(Morgan County – WOKI) Morgan County officials are making a disappointing discovery as crews continue to clean up the debris and devastation left behind by a deadly EF-2 tornado.
Officials say for the county to get any federal relief, there would have to be more than $13 million in damages and it’s expected they will fall well short of that threshold.
Despite two deaths and 39 homes damaged or destroyed, FEMA funding likely won’t come so they’re relying on state leaders to help in any way they can.
Knoxville, TN (WOKI) Think you have what it takes to be a Knoxville firefighter?
The Knoxville Fire Department is looking to add to its staff and is hosting a spring recruitment expo later this month.
The expo is slated for February 26 from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. at the Knoxville Expo Center at 5441 Clinton Hwy.
The department will be talking about the hiring process, job expectations, benefits and more. There will also be hands-on activities and firetruck tours for families.
Knoxville, TN (WOKI) A man is facing several child sex crimes charges in Knox County.
The Knox County Sheriff’s Office took 49-year-old Gary Phillips into custody on February 7 at a home on Pellissippi Parkway.
KCSO responded to the home to execute a search warrant after receiving a cyber crimes tip.
According to the report, someone let the office know that Phillips was posting child sex abuse material on Kik, a platform similar to social media websites.
Deputies found evidence confirming that Phillips had filmed and posted video of child sex abuse.
Phillips is charged with several crimes, including rape of a child and sexual exploitation of a minor.
Cumberland County, TN (WOKI) An investigation is underway after skeletal remains are found Saturday, February 8 in Cumberland County.
Officials with the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office say deputies found the remains near the Westel Road entrance of the Mount Roosevelt Wildlife Management Area.
CCSO officials say the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation also responded to the scene, and investigators took the remains for analysis.
“We understand that this news is unsettling for the community, but we are committed to identifying the remains and conducting a thorough investigation into the matter,” Sheriff Casey Cox said.
The remains have not been identified.
Deputies found the remains on Feb. 8 near the Westel Road entrance of the Mount Roosevelt Wildlife Management Area, CCSO said. (Courtesy: CCSO)
Deputies in Monroe County says they have a possible police impersonator that has attempted to pull vehicles over using a flashing light on the dash of a vehicle which is described as a dark colored Cadillac.
Authorities say if an unmarked vehicle is attempting to pull you over, turn on your hazard lights and call the dispatch number in that area to confirm that the traffic stop is legitimate.
Turning on your hazard lights will let the officer know that you are complying with the stop, but in the process of finding a safe pullover location. Try to always pull over in an occupied area and a well lit area if you’re being pulled over at night time.
Once stopped, ask the officer for their department identification if needed to further solidify the legitimacy of the stop.
The man accused of killing a Blount County deputy and injuring another has filed a lawsuit against the county, the sheriff and deputies for excessive use of force.
Kenneth DeHart filed the lawsuit on Friday, one day before the one year anniversary of the deadly shooting when police say he shot and killed Deputy Greg McCowan and injured Deputy Shelby Eggers.
DeHart is seeking punitive and compensatory damages of up to $3 million for excessive use of force after he was arrested and transferred to Blount County Sheriff’s Office custody.
According to the lawsuit, Eggers and McCowan used excessive force when they deployed a taser after DeHart denied search of his vehicle.
DeHart was pulled over on the evening of Feb. 8, 2024 after police said Eggers witnessed DeHart driving erratically and crossing the center line multiple times. DeHart said he was coming back from his son’s basketball game in Gatlinburg when he was pulled over.
Police said Deputy Eggers reported smelling marijuana coming from the car and asked DeHart to exit the vehicle. He refused to do so and asked for a drug-sniffing dog to be brought to the scene, but Eggers said one was not coming to do a smell search.
Once Eggers called for backup, McCowan arrived. Just minutes later, the three were wrestling to remove DeHart from the vehicle when, according to the lawsuit, DeHart feared for his life and fired his gun, which resulted in McCowan’s death and injuries to Eggers.
According to the lawsuit, DeHart experienced excruciating pain and disorientation as a result of shots being fired and suffered trauma from his arrest at a home on Linden Avenue in Knoxville on February 13th.
The lawsuit goes on to bring into question his exchange from Knox County custody to Blount County custody along Alcoa Highway.
The lawsuit states deputies held DeHart on the ground as two deputies kneeled on him as he screamed in pain. The lawsuit goes on to state that deputies were informed to form a wall, conceivably blocking the public’s view from what was happening.
Eventually the lawsuit cites a visible head wound on DeHart after the exchange that was not visible when he was in Knox County custody.
