U.S. Representative Bart Gordon has scheduled two additional telephone town hall events on August 21 for residents of Tennessee’s Sixth Congressional District. The telephone-based public
forums will allow residents to communicate directly with Representative Gordon, enabling them to share their concerns and ask questions about health care, veterans’ issues, the economy and other important issues facing Tennessee and the country.
“I have scheduled these events because I want to hear from as many of my constituents as possible, which will allow me to better represent Middle Tennessee,” said Gordon.
On Friday, August 21, Gordon will hold two separate telephone town hall events – one at 11:00 a.m. central time (CDT) and another at 5:30 p.m. CDT. Telephone town halls do not require participants to travel – they only require a telephone.
“There are a number of challenges facing our country right now, and there are no quick fixes,” explained Gordon. “I hope as many folks as possible will sign up for one of the telephone public forums.”
Residents of the Sixth District interested in participating in the telephone town hall events on August 21 can sign up by visiting www.house.gov/bart or by calling Congressman Gordon’s Murfreesboro office at 615-896-1986.
Registered participants will receive a phone call on August 21 shortly before the start of the telephone town hall for which they signed up. Participation is toll free and easy – upon receiving the invitation phone call on August 21, registered participants will hear simple instructions about how to listen, ask questions, and leave messages.
“These call-ins are just part of my efforts to understand the concerns of the more than 700,000 constituents across the 15 counties I represent in the Sixth District,” added Gordon.
Tennessee’s Sixth Congressional District includes the following counties: Bedford, Cannon, Clay, DeKalb, Jackson, Macon, Marshall, Overton, Putnam, Robertson, Rutherford, Smith, Sumner, Trousdale, and part of Wilson.

A 30 year old Smithville woman is charged with passing a forged instrument at a local pharmacy,
In his weekly press release, Smithville Police Chief Richard Jennings reports that Sara Rea Edmonds of 318 West Broad Street, Apartment 202, Smithville will be in court on the charge August 27th and her bond is $25,000
Smithville Police Officer Matt Farmer conducted an investigation about forged prescriptions being passed at Rite Aid Pharmacy in Smithville and he developed a suspect in the case. On August 2nd at approximately 5:50 p.m., the suspect entered Rite Aid Pharmacy and passed another forged prescription. Officer Farmer was not on duty but contacted Smithville K-9 Officer Brad Tatrow and sent him to Rite Aid Pharmacy. Officer Tatrow made contact with Edmonds and determined that she was attempting to pass a forged prescription for Hydrocodone pills. She was arrested and charged in the case.
34 year old Jo Ann Rutland, also known as Jo Ann Certain, of 2392 Bright Hill Road, Smithville is charged in connection with the theft of a purse belonging to Michelle Burklow. Bond for Rutland is $10,000 and her court date is August 20th .
Burklow’s purse was stolen from the Board of Education building on July 27th. The purse contained items valued at over $1,000. An investigation conducted by Smithville Police Officer Matt Farmer led to the arrest of Rutland.
27 year old Andrea Nicole Bass of 1018 Roy Womack Road, Smithville is charged with violation of probation. She was arrested on August 2nd by Smithville Police Officer Randy King. Bass’ original conviction was for possession of drug paraphernalia. Her court date is August 27th.
Smithville Police Officer Matt Farmer arrested 32 year old Nena Bell Sprague of Ole Possum Road, Watertown on a capias for failing to appear in General Sessions Court.
27 year old Patrick Nelson Blevins of 620 Anderson Ridge Road, Silver Point is charged with public intoxication, possession of a schedule VI controlled substance, and possession of drug paraphernalia. His total bond is $3,000 and his court date is August 20th.
Smithville Police Officer Matt Farmer was sent to South Mountain Street, Smithville on August 5th around 8:58 p.m. to investigate a complaint of a man walking in the middle of the roadway. Officer Farmer made contact with Blevins and determined that he was intoxicated. Witnesses told Officer Farmer they saw Blevins throw something into the bushes. Officer Farmer found a small black and red bag in the bushes. The bag contained a small amount of a green leafy plant material, believed to be marijuana and some rolling papers. During the search of Blevins, a pipe was found in his jacket pocket that Officer Farmer believed was used to smoke marijuana.
49 year old Grover Lamont Jones of 627 Restview Drive, Smithville is charged with theft of property under $500. His bond is $1,000 and his court date is September 1st.
Smithville Police Detective Jerry Hutchins was dispatched to Food Lion on South Congress Boulevard on August 6th at 9:50 p.m. to investigate a report of a shoplifter. Upon arrival, Detective Hutchins made contact with Jones and during the investigation, found four bottles of vanilla extract in Jones’ front pocket belonging to Food Lion that had not been paid for.
Chief Jennings says if any citizen has any knowledge of criminal activity occurring in our community, please report it to the proper authorities. Any information received by the Smithville Police Department will be confidential.

