FORMER DEPUTY SENTENCED IN METHAMPHETAMINE PROBE

ABINGDON -- A former Sullivan County sheriff's deputy fought tears Monday
as he apologized for his role in a methamphetamine distribution ring
responsible for putting more than a kilogram of the illegal stimulant on
the streets.

"I have been so sorry for all the trouble I have caused my family -- my
mother, my wife, my brother," Jeffrey Scott Embree told U.S. District Court
Judge James Jones Monday. "I've got two sons ... I pray you give me a
second chance to raise them."

Embree asked the judge for mercy, but admitted that his troubles were
"nobody's fault but my own."

Moments later, Jones ordered the 38-year-old Bluff City resident to serve
10 years and one month in prison.

"This is certainly a sad moment," the judge told Embree. "For some reason
you chose to be involved in the distribution of these dangerous drugs. Your
willingness to participate in this ... adversely affected society and many
other families."

Despite his stern words, Jones gave Embree the minimum sentence called for
under federal guidelines. He could have given Embree up to 12 1/2 years in
prison and a $4 million fine.

The judge imposed no fine because he found that Embree was not able to pay
one. Embree will be on probation for five years once he is freed from prison.

Embree pleaded guilty in February to conspiring to possess more than 1/2
kilogram of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute it.

Federal prosecutors said he was part of a drug ring that operated for
nearly two years and brought more than a kilogram of the drug, known as
crystal meth, into the area from California.

Later, the group tried to make methamphetamine in clandestine laboratories
near Bristol Motor Speedway and Bluff City Elementary School, prosecutors said.

Those efforts were not successful, but posed a threat of environmental
contamination, fire and explosion, prosecutors said. Meth labs use a brew
of volatile chemicals to turn cold medicine into an illegal super
stimulant, prosecutors have said.

Embree's lawyer, Tim Hudson, said that his client's involvement was the
result of drug addiction.

"There is no evidence he profited from this," Hudson said. "He was getting
nothing from it, but feeding his addiction."

Embree was not a deputy at the time of his crimes, having quit his job
because of a neck injury, witnesses said.

Six other people also have pleaded guilty to involvement in the drug ring
that mostly operated in the Bristol and Bluff City areas. They included
Jeffrey Embree's brother, Ernie, 47, also of Bluff City.

Ernie Embree will be sentenced later this month, as will Donna Richardson,
a Bristol Virginia woman who also has pleaded guilty in the case.

Four other drug ring members were sentenced Monday. They included:

- -- Danah Diggs, 48, of Bluff City, who admitted allowing a methamphetamine
laboratory to be set up in an out-building near her home.

Diggs was given five years in prison and six years of probation. She was
fined $500.

- -- Jennifer Michelle "Shelly" Miller, 26, of Bluff City, who admitted going
on a drug run to California and selling some of the drugs in the area.

Miller was given five years in prison, but the judge recommended that she
serve that time in the federal boot camp program. She also was fined $500
and given six years of probation.

- -- Two Bristol Tennessee men, Jimmy Dempsey, 42, and James Tinsley, 44, who
both admitted doing work on one of the illegal lab sites.

Each man was given three years of probation and fined $1,000.