Local News Articles

Another Smithville business has been licensed to sell beer.

The Smithville Beer Board Monday night approved the application of Pablo Gonzalez-Rosales to sell beer at 408 East Broad Street known as Mercadito Chabelita after finding that the applicant met all criteria in accordance with city codes.

Members of the beer board voting in favor were Lloyd Black, Steve Hays, Annette Greek, and Cecil Burger. Farron Hendrix was absent.

A total of twelve city businesses are now licensed to sell beer in Smithville including Walmart, Food Lion, Dollar General Store, Mapco Express, Kwik-N-Ezy, Jewel's Market, Village Market, South Congress BP, West Broad BP, Eastside Citgo, El Mariachi, and now Mercadito Chabelita.

A 31 year old woman, serving an eight year sentence for the aggravated robbery and burglary of an elderly Alexandria woman, may learn within days if she will be granted an early release.

A parole hearing was held last Monday, April 18th for Debralee Mai Hardcastle at the White County Jail in Sparta where she is currently incarcerated.

Hardcastle was charged on August 23rd, 2009 in an early Sunday morning assault on her 95 year old landlord, Lilae Belle Gilliam, at the residence they shared at 309 West Main Street in Alexandria.

Hardcastle pleaded guilty in DeKalb County Criminal Court on October 15th, 2010 to one count of aggravated robbery and one count of aggravated burglary. She received an eight year sentence to serve in the robbery case and three years to serve in the burglary. The two sentences are to run concurrently as one eight year term and concurrently with a Wilson County violation of probation against her.

She was given jail credit for time served from August 23rd, 2009 to October 15th, 2010.

Last Monday, Hardcastle appeared before parole hearing officer Don Fox asking that she be granted an early release. Hardcastle expressed remorse for her crimes adding that the actions were fueled by her past drug use. Two members of Hardcastle's family also spoke in her behalf along with her drug counselor.

Assistant District Attorney Greg Strong and Alexandria Police Chief Mark Collins spoke in opposition to Hardcastle's release due to the seriousness of the crime, the victim's advanced age, and due to the close relationship Hardcastle once had with the victim as landlord and tenant.

At the conclusion of the hearing last Monday, Fox announced that he would recommend to members of the state parole board that Hardcastle not be granted parole. If at least a majority of the parole board members concur, then Hardcastle will have to wait two years before her next parole eligibility. A final decision is expected within a few days.

After her arrest on August 23rd, 2009, Chief Collins reported that Hardcastle had been charged with especially aggravated burglary, especially aggravated robbery, and especially aggravated assault in the attack on Mrs. Gilliam. Hardcastle was also charged at the time with theft under $500 in a separate case.

According to Chief Collins, Gilliam, who lived alone, rented a portion of her home to Hardcastle and another woman less than a month before this incident occurred. They apparently moved here from Wilson County. Both dwellings in the Gilliam home were under the same roof but had separate entrances.

Chief Collins said Hardcastle, in order to alter her appearance, dressed disguised as a man and then left her room around 3:15 a.m. He said she went outside, went around the house, and knocked on Mrs. Gilliam's side door. When Mrs. Gilliam answered the door, Hardcastle, holding a 14 inch knife, forced her way inside and demanded the elderly woman's medication. Mrs. Gilliam, who apparently did not recognize Hardcastle, resisted and tried to defend herself. Though she fought off the attack, Gilliam suffered lacerations and bruises from blows to her head and upper body.

After the assault, Hardcastle returned to her room, taking three bottles of medication from Gilliam's residence. Mrs. Gilliam, bleeding from the attack, dropped to her hands and knees, crawled to the foyer near the door and began screaming for help.

Apparently in an attempt to avoid arousing suspicion as to her involvement, Hardcastle removed her disguise, changed her clothes, cleaned up and went back to assist Mrs. Gilliam and called 911.

Gilliam was transported by DeKalb EMS to UMC Medical Center in Lebanon where she was treated and released.

Chief Collins said after interviewing witnesses and collecting evidence at the scene, Hardcastle was identified as a suspect.. She was picked up for questioning, but she refused to cooperate or give a statement. She was subsequently charged in the case.

The case was investigated by the Alexandria Police Department in cooperation with the DeKalb County Sheriff's Department.

A Chancery Court ruling in Putnam County over whether the state or county should bear the costs of attorney's fees in a federal lawsuit against the Republican majority of the election commission is expected to affect DeKalb County as well.

The Tennessee Supreme Court's specially appointed Chancellor in the case, Judge Donald Harris, has found that the county, not the state, is responsible for the Putnam County election commission's legal expense in defending the lawsuit filed against it by the former administrator of elections. The Chancellor also ruled that Putnam County must pay the election commission's legal fees for action taken against the county due to non-payment of attorneys fees.

Judge Harris recently held a hearing on the matter in Putnam County Chancery Court.

In the ruling, Judge Harris wrote that "the entity responsible for providing legal representation to the Putnam County Election Commission would likewise be responsible for providing legal representation for any member of the election commission sued in their official capacity," wrote Harris.

According to the Herald-Citizen, the chancery court case stems from a federal lawsuit filed in 2009 by former Putnam election administrator Nancy Boman, who claims she was removed from her post because of her perceived political affiliation and that three new Republican commissioners at the time -- Terry Herrin, Jean Cody and Joan Ross -- violated her First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. The election commission hired its own attorney and filed its own suit weeks after Boman's was filed, when Putnam County attorney Jeff Jones said the county was not responsible for paying its legal fees.

