The Loudon County Grand Jury met on Monday, August 12th and reviewed cases presented by 9th District Attorney General Russell Johnson. Detectives, Officers and Troopers (as well as two private citizens) presented cases involving homicides, attempted murders, vehicular homicides, rapes and assaults as well as the ‘run of the mill’ burglaries, thefts, shopliftings and even a dog running at large case. All 56 individuals whose cases were presented were indicted by the grand jury. There were no ‘NO BILLS’.

Individual FB posts will be released on some of the more serious or interesting cases as a means of better informing the public about some of these individual cases and to better explain the operation of the Loudon County justice system, especially in light of the special circumstances with ‘over-crowding’ issues at the current jail and problems presented by the lack of a courthouse due to the fire this past Spring. Also, we want to provide the same information at the same time to all media outlets that have been requesting information.

Attached will be a copy of the Grand Jury Report (dated August 12, 2019) which includes, under the TRUE BILL section of the report, all defendants who were indicted as a result of cases where individuals were initially arrested on warrants and had their cases bound over to the Grand Jury in Judge Hank Sledge’s court by either a waiver of their right to preliminary hearing or their case was bound over by either Judge Sledge or Judge Rex Dale after the District Attorney’s Office proved probable cause at a preliminary hearing that the defendant committed the crime upon which he or she was arrested. Some individuals had not yet been arrested and their cases were presented directly to the grand jury as NEW BILLS. A few individuals may have been arrested on a single charge but additional or more serious charges were presented the grand jury as NEW BILLS. NOTE – That the NEW BILL defendant’s names are not released until they are ‘in arrest’ so they do not appear in the public report.

Cases listed under the report as DISMISSALS are cases in which the District Attorney General has decided not to pursue; usually these are charges where the defendants have already pled to more serious charges in State Court or Federal Court. Note that the Legislature recently repealed the Habitual Motor Vehicle Operator Act (HMVO) in order to create revenue for other areas of the state budget, so that is why that one case was dismissed (Fisher).

Please further note that all individuals who are indicted are deemed by the Court to be ‘innocent until proven guilty’. If they cannot afford an attorney, the Court appoints one for them for their defense. The role of the District Attorney General in each and every case is to seek the truth and to try and do justice by each case, whether that means prosecution as charged, a reduction in charges or dismissal. Each case is fact specific and the proof must be available to reasonably expect a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty under Tennessee constitutional and statutory law.

Russell Johnson,
District Attorney General 
www.9thdag.com

"No Bills" mean the charges were dismissed by the jury. "True Bills" mean that the jury found enough evidence for an indictment. "Continued On Bound Over" means that that particular charges will be brought to the next Grand jury.

Below is a link to the 8/14/19  Loudon County Grand Jury Report.

Grand Jury Report
8/14/19