The Putnam Pit
[No bull]
 

FBI busts Cookeville cops in drug, money laundering sting

Tennessean beats Herald-Citizen with story about corruption allegations

Crimes allegedly took place right under the nose of C'ville's top cop Bob Terry and DA Bill Gibson, who denies using cocaine

From the Tennessean:

Drug sting nabs 2 officers, 6 others

Cocaine ferried, cash laundered in scheme, FBI says


COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (Aug. 17, 2005) — Shortly after 10 a.m. yesterday, FBI agents arrived at the Cookeville Police Department to arrest two men.

The suspects were easily spotted.

They wore blue ... and police badges.

By noon, "Operation Tarnished Shield," a three-year effort by federal and state authorities to "root out corruption" in this Upper Cumberland Plateau city, also had resulted in the arrest of two former law enforcement officers.

Four other individuals, for a total of eight, also were taken into custody as part of the undercover sting investigation that alleges police participation in a conspiracy to ferry cocaine and launder hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Arrested yesterday at the Cookeville Police Department were Master Patrol Officer Reno Martin, a 15-year veteran of the department, and Patrol Officer Jason Blythe, who has been on the force three years.

Also taken into federal custody yesterday were Steven Bert Williamson, a former police officer in Algood, and Gregory Dale Scott, who once worked as a corrections officer at the Putnam County Jail.

Others arrested included Ronald Middlebrook, a Cookeville auto body shop owner, and his sister, Robin Blaskis, a certified public accountant in Cookeville. Also nabbed in the sting were Troy Bell and Darrell Thomas Jones, also of Putnam County. MORE

Cookeville, Putnam County would pay firms to stay

But with a history of dog shooting, cops running over suspect, psychologically unstable police, drunkard in government service, computer hackers who pay to settle lawsuit, an arson murderer running loose, DA who says he doesn't use cocaine, candidate murder -- is there enough money?

Should a company with stockholders risk doing business in a lawless town?

Every company in Cookeville should ask for a handout

One way to find out.

 Every company in Cookeville should ask for a handout.


Hair-oiled Citroën  employee Mary Jo Denton works deputy's name six times into a 13-paragraph sex article involving a 15-year-old girl


The hidden cost of the War on Terror

Supreme Court asked to decide whether attorney general illegally changed IRS regulations to allow federal police powers Congress meant to curb

By GEOFF DAVIDIAN
WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 14, 2005)
--
 Millions of Americans put down a good chunk of their earnings each year as the tax man takes his cut to provide services like protecting us from terrorists.
      But the U.S. Supreme Court is being asked in
Payne v. USA to decide whether former Attorney General John Ashcroft illegally rewrote treasury regulations in a surreptitious end-run around congressional limits on federal police powers – powers that were meant to protect citizens from the damage caused not by terrorists, but by the IRS.  More


Book Review

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
(2004, San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 250 pp., $24.95)
 

'And we wonder why terrorists attack us?' asks author John Perkins

By GEOFF DAVIDIAN
Editor, The Putnam Pit
In Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins gives us good insight into everything wrong with capitalism, and in doing so shows us an example of the kind of person who makes it all wrong.

Perkins portrays a world where a few are kept permanently happy on the one simple condition that millions of souls lead lives of economic misery and exploitation, through a system in which religious groups, corporations and U.S. policy converge wherever poor nations have resources we want.  More

Our Private Legislatures

WASHINGTON, January 24, 2005 — Ever wonder what outside financial interests a Tennessee legislator might have? Now you can find out with a couple of clicks of your mouse. Putting the country's government ethics laws to work, the Center for Public Integrity today made thousands of state legislators' outside interest disclosure filings available to online users. More

Tennessee Legislators'
2004 Personal Financial Disclosures

Tennessee House Armstrong, Joe E
Tennessee House Hargrove, Jere L
Tennessee House Windle, John Mark
Tennessee House Winningham, Les
Tennessee Senate Burks, Charlotte

____________________

Although they admit no guilt . . .

