Mother Charged with Passing Fake Doctor Excuses at School

January 9, 2018
By: Dwayne Page

A mother has been arrested for forgery and criminal simulation after allegedly forging the name of a registered nurse on fake doctor’s excuses in order to get her child’s absences from school approved.

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MUG SHOTS OF PERSONS RECENTLY BOOKED AT THE DEKALB COUNTY JAIL

35 year old Christy Lee Hendrixson of New Home Road, Smithville is charged with two counts of forgery and four counts of criminal simulation. Hendrixson’s bond is $19,000 and her court date is January 25.

Sheriff Patrick Ray said that on the dates of October 2, November 13, November 20, and November 27, Hendrixson presented to administrators at Northside Elementary School what appeared to be a doctor’s excuse for her child to have excused absences from school but the documents were false. On two of those dates, November 13 & 20 the excuses bore the forged name of a registered nurse.

The case was investigated by a Sheriff’s Department detective.

A convicted felon is in trouble with the law again after he was allegedly found with marijuana and firearms during a recent probation search at his home.

50 year old Gary Jason Britt of Shady Place, Smithville is charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and possession of a schedule VI drug with the intent to manufacture, sell, or deliver. He was further cited for possession of drug paraphernalia. His bond is $20,000 and his court date is January 18.

Sheriff Ray said that on Tuesday, January 2 a deputy went to Britt’s home to do a probation search and found two firearms in the residence, a Savage 243 caliber rifle and a 12 gauge Winchester shotgun. The search also turned up 19.5 grams of a green leafy substance believed to be marijuana and some rolling papers.

Britt, who admitted to having firearms in the house prior to the search, is a convicted felon out of Wilson County for possession of a schedule VI controlled substance of more than 0.5 ounces. He is currently on probation.

35 year old Joshua Kevin Vickers of Woodbury Highway, Liberty is charged with burglary, aggravated burglary, theft of property under $1,000 , and vandalism. His bond is $20,000 and his court date is January 18.

Sheriff Ray said that on January 18, 2017 Vickers allegedly broke into a garage and a residence on Sweetwater Road in Liberty (same property) and took an HP computer with a monitor and a Primo game camera. The total value of the items taken was $400. In breaking into the garage and the home, Vickers damaged or destroyed windows and doors. The total amount of damage was $575.

The case was investigated by a sheriff’s department detective.

January 8, 2018
By: Dwayne Page

The Tennessee Department of Health’s Office of Health Statistics reports 8 recorded DeKalb County suicide deaths in 2016, for an age adjusted rate of 41.3 per 100,000 population. That’s an increase from 5 deaths in 2015, or 26.1 per 100,000.

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The new statistics released Friday by the Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network show that DeKalb County’s rate of suicide for 2016 was second highest among the 14 counties in the Upper Cumberland Region and above the state rate of 16.2 per 100,000 population. Clay County had the highest rate in the Upper Cumberland with 4 deaths at 51.7 per 100,000 population.

According to the Tennessee Department of Health Statistics, there were 1,110 recorded suicide deaths in Tennessee in 2016, up from 1,065 the past year (representing a 4% increase).

The crude suicide rate went up from 15.6 to 16.2 per 100,000 (representing a 4% increase.) Firearms remain the most common means of suicide death in Tennessee, accounting for 677, or 61%, of the recorded suicide deaths in 2016. 222, or 20% of the deaths, were hangings or suffocations and 144, or 13% of the deaths, were poisonings or overdoses. All of these proportions are roughly the same as last year’s figures. Whites account for 79% of the general population of Tennessee but 91% of the suicide deaths. Males are also disproportionately represented, making up 49% of the population but 77% (857) of the suicide deaths recorded in 2016.

For the record, the latest figures from the American Association of Suicidology (AAS) give a national rate of 13.9 per 100,000 as of 2016, with Tennessee’s rate that year placing it at 22nd among the states. Nationally, there were 44,965 suicide deaths in the U.S. in 2016, the latest year national data is available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This comes out to 123 suicide deaths each day and one death every 12 minutes. Suicide is the 10th-leading cause of death in the United States and is responsible for 1.6% of all deaths recorded in 2016. Firearms were the leading mode of death, involved in 22,938 suicide deaths, or 51% of the total.

In any given day, three people in Tennessee die by suicide. In 2016, the number suicides increased in young people (ages 10-18) in Tennessee, with one person in this age group lost to suicide every week. We lose one person between the ages of 10-24 every four days, and every day we lose at least one person over the age of 45, with adults in midlife and older adults remaining at higher risk. While suicide rates in Tennessee went up only slightly in 2016, the new figures are the highest recorded in Tennessee in over 35 years of record-keeping and the suicide rate remains above the national average.

Are you feeling desperate, alone or hopeless?

Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), a free, 24-hour hotline available to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress.

Your call will be routed to the nearest crisis center to you.

TTY line: 1-800-799-4TTY (4889)

For non-emergency information on suicide prevention, contact the
Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network at (615) 297-1077 or tspn@tspn.org.

January 8, 2018
By: Dwayne Page

Three months after completion of the $2.8 million upgrade at the Smithville Waste Water Treatment Plant, city officials now want to begin a rehabilitation of existing sewer lines in the system.

During Monday night’s meeting, the Aldermen voted to apply for another $525,000 Community Development Block Grant through the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development for this purpose. The Upper Cumberland Development District will administer the grant application on behalf of the city. If approved, the city will have to pay the required local grant match.

Although the bulk of the funding for the sewer plant rehab project came from the city’s water and sewer fund surplus, the municipality received a previous $525,000 CDBG grant for that project two years ago.

City Administrator Hunter Hendrixson said now that the sewer plant upgrade is completed, the city can apply for another grant. “As you know we’re closing out our grant for the sewer plant so now we can apply for another Community Development Block Grant from the state to do sewer line rehabilitation. Although we have done the sewer plant work, there are a lot of lines in the system that need to be replaced,” said Hendrixson.