Deputy Wesley Holland has been fired from Walker County Sheriff’s Office – and jailed – for having sex with an inmate he was transporting.

Per reports, 61-year-old Holland stopped in Gordon County on April 30 to enjoy physical relations with a female inmate being taken from Hutcheson to a medical facility down in Dunwoody. She told officers in Dunwoody about the incident, and the GBI was called.

Now Holland is unemployed and facing charges of violating his oath, sodomy, and sexual assault by an authority figure. He was arrested Thursday in Gordon County.

Times Free Press, 05/13/16: “[Sheriff] Wilson said he thinks the sexual act was consensual, though he pointed that it is still illegal.”

In this situation, there is no consent to give. Like a child, a prisoner cannot give consent to this. The law treats it very similarly to statutory rape.

Wilson also says he’s “very disappointed” in Holland.

Disappointed that he did it, or that he got caught? ’cause Holland ain’t the first, but he’s the first one who went to jail…

Things Steve Wilson has been OK with officers doing:
• Beating their wife (as long as they don’t kill her).
• Stealing Christmas money donated for children.
• Taking a 15-year-old girl to Florida for sex.
• Stealing evidence from the SO for personal use.
• Having sex with a non-inmate in a patrol car in the Battlefield.
• Holding a neighborhood hostage with a gun.
• Making violent threats against bloggers.

Things Steve Wilson is NOT ok with officers doing:
• Getting caught having sex with an inmate inside a patrol car in another county and getting charged down there with it.

What’s the difference? The incident-reported-outside-of-Walker-County part. Good thing the victim told officers in Dunwoody instead of here, else nothing would have ever been done.     

LaFayette PD says Monday night’s stabbing of a man on Daughtery St is the first known gang incident in the city’s recent history.

They tell reporters catching the alleged stabber, David Lee Townsend II, is a priority in order to stop gang activity from spreading – but with Chattanooga growing, it’s only a matter of time before these incidents become more common.

Especially when the gang member already lives and hangs out here.   

Shannon Whitfield, by all measures the leading candidate to become Walker County’s next commissioner, says one of his main goals is to make county government transparent.

Which is ironic, considering how the man ignores legitimate voter questions and won’t reveal details about how much money his family business makes selling fuel to the county and county vendors. He’s also hesitated to reveal plans he says he’s already made for the county, and won’t name who he’s already chosen to serve on two advisory boards he’s announced he’ll create.

He’s also refused to take a clear position on sole commissioner government, saying it’s no better or worse than a board.   

David Lee Townsend II is wanted for stabbing a LaFayette man Monday night on Daugherty St.

According to LPD, the stabbing started on Sunday with an incident involving a woman inside a Ringgold restaurant. Townsend, who lives on Hwy 151 in Walker Couny, is described as being part of a Chattanooga gang.

Locals say Townsend, a onetime employe of Euclid Chemical, has been seen in the past hanging out on Daughtery and Thompson in West LaFayette near where the stabbing occurred. Since he spends time in the area and the victim knew his first name, it seems probable the two had been acquainted before Monday.

Townsend was, per one source, seen going into the Kangaroo on West Main late Monday night – hours after his status as a wanted man was announced on social media.   

Old LaFayette High School vandalized, again, by wandering juveniles.

WQCH Radio, 05/10/16: “LAFAYETTE POLICE HAVE ARRESTED FOUR JUVENILES IN CONNECTION WITH VANDALISM AT THE OLD LAFAYETTE HIGH SCHOOL ON NORTH CHEROKEE STREET.

“POLICE ANSWERED AN ALARM AT THE OLD SCHOOL ON SUNDAY AFTERNOON AND FOUND A WINDOW THAT HAD BEEN BROKEN. SHORTLY AFTER, FOUR KIDS WERE SPOTTED ON THE ROOF OF THE BUILDING. TWO OF THEM WERE CAUGHT, AND TWO OTHERS ESCAPED. THEY WERE LOCATED ABOUT AN HOUR LATER IN WOODS OFF NORTH MAIN STREET. PROFANE GRAFFITI WAS FOUND THROUGHOUT THE BUILDING, ACCORDING TO THE POLICE REPORT.