Cookeville pays $77,000 to settle dog shooting case

In a continuation of City Mismanager Jim "Jimmy Dale " (Jimbo) Shipley's policy of paying public money to bail out incompetent public employees without admitting anything, the Smoaks family of North Carolina gets $77,000 for being pulled from their car on Jan. 1, 2003, handcuffed on the side of the road and watching Cookeville Police officer Eric Hall blow the head off their dog Patton execution style.

''We felt like we had a good case and we did nothing wrong. We admitted no liability in the settlement. In my opinion, it was a good economic decision,'' Shipley said.

Here's the Tennessean story

    __________________

Letter to the editor (4/28/04)

Cookeville, Police Department, still insensitive on utility issues

____________________

Are pot, tobacco, cocaine or meth next in schools?

Putnam schools look for money despite children's welfare

_______________________________

Area poverty so great it takes 125 volunteers to distribute government food to thousands of families

_______________________

More traffic horror for South Willow
________________

New disciplinary action against state lawyers by Tennessee Supreme Court

Wisconsin atty.  Ray Pollen, who defended City Manager Jimmy Dale Shipley and City Attorney Thomas M. (T. Michael) 'Mike' O'Mara in Web site hacking case, is sued in Milwaukee for withholding records

______________

Defending a criminal charge in Cookeville may be illegal, DA warns

D.A. Bill Gibson, who can't tell when a death is a murder, tells Hair-Oiled Citroen that if a consideration (or stake, such as legal fees) has to be paid, the event is totally chance-related rather than a test of skill (as with which judge you draw) and there is a prize (justice), the endeavor is illegal. Story.

_______________________

Shipley singles out police for gambling ban, H-C reports
No word on whether they can still run over bodies, shoot dogs or each other
________________________

For years, The Putnam Pit has been calling former Putnam County Court Clerk Lewis Coomer a thief . On Jan. 29, we give him a chance to prove it
County Attorney Jeff Jones defends Coomer in federal civil rights case depositions ________________________________________

Danny L. Newton asks . . .
How many dead Chamber of Commerce buildings
in Cookeville Mismanager Jim Shipley's back yard?


Happy New Year/anniversary to the fathers of modern Cookeville . . .

Eric Hall and Bob Terry
You co-defendants put Cookeville on the terrorism map
_____________________________

Ten months after high-speed police chase

City Manager Jimmy Dale Shipley releases altered, edited video of Cookeville cops running over suspect

Download and view 17MB .avi format police chase video (Very large file)
Still photos in .pdf (Requires free Adobe Reader)

Videos suggest two squads were traveling too fast, too close together Jan. 31, 2003 before victim was hit

 Crucial portions of video are blank, audio missing:

Defective or altered? Tapes fit pattern of Cookeville cops avoiding accountability
Read about the incident
___________

How'd Country Inn Suites get on the Water? 

Country Inn Suites false advertising?

It was one thing when the employee at Cookeville's Country Inn Suites used the Internet to defame guests, but now it looks like since that didn't help business the company is being represented as being on the water.  Click

Mismanager Jimmy Dale Shipley misevaluates Cookeville Top Cop Bob 'Smut Boy' Terry

Above average? On some other planet, maybe.

To look at his personnel file, you'd think Cookeville Police Chief Bob Terry never sent pornography to D.A. Bill Gibson or City Councilman Ricky Shelton; never used his alpha-numeric pager to receive sleazy messages from a subordinate; never spent too much public money on photos of himself; never was investigated for a breach of security; never collected  more overtime than anyone in the department when he was a manager; never oversaw a department riddled by a binge of civil rights cases by officers he supports and defends. That's because Terry stuffs his file with only the good correspondence -- even if it is about someone else --  and the city manager has nothing to say that would raise a red flag.

Click here to see the 'Official' correspondence file

Not long ago, Cookeville had  no money to replenish first-aid kits. But now, . . .
  • $870,243 in Cookeville government  employee Workers Comp claims in past five  years: 'Cut pinky finger' and  'Bumped foot on foot rest under desk' are among hundreds of City workers'  injuries, TML reports Report
     
  • Eighteen general liability claims against Cookeville hit  $95,669.58 between July 1, 2002 and April 29, 2003 Report
 

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (Nov. 9, 2003) -- Over the past five years, the City of  Cookeville reported 344 employee accidents. A review of the  workers comp losses over the five-year period revealed  that the City recorded 36 severity claims, each over $10,000,  according to a report by the TML's Risk Management Pool. Nine of these City of  Cookeville employee claims incurred amounts over $75,000  each while 5 of those claims surpassed $100,000 each. Who's getting the money this year?

