Could some of the upper tennessee members tell me about this Unicoi County Sheriff

[leroy]

Dear brother and sister opiners; i'm interested in this little story found on the wbir news website:

 

http://www.wbir.com/news/article/283620/2/Charges-dropped-against-former-sheriff

 

I did a bit of quick searching and found several articles about what this guy was charged with; but i'm interested in the politics, background and motivation for the charges and resulting trial (...there has to be some...).  It's interesting to me that this guy has had this happen to him and seems to be innocent (...at least the juries and the judge seems to think so...). 

 

My interest, as you all can guess, is the political background and issues that drove this case.  There are those who believe that the TBI became a political lapdog and tool for the Bredesen administration due to a bunch of purges on his watch.  Please let me know what ya all think.

 

Thanks a bunch,

leroy

[leroy]

almost the weekend.  Will push this back up to the top.  Any upper east tennessee members know about this?

 

thanks,

leroy

[leroy]

Any news?

 

leroy

[Garufa]

I'm beginning to think the Tri-Cities crowd has no clue as to what's going on there.

 

There aren't but two towns in the whole county, Erwin and Unicoi itself.  Not surprised there's some type of malfeasance going on.  Interestingly, Unicoi is a Cherokee word for "hazy"  or "fog-draped".

[Raoul]

The chat on this seems to be small town/county sheriff appropriates resources in  a way typical of rural counties, then pisses off the wrong group who proceed to make his life interesting .

The jury pool sides with the sheriff on more than one occasion, at least enough to stop a conviction.

Seems to be fairly typical political BS. 

Unicoi's population is just a tad over 18,000 with 2 small towns. Limited gene pool.

[peejman]

The chat on this seems to be small town/county sheriff appropriates resources in a way typical of rural counties, then pisses off the wrong group who proceed to make his life interesting .
The jury pool sides with the sheriff on more than one occasion, at least enough to stop a conviction.
Seems to be fairly typical political BS.
Unicoi's population is just a tad over 18,000 with 2 small towns. Limited gene pool.

I used to live near there and suspect this is essentially the case. Small town politics and the "good ol boy" system hard at work. Erwin ain't exactly the most progressive place, even if they do make nuclear reactor fuel.

[45guy]

Erwin is as stated back there a ways. I know they hung a elephant with a crane once. I saw a old newspaper picture of it. I think the elephant escaped during a circus and killed someone so the good folks in Erwin took a crane and hung the elephant. Not sure what that says about the town but sure is a good story. I think Raoul has it correct on the story about the sheriff.

Edited August 11, 2013 by 45guy

[Dolomite_supafly]

I live with this kind of stuff every day. I live in a small town and the behavior can be described as cult like in how they protect certain families. The last three sheriffs we have had, except one, has had charges filed and then they are tossed out by the judge. Had one sheriff who was on THP roles at the same time as being sheriff. Not sure how he figured he wouldn't get caught but he almost made it 4 years before they did. The next one, and several of his officers, was indicted on insurance fraud. All those were handled behind closed doors. And if you are a prominant family you can be assured to get any charges dismissed, not like they don't do it for normal people at an alarming rate too. And the reason why is our county's inmates cost the county money so they try to house other counties inmates to make money. In the process a lot of criminals get released that should be in jail for a very, very long time. The current sheriff has rumors of what he, and his crew, were/are involved in before he took office and if it is true he will have the rest of the sheriffs beat. He signs my NFA paperwork without batting an eye so I am happy with him but there are some that are not.

 

And it isn't just the criminal acts that get taken care of. Our tax assessor's brother has some property he bragged about getting for $1 million dollars. He added sewer and water, roads for a subdivision as well as a a $300K+ building and a huge apartment complex to the property. And after all this it still assess for only $269K. Last year his 520+ acres appraised for $110K when it had the $300K building on the property. When I asked him about it during my appeal when I felt they charged me too much in taxes, oh yeah he is on the tax assessment appeals board, he said the downturn in the economy really hit him hard and it is not worth what he paid. BTW, adding a new $5K HVAC system to a home increases the value by $25K according to the tax assessors. His property borders a highway and is level land that by all accounts very desireable yet it appraises for $500 an acre with all the improvements. His home sits on 53 acres and appraised at $84,000 last year and $27K the previous year. I would really like a law passed that would say that a person could be forced to sell their property for 3x the tax value that way everyone would make sure their taxes were correct and that they are paying their fair share. I mean how is is possible for someone to own what is probably $3M+ piece of property and it only appraise at $269K. Those numbers are not after the 25% reduction either, for his actual taxes paid divide these numbers by 4 and that is what he actually pays taxes on. So he only pays taxes for $67K of assessed value in taxes on his $3M+ piece of property. That works out to only $1,687 according to the current tax bill which is still waiting to be paid. BTW, this is the same guy who was caught being paid for working a ghost shift in Knox county when it can be proven he never worked for Knox county. In that case all charges were dropped if he agreed to repay the $120K he stole.

 

I absolutely hate criminals, all of them, but I especially hate criminals that others aspire to be. Most people would hate to be a murderer or rapist but there are people who would not mind being a corrupt person in government.

[Oh Shoot]

Erwin is as stated back there a ways. I know they hung a elephant with a crane once. ...

 

Quick story:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_%28elephant%29

 

Detailed account:

http://blueridgecountry.com/archive/favorites/mary-the-elephant/

 

- OS

Edited August 11, 2013 by Oh Shoot

[Erik88]

Quick story:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_%28elephant%29

 

Detailed account:

http://blueridgecountry.com/archive/favorites/mary-the-elephant/

 

- OS

 

We passed through there back in March. I told Kelly the story about the elephant and being the animal lover that she is, was not amused at all. 

 

Quite a strange story.