“THE JUVENILE BOYS RANGE IN AGE FROM 11 TO 16, AND POLICE CAPTAIN STACEY MEEKS SAID ONE OF THE FOUR WAS CHARGED BACK IN MARCH, WITH A VENDING MACHINE BREAK-IN AT A NORTH MAIN STREET LAUNDROMAT.

“ALL FOUR WERE CHARGED WITH FELONY INTERFERENCE WITH GOVERNMENT PROPERTY AND MISDEMEANOR CRIMINAL TRESPASS.”

Juvenile justice in the region continues to be a bad joke; if the kids who knocked off the vending machine at Suds n Shine back in March had been dealt with, one of them wouldn’t have been arrested on the roof of the old high school last weekend.

But they’re hardly the first bunch of youths who’ve broken in there and done damage. Not the first time we’ve had kids on the roof, either.

Meanwhile, LaFayette is still waiting on the school board to come up with a coherent plan for this property other than let it continue falling apart and become a bigger eyesore in the middle of the city. LHS moved out in December 1997, and classes were last held in the building when LMS Sixth Grade Academy closed three years ago next week.

Maybe they’re hoping somebody burns it down?   

Welcome Cornerstone Medical Center.

Employee sources inside what used to be Hutcheson say ApolloMD’s buyout deal for the bankrupt hospital property, pending since December, was finalized last night.

Today the hospital on Crescent Circle in Fort Oglethorpe was formally renamed Cornerstone – in honor of the Cornerstone Club that funded construction of Tri-County hospital six decades ago.

With this deal complete, the operations of Cornerstone Medical and ApolloMD in Fort Oglethorpe will be a completely separate matter from the wind-down debt operations of Hutcheson, Inc. its subsidiaries, affiliates, and the Hospital Authority of Dade, Walker, and Catoosa.   

When you go vote (early, this Saturday, or on May 24th), vote YES for the ballot measure regarding sole commissioner.

The results of that vote are unfortunately non-binding and easily ignored. Someday when the Powers That Be feel like it, they might put this on a ballot that counts.

Vote yes, so when Steve Tarvin ignores the results and doesn’t make a change, we can vote NO to him in 2020.   

Jerry Lee Pruitt of Rock Spring arrested for rape in Tennessee.

Chattanooga investigators say 57-year-old Pruitt raped a woman in 1999. He faces five counts of rape and one of burglary for allegedly breaking into her home.   

Candidate Whitfield gets his probable regime off to an ethical start with two unpaid late filing fees from the state ethics committee.

None of Whitfield’s opponents (including Commissioner Heiskell) have been fined, so far, for filing campaign reports late.

His approach to ethical behavior and nose-thumbing-attitude to those who ask for campaign information is beginning to resemble the woman he hopes to replace.   

Jonathan West went to jail a week ago Saturday after the 17-year-old Sonic employee crashed a friend’s car into the front of Food City.

The unnamed friend, who was also in the car and injured in the crash, says West raced across the parking lot after leaving Sonic and lost control.   

Volunteers for Commissioner candidate Perry Lamb spent much of the weekend at Walmart collecting signature necessary to qualify lamb for the election.

At the end of the day Sunday, they had collected 200-something of the 2,000 signatures needed by late June to get their independent candidate on the November ballot.     

Exciting news for railfans and local history buffs.

Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum and Norfolk-Southern Railway have fully restored one of the engines that ran on the Tennessee-Alabama-Georgia Railroad (TAG) back in the day.

The TAG route went from Alton Park in Chattanooga through Flintstone, to Kensington, through Pigeon Mountain, within a few miles of LaFayette, down to Menlo, then on to Gadsden Alabama – and that’s where this locomotive could be seen every day for nearly two decades.