Letter to City Manager Jim Shipley regarding the  inclusion of employee Social Security numbers for all Workers Comp  claimants, right after being slapped with a civil rights suit for  the same thing by Dog-killing Cookeville Police officer Eric 'I  saw the doggie's tail wagging and was afraid so now I want money'  Hall  http://www.putnampit.com/ship_ltr.pdf
Police vanity budget  revealed

What's wrong with this  picture?

How  BIG  is
 
Police Chief Bob Terry's  ego?
 
 Shipley/Womack support Terry regardless of  how dumb he acts, regardless of how much damage his alleged  leadership causes

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (Nov. 8, 2003) --  Not long ago, the City of Cookeville did not  have  money to replace bandages in City Hall first-aid kits. Tax  revenue is down; civil rights cases against the city are  abundant. A police officer is suing the City. One of the  biggest civil rights cases in City history is pending over a  cop shooting a dog.

What does Police Chief  Bob Terry do? He has pictures of himself and  his pals taken at City expense.
 
 Here are City's photography bills, including the  frames:

Click for bigger picture of tax-paid Vanity fund photo of Cookeville Police Chief Bob 'Smut Boy' Terry
 Bob Terry

$2,760 for police/Bob Terry  photography sessions since 12/14/98. By comparison: $142.95  for City Mismanager Jimmy Dale Shipley since 1997; $537 for one photo  shoot of Mayor Womack in October 2002;

Click for bigger picture of tax-paid Vanity Fund photo of Cookeville Police Command Staff. Thank God they are here to protect us.
Command staff

$100 for a  20X24 frame and glass for a City Council  portrait and $575 for City of Cookeville Water  Department "Environmental of Home Sitting" photo sessions  and "Portraits" billed to "Bonnie" on 6/22/02.
 See the  bills

Patton's  revenge

 James  Smoak et al.
v.  Eric Hall et al.


Count the Cookeville  defendants: 
City of  Cookeville (1); Police Chief Bob Terry (2); Officers  Eric Hall (3), Mead McWhorter(4)  and Bruce Lamb  (5);  Dispatchers Angela Cheseboro (6) and Laurie  Graham (7)

Each defendant is  entitled to a separate lawyer at your expense.

 Bobby  Andrews settlement:

 After demanding that Bobby Andrews agree to not  release the terms of Cookeville's payout of $20,000 to end  his civil rights employment case against Police Chief Bob  Terry and Cookeville, the City backs down and turns it over  to The Putnam Pit. Why does the city demand  confidentiality when the law demands openness?  Read the  agreement.

 Hall.  Smoak.  Gamble.  Hewitt.  Davidian.  Andrews.  Burton.  Hargis.  Holt.

TML members are sick and tired of covering  Cookeville's civil rights losses, and so are Putnam  Pit readers, according to our  on-line  poll

From the TML Risk Management  newsletter:

"Beginning last year, and continuing this year and  into the future, the Pool will increasingly price to  experience.  That means that the worse a member's losses  continue to be, the more the Pool will charge that member.   But in addition, the Pool will provide these members with a  summary of their loss history, together with an offer to help with  intensive training and loss control. The Pool will do everything  it can to help these members, but in the end, the losses, no  matter how great, must be paid.  And those members with the  worst loss history will pay the most.  Fair is  fair.
"  Read the newsletter.

 How should  Cookeville raise money to pay the city's legal fees and damages to  the Smoak family in their suit against the City and Police Officer  Eric Hall?

 Poll results:

 Slash cop salaries/cut City  jobs

Putnam Pit readers responding  to our on-line poll send this message to City Mismanager Jimmy  Dale Shipley, Police Chief Bob 'Smut Boy' Terry, and Eric 'They  Gave Out My Social Security Number and Now I Want Money'  Hall:

 'Let the people who cause the trouble  feel pain'

24% of Putnam  Pit readers voting in our poll want to sell Cookeville Hospital to  compensate Hall's  victims. More than half (58%) want police salaries  slashed and City job  cuts.  97% oppose tax hikes to pay for legal fees  and damages.