Lastly, the lawsuit says DeHart’s treatment when he arrived for booking in Blount County and then admittance to Loudon County where he was being held. According to the lawsuit, the Loudon County Jail’s medical team documented a left eye scrape, multiple other bruised areas on his forehead, scalp, and both wrists, as well as left elbow bruising and bruises on his torso.
The lawsuit goes on to say the department failed to adequately equip and prepare deputies for the situation.
Blount County, the sheriff’s office, Sheriff James Lee Berrong, and multiple other deputies were named in the lawsuit.
DeHart is seeking a jury trial and his trial date in the shooting death of Deputy McCowan is set for April 2026. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
UPDATE: SULLIVAN COUNTY, Tenn. (WVLT) Megan Boswell’s murder trial began on Wednesday, Feb. 5 in Sullivan County.
Boswell is accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter, Evelyn Boswell, in December 2019. She was reported missing in February 2020 and found dead the following month.
Day Six
Day six of Megan Boswell’s trial was like a ping pong in the courtroom that featured the prosecution scoring some apparent wins with digital conversations between Boswell and Hunter Wood before and during the investigation.
Megan wanted Hunter to think Evelyn was safe with another person, but then when it was clear she was missing, messages from Hunter seemed to concern about the baby and her safety.
Forensic scientists testified to DNA testing and fingerprints on Megan and Evelyn’s things and the items around Evelyn’s body when she was found, including one who testified that Megan’s fingerprint was found on the foil taken from Evelyn’s face and that prints were also found on the black trash bag she was in.
Jurors also heard from the medical examiner and forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy and examination into what happened to Evelyn, but things got heated during cross-examination with forensic pathologist Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polschan.
“Ma’am, yes or no, can you say conclusively this child was alive or dead when it was placed in the blanket and the tin foil?” Megan’s attorner, Gene Scott, asked.
“The blanket, the tin foil, the trash can? Which one? OK, the answer is no,” Dr. Mileusnic-Polchan said. “She could have been murdered a different way.”
Judge Jim Goodwin told her to answer questions from Scott in a yes or no answer or she would be held in contempt of court.
Day seven will get underway at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
SULLIVAN COUNTY, Tenn. (WVLT) – Megan Boswell’s murder trial began on Wednesday in Sullivan County.
Boswell is accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter, Evelyn Boswell, in December 2019. She was reported missing in February 2020 and found dead the following month.
Day Five
Prosecutors spent much of Monday continuing to lay out their case against Megan Boswell.
This included more details about discovering Evelyn hidden in Boswell’s childhood playhouse.
The jury saw a videotaped police interview, in which Boswell claimed her mother had taken Evelyn, which was not true.
Boswell told police she did not report Evelyn missing because she did not want to look like a bad mother.
Day Four
Much of day four of Megan Boswell’s trial featured more video of Boswell being interviewed by officers who are now retired from the SCSO.
Much of day four of Megan Boswell’s trial featured more video of Boswell being interviewed by officers who are now retired from the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office. At first, she told Steve Williams, the former lieutenant over the Criminal Investigations Division, that Evelyn was with her father, Ethan Perry, and that she needed a break.
“And honestly, like I was telling them, like I had Evelyn for like over a year and he never checked on her, and I had to support her by myself. So when he got up here, I was like, ‘You can take care of your daughter for a little bit.’ Not that I don’t love my daughter and want to be with her. You know what I’m saying? But I was like, ‘You don’t help me at all.’ Like, I want you to see how it feels to have no help,” Boswell said.
However, we now know that Perry is not her biological father. Other videos that played on Saturday were with Joey Strickler, who was the captain over the Criminal Investigations Division at the time. At first, Boswell also told him that Perry had the baby, but she later said her dad, Tommy Boswell, talked with her mom, Angela Boswell.
“All this started going on because he called her the night before and he called you all. He told her what he was going to do, and she said, ‘Well, you can’t do that.’ This is what he told me. Like, ‘I’ll have to disappear. I can’t come back’,” Boswell said. “I hope she didn’t do anything to her.”
Former FBI Agent Jeff Blanton and former TBI Agent David Gratz also took the stand. Gratz recalled searching the trailer Megan and Evelyn had lived in the night she was reported missing.
“Did you find Evelyn?” Assistant District Attorney Amber Massengill asked Gratz, but he said that they did not.
Massengill then asked, “Did you find anything else that was significant to the investigation regarding anything associated with Evelyn?” Gratz said,” We did inside of the shed that was next to the trailer.” He added that a stroller that had been left behind was inside the shed.