Alton Park, Chattanooga, where TAG RR’s main yard and offices were located. The Alton Park yard was consolidated into Southern’s Debutts Yard on the other side of Chattanooga after the TAG sold out.

After the TAG was bought out by Southern Railroad in the 70’s this engine, the 80, was moved to general service all over the country under the Southern, then Norfolk-Southern lines, renumbered as engine 2879.

The 80 / 2879 carried a nameplate honoring John B. Chambliss, a Chattanooga lawyer who saved the railroad from bankruptcy in the 20’s and served as its CEO for the next half century. That name was painted over just a few years before the engine was retired, about ten years ago.

TAG Engine 80 Stored at Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum Before Restoration

After retirement from Norfolk-Southern the engine was bought at an auction by the railroad museum. It was stored there for years, then mechanically restored at NS’s engine shop and cosmetically restored by the museum.

Tennessee-Alabama-Georgia RR rails were closed between Kensington and Gadsden in 1981. Parts of the remaining line between Flintstone and Kensington (leased to another railroad by then) were washed out during the 2009 floods, and with Dow-Reichhold shut down there was no longer any business reason to keep it open – it was officially abandoned south of the state line in December 2009.

Now we’ve got the TAG engine back, but there’s sadly no longer a TAG rail line to put it on.   

LU has been working on a multi-page post about the history of Walker County railroads. The piece has been in development since 2009, but is unfortunately far from done. This is a tiny, tiny bit of the research included in that long article that might very well never be complete.

Saturday evening’s Republican debate in Rock Spring was very lightly attended by the community.

Senator Mullis and his opponent Lanny Thomas both spoke, as did Commissioner candidate Shannon Whitfield. Independent Commissioner candidate Perry Lamb was also in the crowd at the Agricultural Center, along with some past candidates for the office and Walker Republican Party leaders.

Mike Peardon was conspicuously absent, a situation reflected in the headline of every mainstream report about the debate.

Peardon explained his non-attendance afterwards, saying he chose not to participate because of Republican Party leaders who are actively campaigning against him. He also said that he made the party chairman, Matthew Williamson, aware that he was likely not going to participate on the Wednesday before the debate. Williamson did not notify media that Peardon would be absent, and when asked about Peardon’s absence during the debate told reporters to go ask the candidate.

That led to stories about the debate focusing on Peardon’s “unexplained absence” instead of reporting on what was actually said during the meeting.

Peardon’s concerns about the party are understandable; party leaders are giving money and actively campaigning for his opponent, Shannon Whitfield, even as both are engaged in a campaign to become the Republican nominee to replace Bebe Heiskell. However, he should still participate in community events – not to endorse the party, but to communicate with the citizens and voters.

Peardon HAS participated in an LU Q&A interview, which Mr. Whitfield has snubbed. The results of that interview, and highlights from the event he didn’t attend, will be shared here soon.     

Dewayne Ray Burns, Chattanooga suspect who escaped from police after crashing his car in Chickamauga Battlefield last Friday, has been arrested in Mobile Alabama.

The 6’5 suspect was able to hide from local police and make it across Alabama before being found by US Marshals. He’s being brought back to Fort Oglethorpe to be charged there, then presumably will go back to Chattanooga to face charges for additional crimes.

The GBI is conducting an investigation of Fort Oglethorpe officers who fired shots at Burns during the initial chase, as required any time there’s a police shooting. Apparently none of the shots fired struck the suspect.

The incident began with domestic violence in Chattanooga.     

Many employees of Walker County Schools hesitate to speak up or speak out, because they’re afraid of the consequences.

That’s one concern brought up by Saddle Ridge teacher Jim Barrett, head of the Walker County Association of Educators, at a School Board candidate event in late April.

The school board and superintendent deny it, but that culture of intimidation and fear has existed within the school system for decades.