complaint.
JCSO adds that investigators reviewed bus camera footage before taking Smith into custody and charging him.
He is being held on a $100,000 bond and has since been terminated from the school system.
Crossville, TN (WOKI) A high school teacher in Crossville is arrested Thursday after threatening a student in a classroom.
According to an affidavit from Cumberland County’s circuit court, Stone Memorial High School teacher, 56-year-old James Green, threatened the student with a knife after becoming upset with him for not following directions. The document indicates Green “retrieved the knife that he used to prepare his lunch from his desk area and made a threat toward the student.”
Green was arrested, charged with reckless endangerment and booked on a $40,000 bond.
He was also suspended from work and banned by school officials from entering all school system properties.
Rocky Hill, TN (WOKI) The co-owners of Rocky Hill Pharmacy are set to face trial in January after pleading not guilty in a case regarding a health care fraud conspiracy.
Tiffany Haney and Anne Warren, both licensed pharmacists, were indicted on multiple charges earlier this month amid accusations they were part of a health care fraud conspiracy that involved altering and forging prescriptions to get money from drug plan and pharmacy benefit managers.
According to court documents, a jury trial has been set for January 21, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. at the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Tennessee in Knoxville.
According to federal indictment documents, both women are accused of conspiring to commit health care fraud, making false statements relating to health care matters and aggravated identity theft.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has lowered the age recommendation for people who should get vaccinated for pneumonia from age 65 to 50.
This as pneumonia and other respiratory illnesses surge in East Tennessee and across the country.
The CDC says lower the recommended age will better protect adults who are in that age range where the risk of respiratory illness significantly increases. The updated age-based recommendation could improve pneumococcal vaccination coverage among adults 50 through 64 years old with a risk condition. Risk conditions include chronic conditions, immunocompromising conditions, and other factors that can increase someone’s risk for pneumococcal disease.
Pneumococcal bacteria can cause serious illnesses, including pneumonia, meningitis, and bloodstream infections.
For more information, please go to https://www.cdc.gov/ncird/whats-new/cdc-updates-vaccine-recommendations.html#:~:text=CDC%20also%20lowered%20the%20age,way%20to%20prevent%20pneumococcal%20disease.
A Maryville man is convicted of assaulting police, among other felony and misdemeanor charges, during 2021’s January 6th breach of the U.S. Capitol.
The FBI says 35-year-old Edward Kelley was found guilty of three felonies, destruction of government property and assaulting, resisting or impeding officers.
Kelley joined a growing list of people who stormed the Capitol after the 2020 election, upset with election results.
The FBI pointed to several videos which showed Kelley entering the building and assaulting officers.
So far, more than 1,500 people have been charged for crimes related to January 6th.
Maryville, TN (WOKI) One man is dead and a woman is injured following a shooting Thursday morning at the office of adult probation in Maryville.
Officials with the Maryville Police Department say an active shooter call prompted a large police response around 10:00 a.m. at Blount County’s adult probation office.
The caller told police that two people, a man and a woman, had been shot; they were later identified as 39-year-old Brian Steven Yates and 43-year-old Rikki Nicole Allen.
MPD says Yates shot Allen then himself. Officials add that the two share two children, but neither were present during the shooting.
No other injuries were reported, and the investigation is ongoing.