Several other items of Evelyn’s were also introduced as exhibits, including a customized Baby Shark blanket and a long-sleeve shirt. An apartment application for Megan and Hunter Wood was also presented as evidence. Three people were listed to be occupants, but Gratz said Megan told them she was pregnant and the third person was her unborn baby.
When Massengill asked Gratz if he asked Megan why Evelyn was not listed on the application, he said, “She told us that it was not Evelyn because Hunter would not or did not want Evelyn to live with him.”
Megan’s attorney, Gene Scott, later spoke about the application.
“They teach you in law school; they say ‘a brick doesn’t make a wall’. I don’t think that really has anything to do with what happened in this case,” Scott said.
It’s expected that former TBI Special Agent David Gratz will take the stand again on Monday to finish up his testimony. Court resumes at 9 a.m.
Day Three
Day three of Megan Boswell’s trial featured a name that has popped up consistently since opening statements: Hunter Wood.
Wood was Megan’s boyfriend at the time Evelyn was believed to have died. She worked with him at Hunter T’s Chicken Shack, owned by his father, Randy Wood.
Randy took to the stand on Friday. He was hesitant to say Hunter and Megan were dating but said neither he nor Hunter ever saw Evelyn. He also said Hunter could not take the stand because he’s been in a mental hospital for about two months.
“He talks about things that sometimes you don’t even know what he’s talking about,” Randy said about his son. “It’s sad. This young man was a 4.0 student in school, but now I don’t know if he’s ever going to function in life again.”
Randy also testified that Hunter is schizophrenic and hallucinating.
During cross-examination by defense Attorney Gene Scott, he reiterated that Hunter is in no mental state, adding that Hunter never talks about Evelyn.
While Randy owned the restaurant, he said Hunter was more of an employee there as opposed to a manager, but he also said Megan offered to work a lot of hours there when she applied for a job.
Day Two
Boswell is accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter, Evelyn Boswell, in December 2019.During the trial’s second day, there were some disturbing details that came from the prosecution.
Day two of Megan Boswell’s trial featured testimony that revealed new details in the investigation leading up to the discovery of 15-month-old Evelyn Boswell’s body in March of 2020.
Investigators said they found the body wrapped in bags inside a trashcan. One notable figure who took the stand was Megan Boswell’s father, Tommy Boswell. He said he called the Department of Children’s Services after not seeing his granddaughter for an extended amount of time.
It wasn’t long before law enforcement met up with him.
He spoke about his daughter’s living situation, saying she stayed with him for a time but he asked her to leave, since she did not keep her room clean.
From there, Tommy Boswell said, his daughter lived in a trailer at a park owned by the family. Once she moved out, instead deciding to live with a boyfriend, he said he had to have it deep cleaned. The man who cleaned the trailer, Austin Feller, said he had to wear a respirator because of the odor.
“There were dirty diapers stuck to the floor of the carpet,” Feller said. “I couldn’t even open the fridge it was so bad. [There was] food on the ground, feces on the ground. Very nasty, just not clean at all.”
Next on the stand was James Lewis with DCS. He testified that he went to Megan Boswell’s latest home, that of her boyfriend, to check in on Evelyn. He said there were no children’s items at the home.
“I asked her to show me of course, evidence that a child had been with her,” he said. “I asked to see a crib or a pack and play, and she said those items were elsewhere; she didn’t have any of those items.”
Lewis also said Megan Boswell wasn’t overly concerned about the status of her child.
“It wasn’t much affect,” he said. “When I say that, I would say there wasn’t much emotion as concern. I didn’t see concern in speaking with Megan.”
It marked the start of the search for Evelyn.
In a taping of Megan Boswell’s police interview, she said the baby was with her father, something investigators found was not true. She also said she had not seen Evelyn in weeks.
Several other witnesses spoke on Thursday. Among them were Evelyn’s doctors, who said she had missed appointments in December of 2019. Friends of Megan Boswell also spoke, detailing the last times they saw Evelyn.
Day Three is expected to include testimony from another of Megan Boswell’s friends.
Day One
The day began with the court dismissing one of 11 false report charges against Boswell.
During the trial’s first day, there were some disturbing details that came from the prosecution.
They said the last time Evelyn was seen alive was shortly after her first birthday and that several months passed without anyone seeing her.
The continued by saying Megan put Evelyn’s body in a kitchen trash can before hiding it in her own childhood playhouse on her family’s property. They added that Boswell spent months lying about where her daughter was while building a new life.
“31 days. Where’s Evelyn? There’s no Evelyn,” Sullivan County Prosecutor Amber Massengill said. “People are really starting to get concerned, and Megan Boswell continues to concoct stories.“
The defense argued that while Evelyn’s death is tragic, the state does not have the evidence to convict Boswell of first-degree murder and other charges.