Jones argued that the Tennessee attorney general is responsible for providing for the commission's defense in federal court because county election commissioners are state actors. That was the opinion, in fact, of Senior U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Wiseman Jr. in a December order filed in that federal lawsuit, he said.

"The court agrees with the characterization that both the members of the Putnam County Election Commission and the Putnam County Administrator of Elections as being state employees. However that status does not result in the State Attorney General having the duty to represent the members of the county election commission when they are sued in their official capacity or in the State of Tennessee having the responsibility to fund the expense of their legal representation. Tennessee Code Annotated 2-12-109(a) provides: Except as otherwise provided by law, it is the responsibility of the county to fund the operations of its election commission. This language makes the expenses incurred by the election commission in the conduct of its operations the responsibility of Putnam County unless there is a specific provision elsewhere in Code that makes them the responsibility of another entity," wrote Harris.

"It is the opinion of the court that Putnam County, as a matter of law, is responsible for the reasonable cost of that representation and for any liability imposed as a result of the pending federal action. It has refused to assume that responsibility. Tennessee Code Annotated section 2-12-101 (c) (4) provides that "if, in order to properly discharge its duties, the county election commission has to bring legal action against a county or municipality, the compensation for the commission's legal representation shall be borne by the county or municipality as the case may be." Thus, Putnam County is also responsible for the legal expenses of the Putnam County Election Commission in bringing the action," wrote Harris.

Deputy Janet Kleinfelter with the Tennessee attorney general's office had asked during the hearing that the action against Tennessee Attorney General Robert E. Cooper Jr. -- who, along with Putnam County Executive Kim Blaylock, was named as a defendant in the chancery case -- be dismissed. She said the county was the party responsible for legal defense based on a series of Tennessee statutes.

Attorney John Harris, III of Nashville, representing the Putnam County Election Commission and the three individual commissioners named in the federal lawsuit, told the judge that he also believed the cost of the federal case -- as well as the chancery court action -- should be borne by the county.

Based upon the Chancellor's ruling, it appears that DeKalb County would also be required for payment of the legal expense of the local election commission.

In March, the DeKalb County Election Commission voted 3-2 to hire the same attorney Putnam County has employed, John Harris, III to represent them in a federal lawsuit brought in 2009 by the former administrator of elections, Lisa Peterson.

That decision came after the county's insurance carrier recently withdrew its legal representation based on the December federal court ruling that the local election commissioners were "state actors" and after the state attorney general, Robert E. Cooper, Jr., in a letter to Election Commission Chairman Walteen Parker, wrote that the commission could not rely on the state to provide a defense and would have to hire its own legal counsel in the case.

Since the court has ruled that the election commissioners cannot be held liable for monetary damages, John Harris said the only significant remaining issue to be decided is the "injunctive relief" claim in the lawsuit.

DeKalb is among about a dozen counties in Tennessee where lawsuits have been filed by former administrators of elections asserting that they were not re-appointed to those positions because of their political party affiliation.

If you have any old pictures of yesteryear life in DeKalb County, you're urged to make them available for the compilation of a pictorial history book through Arcadia Publishing's "Images of America" series.

Images of America: A History of American Life in Images and Texts is a unique new resource cultivated from Arcadia Publishing's award-winning series of local history books. At completion, it will include historical images and texts, celebrating the places and faces that give DeKalb County its spirit and life. All of the images and texts will enable users to explore the depth of the history of the county, as well as its cultures, architectural features, and more.

Ria Baker and Judy Fuson are compiling photos for the book.

Baker said that's where you can be of help. "We are working on a book about DeKalb History with the Arcadia Publishing Company. We are looking for pictures and information to put in the book. If anybody has any good history pictures we can scan we ask for your help. We'll come to your home and scan the pictures or we can pick them up, scan them, and bring them back to you or we can meet you at the library in Alexandria or Smithville and scan them there. We need pictures with information to go along with them and everybody will be asked to sign a release stating that they don't mind their pictures being put in the book.. The publishing company wants us to have it to them by September. Hopefully, they'll have the book out by January, 2012.. The sooner we can get the pictures from you, that would be great. We don't want somebody who has a great picture to miss having it in the book so if you have a photo you want to contribute we certainly want it and even if we can't use it in the book we still want to put it on a cd and place it in the libraries for people to access it if they want to," said Baker

Fuson adds "We're just compiling pictures that will illustrate the history of our county. We're looking for things of the past. Businesses from old times and the old country stores around the county as well as the towns of Liberty, Alexandria, Dowelltown, and Smithville. Not just businesses, but the early settlers, the religious life, schools, special events, entertainment, life from early times. We'd like to devote one chapter of this book to the people who lived where the lake is now. We hope to do another book later on that. Each image will have a caption telling who, what, where, and when. Everybody who contributes a picture will be acknowledged. On every picture it will tell who it came from. We have to scan these pictures a particular way. The publisher gave us guidelines to follow on how to scan the pictures. We would like to have original copies of the pictures to scan. We won't keep the pictures and we won't send them away. We can come to your home and scan them or you can bring them to us and have us scan them. We'll also accept old post cards. Sometimes people have old post cards with pictures of local areas. We can do those too," said Fuson

If you have pictures you'd like to contribute or have scanned for the book, call Ria Baker at 529-2840, Judy Fuson at 597-6397, or WJLE at 597-4265.