Bob Terry is the apparent scapegoat, but who hired  him?

Police  Officer Eric Hall's 2003 Annual Job Performance  Evaluation

For years, The Putnam Pit has been pointing out  that the selection of Robert Terry to head the crisis-prone  Cookeville Police Department from a field of  better-qualified and more professional applicants was a  mistake. Now, after a blitz of civil rights cases, the City  is attempting to educate Terry through a battery of  continuing education  seminars  that might help stop the losses that his department has  caused.  Check it out here.

 


Chief Bob Terry is sent to seminars in  response to new "get tough" policy


Why no one believes the  Shipley/Womack government

 In typical fashion, the City of  Cookeville government pretends it is user-friendly, while  masking its greedy incompetence.

Here are the facts in black and  white:

What Cookeville  says The truth of the  matter
"We  strive to keep your power outages and their duration to a  minimum, oftentimes in the worst of conditions. Should your  outage last longer than hoped for, be assured that your friends and  neighbors at The Cookeville Electric Department will be  working hard to restore your power," the City  says
Nowhere does the City mention  that the reason they keep the power on is because there was  a federal injunction forcing the City to stop illegally  cutting off electricity, that the City had to pay victims of  the unconstitutional denial of civil rights thousands of  dollars and that legal fees cost taxpayers 
  $69,467 because of their civil rights violating "friends  and neighbors" at the electric  company.

**************

The only part of this case yet to be ruled on is  whether the City's tax-paid insurance lawyers will be sanctioned  for disingenuous statements to The Court. A Rule 11  motion is pending, according to the case  docket,  and Cookeville lawyer Daniel Hurley "Threatening  to Kill A Nigger Is Not A Citeable Offense" Rader, III, and  his firm, Moore, Rader, Clift & Fitzpatrick, may be held  accountable for violating Federal court rules.

Special  Bible Belt edition
 

Cookeville City  Mismanager
J. Dale 'Jimbo' Shipley


Party on, Dude,  as though there were no cascade of ominous terrible stuff  aimed directly at you

Smoaks sue over dog execution
In the beginning God created the  heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and  void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the  Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God  said, Let there be light: and there was light. And then  Cookeville began to annex the Earth, and darkness returned.  Cookeville City Manager Jimmy Dale Shipley said, "Let former Chief Richard Holt be fired to  protect Police Captain Wayne Bandy in a  reckless gun incident," and Bandy was protected. Later, Shipley  said, "Let Bob Terry be Chief, although he is the least qualified for the  job," and it was so;  then Shipley said, "Let Bob Terry not be  disciplined for sending pornography to  the DA, other cops and now-Councilman Shelton," and  he was forgiven, for Shipley is a compassionate and  understanding  Mismanager; then Shipley said, "Let  Bob Terry receive inappropriate  personal messages on his alphanumeric government pager," and it was so; then Shipley said, "Let  Zac Birdwell  shoot another officer in the neck while drunk with no  consequence to Bob Terry," and it was so; then,  Shipley appeared to the Profit-from-it-all, O'Moses, who  later read from the Tablet,  'Let  Police Officer Eric Hall shoot  the puppy Patton execution-style, while his owners are  handcuffed along the side of the road,' and it was  so; then Shipley appeared and said, "Eric Hall shall sue Cookeville  because he was victimized  when he killed the dog execution style," and he did.  Then, The Mismanager said, "The  City will pay The Putnam Pit for hacking its Web site with  public money,"and they did. Stay tuned for  Shipley's Exodus.
More about  Cookeville

Is there a pattern here? Do you know  what a pattern is? A pattern is the same thing happening over and  over.  A pattern is a reliable sample of traits, acts,  tendencies, or other observable characteristics of a person,  group, or institution.  Like "Bandy-gun," "Birdwell-gun,"  "Hall-gun-"  is a pattern of Cookeville police officers terrorizing people with  a firearm. It's is not a random occurrence. It's Cookeville's  style, essence, signature. And Mr. Shipley's response: CENSOR THE  MESSENGER.