They said it’s possible Boswell or her boyfriend rolled over on Evelyn in bed and were too scared to call 911.
The jury is expected to return to the courtroom on Thursday at 9 a.m.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee men’s basketball team is in the top five of both national polls of the second week in a row.
Tennessee (20-4, 7-4 SEC) dropped one spot to fifth in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll and retained its place at fourth in the country in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll, as announced Monday afternoon.
The Volunteers’ AP top-10 streak is now at 12 weeks, tied for their fourth-longest streak ever. Four of Tennessee’s six all-time double-figure streaks are over the last seven seasons under the guidance of head coach Rick Barnes.
This is the 70th time in Barnes’ 10-year tenure the Volunteers are in the AP top 10, including the 35th in the top five. The latter mark is greater than double the school’s full total (17) before he was hired in 2015-16. Tennessee has earned an AP top-five ranking eight times during the 2024-25 campaign.
The Volunteers are in the AP top 25 for the 74th straight week, a ledger that spans four campaigns and began with the 2021-22 preseason poll. That mark doubles the previous program record of 37 set from March 1999 to Feb. 2001.
In addition, Tennessee’s 74-week streak is the third-longest active streak at the Division I level, trailing just Houston (100) and Kansas (79). No other team is at even 55-plus, while the closest SEC school, Kentucky (36), possesses the seventh-longest streak and is 38 shy of the Volunteers.
Furthermore, Tennessee has now claimed an AP top-15 position in 48 of the last 51 poll releases, a mark that extends to Nov. 28, 2022.
Last week, the Volunteers won a pair of conference contests, one over an AP top-15 foe and the other by 18 on the road. First, Wednesday night at Food City Center, they defeated No. 15/16 Missouri, 85-81, behind 21 points apiece from senior forward Igor Miličić Jr., and senior guard Zakai Zeigler. Barnes’ team then tallied a 70-52 triumph Saturday at Oklahoma, with fifth-year guard Chaz Lanier’s 21 points leading the way.
In the AP Poll balloting, Tennessee accumulated 1,315 points, good for 20 more than its total last week, and received one first-place vote. It registered 669 points in the Coaches Poll, a 25-point improvement and just 19 fewer than third-place Florida.
Nine SEC teams are in the top 25 of at least one poll, with eight featured on both lists. Tennessee is alongside No. 1/2 Auburn, No. 2/1 Alabama, third-ranked Florida, No. 8/9 Texas A&M, No. 15/18 Kentucky, No. 19/23 Ole Miss and No. 21/22 Missouri in both polls. Mississippi State is No. 22 in the AP Poll and atop the receiving votes section of the Coaches Poll, with the latter outlet ranking SEC teams in each of the top four spots.
Tennessee is back in action Tuesday at 7 p.m. for an AP top-15 showdown at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky., where it faces No. 15/18 Kentucky, live on ESPN.
To keep up with the University of Tennessee men’s basketball team on social media, follow @Vol_Hoops on Instagram and X/Twitter, as well as /tennesseebasketball on Facebook.
Knoxville, TN (WOKI) Knoxville police are investigating after a man is taken to UT Medical Center Sunday, the victim of an alleged assault near a downtown bar.
KPD officials say they received a report of a 21-year-old man who said he was assaulted after he and another man left Southbound Bar and Nightclub.
The report indicates the pair were near the intersection of Jackson Avenue and Central Street around 2:30 a.m. when an unknown white man allegedly punched the victim.
KPD says the victim was taken to the hospital for medical attention and, according to the report, may have suffered a broken jaw.
KPD says the alleged assault occurred near the intersection of Jackson Avenue and Central Street around 2:30 a.m. Sunday. (Courtesy: KPD)
Dandridge, TN (WOKI) UPDATE 2/10: Sad news out of Jefferson County. A man missing since Thursday has been found dead.
Investigators with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office had been searching for 68-year-old Randy Foland who was last seen walking on Scarlett Road in Dandridge on Thursday.
JCSO officials say Foland was found deceased in a pond on the family farm by investigators Monday morning.
According to police, his body was was transported to the Knox County Forensic Center for an autopsy.
ORIGINAL STORY: The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is asking for information to help find a missing man.
Investigators are looking for 68-year-old Randy Foland who was last seen walking on Scarlett Road in Dandridge on Thursday.
He is 5′6 inches tall and weights 125 lbs.
If you have any information please call Jefferson County Central Dispatch 865-475-6855 or JCSO 865-397-9411 extension 1102.
