COURTS HAND DOWN LONG SENTENCES IN 2004

While 2004 was a year with few major trials, state and federal courts were
still busy dealing with several pleas and handing down lengthy prison
sentences.

In February, Alfred William Smith was sentenced to life in prison in the
brutal slaying of 38-year-old Betty Elizabeth Harrison White in January.

Smith, now 57, was arrested at a home on College Street in Athens.

The February trial stemmed from a particularly brutal murder in which White
was stabbed and run over by a car.

McMinn County Sheriff's deputies initially responded to a report from a
passing motorist that a body had been found.

At Smith's trial in February, a jury of seven women and five men
deliberated just over two hours before returning guilty verdict on the
first-degree murder charge.

According to a generally accepted state Attorney General's interpretation
of the sentence in recent years, Smith will have to serve 51 years behind
bars before being able to apply for parole. That means he would have to
live to an age of 107 before becoming eligible for release.

Another notable trial, this one a drug case involving a Niota man, roused
interest when jurors decided to fine Chris E. Smith, 50, of 405 Chester
St., Athens, $100,000 as part of the penalty in a McMinn County Criminal
Court drug case.

Smith was arrested by 10th Judicial Drug Task Force agents and Athens
police in August 2003.

An indictment was issued against Smith on the charge of sale of cocaine in
January this year and a short jury trial took place in March.

The jury in the trial found Smith guilty and ordered him to pay $100,000 in
fines.

Smith was arrested in the Cook Park area following surveillance of
activities by investigators, according to Assistant District Attorney Chuck
Pope.

Even Pope was surprised by the jury's decision on the fine.

"That's the biggest fine I've ever seen," Pope said. "Maybe they were
sending a message. I'm certainly pleased with the verdict and the fine."

The jury of 10 men and two women deliberated less than 10 minutes before
returning a guilty verdict.

In November, a U.S. District Court plea by former 10th Judicial Drug Task
Force Director Ken Wilson followed a state motion to dismiss the charges
from state Criminal Court.

U.S. Attorney Paul Laymon said last month that Wilson pleaded guilty to
charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and possession of cocaine
during the hearing held in November.

Laymon said Wilson was indicted on the charge of conspiracy to distribute
marijuana in connection with at least 176 pounds of the drug which went
missing from a 1,000-pound seizure of the pot confiscated by DTF agents in
a traffic stop.

"He acknowledged in his plea to stealing at least 176 pounds of marijuana,"
Laymon said immediately following the plea.

The cocaine possession charge relates to a small amount of cocaine found in
Wilson's possession.

Wilson could face up to 20 years in prison, but Laymon said a U.S. Supreme
Court decision on whether federal sentencing guidelines are constitutional
is still pending and the outcome of that decision could effect Wilson's
upcoming sentence.

Wilson is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Chattanooga for
sentencing March 4, 2005, according to federal officials.

Also in another recent federal court plea, an Athens man was sentenced to
nearly two years in federal prison following a guilty plea in U.S. District
Court to charges of possession of child pornography.

Clifford Dale Visage, of Athens, who entered a guilty plea earlier this
year, was sentenced to 21 months in a federal penitentiary.

According to federal court records, Visage was found in 2003 in possession
of a total of 450 pornographic images -- all on his computer and 16 compact
discs -- including 75 images identified as child pornography, 40 of those
depicting children under the age of 12 and 20 images of a child being
penetrated. The computer also contained video images, federal court records
stated.

Federal authorities additionally found 625 pornographic movie clips of
which 65 were identified as "child porn movie clips," 40 of them containing
children under 12, and 35 depicting a child being penetrated, federal court
records stated.

The federal court judge also ordered that Visage participate in sexual
offender treatment, that he have no contact, employment or other contact
with minors under the age of 18, and submit to polygraph testing when
released on federal probation.

Visage was additionally ordered to register with the state's sexual
offender registry.