The four officers implicated in a suspected insurance fraud and illegal prescription drug distribution scheme in McMinnville have been identified.
One of them is now a former employee of the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department who resigned this week after his name surfaced in the investigation. Although Sheriff Patrick Ray, in a prepared statement, did not reveal the name of the employee “until the investigation is completed”, the Southern Standard on Friday identified Larry Pedigo, Jr., as the employee. Pedigo is also a former McMinnville Police Officer.
According to the report, the two McMinnville Police Officers, Cam Conry and Daniel Clayton have been fired under the state’s at-will policy and David Seibers, a deputy with the Warren County Sheriff’s Department , remains on unpaid suspension pending the results of an internal affairs investigation by the department.
No one has yet been charged.
A raid was conducted Monday morning by state and Warren County law enforcement agencies at the Ameri-Care Urgent Care Clinic on South Chancery Street in McMinnville where the suspected illegal activity had been taking place.
The TBI and District Attorney’s Office are investigating

The DeKalb County Beer Board could decide next month whether to revoke the off premises permit of Nicole’s Market at 7024 Short Mountain Highway.
The board met briefly Thursday night but voted to defer the revocation hearing until the September 3rd meeting. The delay was requested by the county attorney Hilton Conger, who could not attend last night’s meeting. Attorney Frank Buck, who will be representing the owners of Nicole’s Market, also requested a postponement since he has just been retained and hasn’t had an opportunity to prepare for the hearing.
Last month, the beer board denied an application for an off premises permit to Debbie Sacran, the owner of D & D Market at 7166 Short Mountain Highway, because the store is only 840 feet from the Mount Pisgah Free Will Baptist Church.
DeKalb County has a rule forbidding the sale, storage and manufacture of beer and like beverages within 2,000 feet (or some lesser distance) of schools, churches, and other places of public gathering.
The problem is, the beer board, in November 2008, granted an off premises permit to Areceli Soto Godinez, the owner of Nicole’s Market, formerly known as Kilgore’s Grocery, which is only 1,447 feet from the Mount Pisgah Free Will Baptist Church.
Members of the beer board say they were unaware that Nicole’s Market did not meet the distance requirement when they approved the application, assuming that the applicant understood the rules when he filed. No one from the community appeared before the beer board at the time to object and the board apparently made no attempt to verify the distance between the store and the church, until this summer, after the controversy came to light.
So after denying D & D Market’s application, the board also voted last month to schedule a hearing to consider revoking the license of Nicole’s Market.
Sarah Cripps, attorney for David and Debbie Sacran, says that’s not acceptable. She says since the beer board has already violated the 2,000 foot distance requirement by making an exception for one store, it cannot now enforce the rule on anyone. Cripps says she plans to file an appeal to either the Chancery or Circuit Court.
County Attorney Hilton Conger says an erroneous permit issued by the beer board inadvertently can legally be revoked, without invalidating the distance requirement.
A petition bearing the names of dozens of citizens in the community opposed to the sale of beer at D & D Market was presented to the beer board last month.
Since then, Sacran says a petition has been placed at D & D Market where so far more than four hundred signatures have been obtained from people not opposed to the sale of beer at D& D Market. “We had no petition until neighbors started to come in and ask us about the petition that was being circulated asking them to oppose us selling beer. So neighbors came in the store, even some who had signed the petition in opposition saying they did so just to get those people (circulating the petition) to leave us alone, and they asked us to start a petition for those not opposed to the sale of beer at D & D Market. It’s been a couple of weeks and right now we have 463 signatures. The community is mad. This is a common sense thing. What is the big deal? Those opposing have no problem going to Walmart, Food Lion, Rite Aid, or any of your other stores who sell beer. We are a family run business and we will remain so. But the community is livid that we would be asked to turn our backs and not sell a commodity that like businesses on the same road are selling. We appreciate that. They have the common sense to understand the real issue here.”
Sacran says she is also concerned about a letter to the editor in a local newspaper signed by the owner of another convenience market in the area suggesting that there is a dispute between D & D Market and Nicole’s Market. “There has never been a dispute between Nicole’s Market and D & D Market and there is not now a dispute between us. The dispute is between D & D Market and the DeKalb County Beer Board.”