 

Does Shipley have  any responsibility whatsoever?

 Police chief, City in secret $20,000  settlement to payoff   Bobby Andrews' discrimination  case

 Tennessee Municipal League has  already funneled $12,243 of city money to lawyers defending Chief  Terry since November 2000 in this case alone not including the  secret payoff! Docket

************

And furthermore . . .

Cookeville taxpayers shelled out a whopping $635,966 between July 2000 and June 2003 in legal fees and damage awards to victims of the Shipley/O'Mara/Womack gang. That's an average $580 a day, every day, for 1095 days . . . not including a separate paycheck to City Attorney Thomas M. (T. Michael) "Mike" O'Mara.

*****

But now, even more bad news:  

Federal judge orders Cookeville to pay $69,467 in legal fees over illegal utility shut-off scheme

City settles Bobby Andrews case after boasting  in 2001 of winning

__________

The Harris column

"Huffy" John Duffy  deserves recognition

Despite "Huffy" John Duffy's  suggestion that The Putnam Pit doesn't report the outcome of  civil rights suits correctly, Sam Harris's new column offers more  truth than Duffy can likely handle. A federal court has accepted an  agreement to settle the case against Cookeville brought by Bobby  Andrews.  Here's Harris'  take.

The City's electric company    maintained an unconstitutional  policy,  according to Gamble v. City of Cookeville,  even after City  Attorney Thomas M. (T. Michael) "Mike" O'Mara was aware of it, but  Cookeville City Manager Jimmy Dale Shipley has not responded to  inquiries about why the policy continued. Now YOU pay AGAIN for  THEIR incompetence.

This amount does not include the new   $69,467.50 bill

Most of these expenses could have been  avoided and resulted from the city's arrogant denial of civil rights  --  Breakdown by department.

Although the  lawsuit brought by former Police Chief Richard  Holt arose  from City Manager Jim Shipley's cover  up of corruption in the Police  Department by his friend Wayne  Bandy and others,  the $60,694.80 cost of the suit was linked to the Police Department  rather than the administration. Had the city manager been honest,  the chart would have looked more like this:   chart 

City Attorney Thomas M. (T. Michael)  "Mike" O'Mara and Police Chief Bob Terry continue to rack up  unnecessary costs by not anticipating vulnerability, records show --  See statistics

 


 

Click here for full-size image

Here is a picture of your  "competition" getting some kind of award at the last city council  meeting.  I think it was about coverage of 911 events.  My  brain was so enraged that the H-C gets any kind of award considering  the damage they do by anesthetizing the populace to the quality and  the capriciousness of the so called leadership.

To make things even more  surreal, the mayor and the council droned on for a long time about  their determination to avoid a law suit over the 30 year old water  bill that they owe the federal government for water taken from  Center Hill.  Since when have they tried to avoid a law suit?  Danny  Newton

Photo by Danny  Newton

Dog-killing cop Eric Hall sues City of  Cookeville, Chief Bob Terry

Driving around in a city-owned car,  armed with a shotgun, hunted like a dog by reward-seeking  assassins,  shunned in his community, mad at his boss,  unprotected by Cookeville police and in the care of a psychiatrist,  dog-killer Eric Hall wants justice -- in small-denomination,  non-sequential, unmarked bills!

'They  gave out my Social Security number by mistake,' Hall may as well  whimper. 'Now I want millions of dollars! They paid off Reno Martin,  don't I get anything?'

Read  the federal complaint


Seven months after
Cookeville Police Officer Eric  Hall
shot the Smoak Family's dog Patton execution  style because he was afraid of a tail-wagging puppy, o
nly two  Cookeville cops have received the promised training on how to deal with  dogs and Eric Hall is not one of them. Their training? How to avoid dog bites  (.pdf file requires free Acrobat Reader)

Shipley and O'Mara Are Sued and They Use  Public Resources to Get Out of Their Personal Liability

While the Shipley-O'Mara censors deny wrongdoing,  Cookeville's publicly financed insurance pays $7,000 in addition to the  City's legal defense to settle a hacking case before a jury hears it. WHY do they pay YOUR money  if the officials are innocent of uploading altered pages to The Putnam  Pit? The check reproduced below has been altered to remove account  numbers that might offer people like the defendants an opportunity to use  the information in ways not intended. After all, since the public always  bails them out, why shouldn't they continue in their corruption  binge?

