JUDGE SETS FORMER DRUG TRAFFICKER'S IMPRISONMENT AT TIME SERVED

A federal judge ruled Monday that a Harriman woman won't spend any more
time in prison for her role in a drug-trafficking organization that
operated for more than two decades.

U.S. District Judge Leon Jordan sentenced Tammy Lynn Knox, 42, to the time
she's already served in a Costa Rican prison and jails in the United
States. Defense attorney Charles Fels said the time equals about 14 months.

The judge ordered Knox to immediately begin serving four years of
supervised release, with the first six months to be spent in home confinement.

She will also have to perform 300 hours of community service, and Jordan
suggested she serve that time at the nursing home where her mother resides.

"For the first time in my life, I am turning my life around," Knox said.

Knox pleaded guilty to conspiracy, possession and intent-to-distribute
charges involving marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methaqualone, or
Quaaludes, from 1970 to 1994, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Winck said. The
details of her plea are under seal.

Winck asked Jordan to grant Knox a lower sentence than called for by
federal sentencing guidelines because of her cooperation in the case. He
asked for a sentence of a year and six months in prison with credit being
given to her for the 14 months she's already spent in prison awaiting the
outcome of the case.

Under the guidelines, Knox faced a minimum of three years and one month in
prison and a maximum of three years and 10 months. But Fels asked Jordan to
consider the time Knox spent in a maximum security Costa Rican prison when
she was first arrested in March, 1999.

"There were more rats in the prison than female prisoners," he said.

Once Knox returned to the United States, she spent two months in a Knox
County jail until her release on bond May 15, 2000, Fels said. He argued
she's become a responsible member of society, holding down two jobs and
helping care for her elderly parents.

"She doesn't need to go back to jail for four months now," Fels said.

Knox is the last to be sentenced of five people who were indicted in 1998
on the conspiracy charge. Her boyfriend, Richard Van Gardner, alias Dickie
Gardner, 52, of Rockwood is serving a 14-year sentence, and Jerry Alan
Foust, 54, of Rockwood is serving six years and eight months.

Gardner's brother, Kerry Wayne Gardner, was slain in a Costa Rican prison
while the brothers fought extradition to the United States on the federal
charge. The charge was dismissed against Albert Ronnie Brummitt, aliases
Tommy Brummitt and Blackie Brummitt, 55, of Harriman, partly because of a
lengthy prison sentence he is already serving on an unrelated charge, Winck
said.

In earlier court proceedings, Winck described Richard Gardner as one of the
largest drug traffickers the district has prosecuted. The joint
investigation by federal, state and local authorities, and law enforcement
offices in Canada and INTERPOL spanned 10 years.

Court papers filed by Winck described how Richard Gardner, with the
assistance of several others, organized the acquisition and transportation
of several plane loads of thousands of pounds of marijuana and about 50,000
Quaaludes from South America to East Tennessee.