Liberty voters re-elected Mayor J. Edward Hale and Aldermen Jarrett Pistole and William H. Reynolds, Jr. to new two year terms Thursday.
This year’s Liberty Municipal Election was uncontested.
Reynolds received 32 votes while Pistole and Hale each had 30 votes.
A total of 34 people voted in the election.
The Liberty Mayor and Board of Aldermen is made up of Mayor Hale and Aldermen Pistole, Reynolds, Paul M. Neal, Dwight Mathis, and Todd Dodd.

A former bookkeeper at the DeKalb County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office has been charged in a Grand Jury sealed indictment with theft over $1,000.
36 year old Tonya D. Page of Jacobs Pillar Road, Smithville will appear in DeKalb County Criminal Court for arraignment on August 17th. Her bond is $25,000
The charges stem from a TBI investigation into a cash shortage of $8,501 in General Sessions Court funds, which was discovered during an annual state audit
At the time of the discovery, Circuit Court Clerk Katherine Pack said she made the District Attorney General’s Office aware of the shortage and the D.A. requested the TBI investigation. Ms. Pack says the shortage occurred during the period of time when she was out of the office undergoing surgery.
Page was initially hired as a clerk in the office three years ago and later became a bookkeeper. She was recently terminated from her employment there.
The case against Page was presented to the Grand Jury by the TBI.
Meanwhile, Sheriff Patrick Ray says his department investigated two cases that were presented to the grand jury for sealed indictments this week.
34 year old Jamie Dean Murphy of Evins Mill Road Smithville is charged with criminal responsibility for aggravated statutory rape. His bond is $25,000. Sheriff Ray says while investigating an aggravated statutory rape case earlier this year, county detectives learned that a 31 year old woman, Brandy Egerton of Page Drive, Smithville allegedly had a sexual relationship with a 17 year old male juvenile and was charged with the crime in March of this year. Detectives allege that Murphy participated in this crime.
37 year old Tonya Gay Silcox of West Main Street Liberty is charged with two counts of forgery, two counts of passing a forged instrument, and theft of property over $500. Her bond is $25,000. Sheriff Ray says last month, county detectives received a theft report alleging that four checks along with a solid gold college ring were stolen from a residence on Fourth Street in Smithville. Detectives discovered that Silcox had sold a ring fitting the description of the stolen ring at a jewelry store in Smithville. Detectives retrieved the ring and the victim identified it. Detectives also learned that Silcox had forged two of the victim’s checks which were passed at a business in DeKalb County.
The Grand Jury also returned a sealed indictment in a case presented by the Smithville Police Department.
50 year old Joseph Edward Mantz Jr. and 47 year old Mary Lee Mantz of Dogwood Point Road McMinnville are charged with three counts of sale of a schedule II drug, three counts of delivery of a schedule II drug, two counts of sale of a schedule III drug, and two counts of delivery of a schedule III drug. Bond for both was set at $50,000 each.
All defendants will appear for arraignment in criminal court on Monday, August 17th at 9:00 a.m.

An employee at the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department has resigned after his name surfaced along with three other Warren County/McMinnville Police officers in an investigation into illegal distribution of prescription drugs and TennCare fraud at the Ameri-Care Urgent Care Clinic in McMinnville.
In a prepared statement, Sheriff Patrick Ray states that “on August 3rd, I was formally advised of an active investigation involving one of my employees. On August 4th, I placed the employee on paid administrative leave pending outcome of the investigation. Then on August 5th, the employee resigned their employment from the Sheriff’s Department.”
“The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office is conducting an internal investigation and is fully cooperating with all investigating agencies in this matter. The nature of my department’s internal investigation centers around a probe being conducted in Warren County and the investigation will seek to determine if the former employee’s conduct was criminal in nature.”
“At this time the former employee’s name is being withheld until the investigation is completed.”
According to the Southern Standard, a raid was conducted Monday morning by state and Warren County law enforcement agencies at the Ameri-Care Urgent Care Clinic on South Chancery Street in McMinnville amid allegations of TennCare fraud, other insurance fraud, and illegal distribution of drugs.
A Warren County Sheriff’s deputy has been placed on unpaid suspension and an internal personnel probe is being conducted at the McMinnville Police Department where two officers there have been implicated in the case.
The DeKalb County employee is a former patrolman with the McMinnville Police Department
Since the Monday raid, investigators have been going through paperwork trying to figure out whether prescription drugs and narcotics were really being sold illegally.
Officials said so far no charges have been filed.