This is Y O U R money. Did you do anything wrong?

From Cookeville, Tenn., a living example  of what happens when public officials take personally criticism that they  are incompetent, and don't care how much public money they squander  maintaining the facade of being nondescript. 

 Cookeville and Putnam County taxpayers bear the costs  for these federal cases, among others:

Cookeville pays law firm $5,000 in legal fees after  cops violate speech rights of Tennessee couple

 

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (August 12, 2003)  -- City  taxpayers will fork over $5,000 in legal fees to the firm representing a  Tennessee couple whose First Amendment rights were violated when police  stopped their peaceful demonstration in front of a local church. See  previous story  The plaintiffs in Hewitt v. Cookeville  received just $2 in the settlement, but Cookeville has agreed to obey the  Constitution from now on as part of the deal. No word on how much the  City's defense team made because the Tennessee Municipal League's Risk  Management Pool is exempt from public scrutiny for the time being.   

Cookeville taxpayers get hit for  $7,000 to buy O'Mara, Shipley out of a Wisconsin hacking case 

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (July 30, 2003) -- City Attorney  O'Mara, co-conspirator Jim Shipley, the city manager, and John Duffy, a  lawyer for the Knoxville firm Watson & Hollow, agree to pay $7,000 to  settle hacking  case they insist they did nothing wrong in.  Defendants,  who include the city's computer manager and who are named in their  individual capacities, also have managed to get the City of Cookeville to  give up money it has coming to the general fund from other cases to bail  them out of the hacking case. Settlement  transcript
_________

Cookeville city council reappoints O'Mara city attorney  without performance evaluation

Should  the Cookeville City Council vote to retain part-time City Attorney Thomas  M. (T. Michael) "Mike" O'Mara for another term at between $125 and $150 an  hour? The question is not just whether Mr. O'Mara has performed well  enough to deserve the city's trust for another couple of years. It is also  whether the Shipley-Womack government actually evaluates the issues it  votes on, or whether the City Council is just a rubber stamp. The question  of retaining Mr. O'Mara is a straightforward one and involves two parts:  quality and value. To answer the question intelligently, members of  the City Council must compare Mr. O'Mara's performance to a baseline or  standard that reasonable people will agree constitutes the acceptable  minimum. Editorial

__________________

There's hope for TTU's journalism program!

Tennessee Tech University alumni C. Douglas and  Mildred Norman recently endowed the Dr. C. Douglas Norman Journalism Scholarship Endowment at  Tennessee Tech. The Norman's are the parents of c.d.  'Sonny Boy'  norman, a chronic contributor The  Putnam Pit

______________________

Should police break the law to enforce  it?

Local police sting was organized fraud;  may leave taxpayers liable for 663 laptop computers to everyone cops  deceived.

Here we have law enforcement piggybacking on  lowered civil liberties respect to cash in for overtime pay in a  racketeering scheme that includes a judge and so-called newspaper. 

How could the district attorney and Judge John  Hudson (who used to work for the DA) approve false advertising? Isn't a  judge supposed to be neutral? Here he is, part of a fraud scheme, as  defined by TCA  47-18-104 meant to "collect money." Read  the H-C verbiage

Shoot a pooch, like  Eric!

The second annual Cookeville Dog  Shoot, sponsored by the Police League and the Cokevial Department of  Leisure, will be held Jan. 1st, 2004. Check out some of our mentors!  Click  here

 

Who can Cookeville City  employees thank for losing their raises?

 BOB TERRY can't  get it together and everyone else loses their raise.

 IS THAT  FAIR?

First it was the murdered Smoak family  Dog; then it was the Hewitt case.
Now, although the H-C didn't tell you . . .