Visage left the courtroom in federal custody at the end of the sentencing
hearing to fulfill his 21-month sentence. He was placed into federal
custody after signing his plea agreement in July.

In November local physician Dr. Stephen L. Denton -- convicted in 2000 on
one count of sexual battery by an authority figure, six counts of sexual
battery and three counts of assault -- successfully appealed his
convictions to the Tennessee Supreme Court.

The state Supreme Court ordered that Denton's case be remanded for retrial
on each of as many as nine counts involving each of the victims in the
first consolidated trial.

Denton, witnesses, victims and defense attorneys and prosecutors face a
dizzying series of motion hearings and trials in the wake of the Supreme
Court decision.

Following the ruling, Denton said in an interview that he was pleased with
the Supreme Court's decision.

"I'm very happy about the decision and I thank God that it turned out this
way," said Denton.

"It has nothing to do with fancy lawyering," he said of the ruling. "I hate
it took six years to come to this."

Denton said if local prosecutors choose not to proceed with trials on the
remanded cases, he will try to get his medical license reinstated.

The matters will now be taken up in McMinn County Criminal Court, once
prosecutors decide how they will proceed.

In April, Athens resident Frank Cates was sentenced to eight years in state
prison in connection with the robbery of BB&T bank on Washington Avenue in
January.

Cates, 48, of 2103 Hammerhill Road, Athens, pleaded guilty Friday to one
Class B felony count of aggravated robbery in the January bank robbery. He
also pleaded guilty to Class E felony charges of forgery up to $1,000.

Federal authorities declined to take the case, according to Police Chief
Chuck Ziegler, because the FBI has "become less involved in bank robberies"
since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Witnesses told police a man, later identified as Cates, entered the bank,
walked up to a teller and said, "Don't move," two times, then showed the
teller what she believed was the barrel of a handgun visible in his shirt
sleeve as he leaned on the counter, reports stated.

"While ... giving the suspect the currency, he stated 'That's enough,' and
turned to exit the bank through the rear doors," police reports stated.

The teller reportedly gave Cates the money she had along with a red die
pack, reports stated.

As the fleeing robber left the bank, the dye pack exploded in the parking
lot, reports stated.

He was later apprehended in Sweetwater when law enforcement converged on
him at a convenience store.

In November, an Etowah woman was ordered to pay $4.8 million in restitution
and serve six years in federal prison following a guilty plea in U.S.
District Court to charges she helped orchestrate an investment fraud scheme.

Dianna Blair-Torbett, 48, of Etowah, was arrested in April of 2002 on a
21-count federal indictment charging her with interstate transportation of
property obtained by fraud in what U.S. Attorney Harry S. Mattice Jr.,
called a "Ponzi scheme."

Blair-Torbett was arrested in 2002 along with 57-year-old Knoxville
resident William Devers Brannon, also indicted by a federal grand jury at
the conclusion of the investigation.

The scheme involved an "investment club" which was actually a ruse to
enable Blair-Torbett to obtain money under false pretenses, said Mattice.

The Etowah woman persuaded victims to allow her handle their investments
with the guarantee that the would double or triple their investment in six
months' time.

Mattice said Blair-Torbett told victims their money was secured by gold
located at the West Texas Metals firm, owned by Brannon. Brannon claimed to
have a process whereby he could convert common ores into precious metals
such as gold and platinum, according to prosecutors.

U.S. District Judge Curtis L. Collier ordered both Blair-Torbett and
Brannon to each pay $4,845,115 in restitution, but Blair-Torbett's sentence
and restitution order resulted from a guilty plea, while Brannon pressed
his case to trial where a jury sentenced him on Sept. 2 to 97-months in
federal prison and issued to same ordered restitution, according to Mattice.

According to Mattice, the 72-month sentence and the nearly $5 million
ordered restitution are "an upward departure from the federal sentencing
guidelines, which the court found was warranted due to the devastating
financial and psychological harm suffered by the victims."

Brannon received the same restitution order and a 97-month sentence to be
served in federal prison, according to Mattice.