 Cookeville Police Chief Bob 'Smut Boy' Terry,  2 other cops, drag city into another federal lawsuit

". . . Defendant, Chief Robert Terry, had  a duty to train officers properly in order to prevent [Cookeville Police  Officers Jonathan Williams and Brent Anderson] from the outrageous  conduct and illegal and negligent actions . . . "  -- Lawyer  Richard Brooks

__________________

 

How to deal with a budget  crisis

By GEOFF DAVIDIAN
Putnam Pit  editor
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (July 12, 2003)  -- As the  Cookeville City Council votes  on a whopping property tax increase, I  feel the need to take the lead in my own household and set my own budget  priorities. Where can I cut my own fat and stay out of the dog  house?
 Man, it is  tough when crisis is everywhere and no money.
  Story

Meanwhile:

  • Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals blasts Judge  Lillie Ann Sells for improper behavior; throws her off Keathly case  --  Read  the opinion  (Cookeville is still great place to live, Porno e-mailing  Police Chief 'Smut-Boy' Terry says.)
     

  • Herald-Citizen buries facts about exploding Cookeville  murder and rape rates in gushy police item about a new drug "program"  with an acronym, and a quote from Chief Terry that Cookeville is a  good place to live. How good was it for the rape victims, Chief? Did  Terry E-mail the rape pictures to the DA and Councilman Shelton? Story 

 

Don't make us laugh!

hey claim to be 'pleased' to be partners with the Knoxville  News-Sentinel in the defense of constitutional liberties, but  the law firm of Watson &  Hollow in fact defends  government officials accused of violating civil rights. In fact,  John C. Duffy, one of the firm's lawyers, when he's not decrying  the world's greatest art, is accused of being  part of a conspiracy to hack  this Web site in an effort to recreate  exhibits for a jury in a case where his clients were on trial for  censoring critics and retaliation.


'Huffy' John  Duffy

The  non-existent c.d. Sonny Boy  norman writes:

Perjury, obstruction o
f justice, prosecutorial  misconduct

 Tennessee D.A. swears murdered woman was not murdered  More  inside

____________

    
  Crime and unpunishment   

How, long, how long?
From left, Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater,  Judge William J. Haynes Jr., Senior Judge Louis F. Oberdorfer and  Judge Aleta A. Trauger.

Knoxville firm Watson &  Hollow, fresh from lying to Judge Haynes in the Hewitt Case, is rewarded by the Tennessee Municipal League by getting  assigned to defend more local officials, in Burton v.  Terry, depriving Cookeville's own  Dan 'Threatening to  Shoot A Nigger Is Not A Citable Offense'  Rader even more money. What kind of  welcome will these corruption-defending firms receive from Judge  Haynes after the Hewitt lies and the 'Citable Offense' crack? How  will Thomas M. (T. Michael) "Mike" O'Mara squeeze some dough out of  this baby? Stay tuned. 

__________________________________

City finally provides electronic version of proposed 2003-2004  budget 411KB

__________________ 

Database of Cookeville parking citations in  .xls  Click  here for names, addresses  and licenses plate  numbers of Cookeville scofflaws  (1.68MB) 

____________

Cookeville's hidden payroll  data

A Web Site Causes  Unease in Police

By  GEOFF DAVIDIAN

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (July  12, 2003) -- Who makes how much working for the  City of Cookeville? Well, we can't be sure because the spreadsheet we  received last month from Cookeville City Manager Jimmy Dale Shipley's  office lists salaries for only 336 of the city's 458 employees, or 74.4  percent. 

Then on Friday, Shipley's assistant asked  The Putnam Pit to replace the partial list with another spreadsheet  that also failed to provide the salaries for 122 employees. The reason:  The city inadvertently included confidential information about city  employees with the first spreadsheet. 

The Putnam Pit has learned that a  Cookeville police officer went online to The Putnam Pit and  downloaded the salary list and found the concealed data. "The cops are all  torn up about it," one city hall insider told us. 

To accommodate Cookeville's finest, The  Putnam Pit and Shipley have agreed that The Pit will  voluntarily replace the spreadsheet and the city will furnish this  newspaper with a complete list of city employee salaries. 

Click here for  payroll spreadsheet in .xls (68 KB)

Correspondence from  Cookeville Police Sgt. John Bilbrey (And he  doesn't even say 'please' or 'thank you.'

Next page