The Putnam Pit
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FBI busts Cookeville cops in drug, money laundering sting

Tennessean beats Herald-Citizen with story about corruption allegations

Crimes allegedly took place right under the nose of C'ville's top cop Bob Terry and DA Bill Gibson, who denies using cocaine

From the Tennessean:

Drug sting nabs 2 officers, 6 others

Cocaine ferried, cash laundered in scheme, FBI says

By LEON ALLIGOOD
Staff Writer

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (Aug. 17, 2005) — Shortly after 10 a.m. yesterday, FBI agents arrived at the Cookeville Police Department to arrest two men.

The suspects were easily spotted.

They wore blue ... and police badges.

By noon, "Operation Tarnished Shield," a three-year effort by federal and state authorities to "root out corruption" in this Upper Cumberland Plateau city, also had resulted in the arrest of two former law enforcement officers.

Four other individuals, for a total of eight, also were taken into custody as part of the undercover sting investigation that alleges police participation in a conspiracy to ferry cocaine and launder hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Arrested yesterday at the Cookeville Police Department were Master Patrol Officer Reno Martin, a 15-year veteran of the department, and Patrol Officer Jason Blythe, who has been on the force three years.

Also taken into federal custody yesterday were Steven Bert Williamson, a former police officer in Algood, and Gregory Dale Scott, who once worked as a corrections officer at the Putnam County Jail.

Others arrested included Ronald Middlebrook, a Cookeville auto body shop owner, and his sister, Robin Blaskis, a certified public accountant in Cookeville. Also nabbed in the sting were Troy Bell and Darrell Thomas Jones, also of Putnam County. MORE

Cookeville, Putnam County would pay firms to stay

But with a history of dog shooting, cops running over suspect, psychologically unstable police, drunkard in government service, computer hackers who pay to settle lawsuit, an arson murderer running loose, DA who says he doesn't use cocaine, candidate murder -- is there enough money?

Should a company with stockholders risk doing business in a lawless town?

Every company in Cookeville should ask for a handout

One way to find out.

 Every company in Cookeville should ask for a handout.

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Hair-oiled Citroën  employee Mary Jo Denton works deputy's name six times into a 13-paragraph sex article involving a 15-year-old girl

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The hidden cost of the War on Terror

Supreme Court asked to decide whether attorney general illegally changed IRS regulations to allow federal police powers Congress meant to curb

By GEOFF DAVIDIAN
WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 14, 2005) -- Millions of Americans put down a good chunk of their earnings each year as the tax man takes his cut to provide services like protecting us from terrorists.
      But the U.S. Supreme Court is being asked in Payne v. USA to decide whether former Attorney General John Ashcroft illegally rewrote treasury regulations in a surreptitious end-run around congressional limits on federal police powers – powers that were meant to protect citizens from the damage caused not by terrorists, but by the IRS.  More

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Book Review

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
(2004, San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 250 pp., $24.95)  

'And we wonder why terrorists attack us?' asks author John Perkins

By GEOFF DAVIDIAN
Editor, The Putnam Pit
In Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins gives us good insight into everything wrong with capitalism, and in doing so shows us an example of the kind of person who makes it all wrong.

Perkins portrays a world where a few are kept permanently happy on the one simple condition that millions of souls lead lives of economic misery and exploitation, through a system in which religious groups, corporations and U.S. policy converge wherever poor nations have resources we want.  More

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Although they admit no guilt . . .

Cookeville pays $77,000 to settle dog shooting case

In a continuation of City Mismanager Jim "Jimmy Dale " (Jimbo) Shipley's policy of paying public money to bail out incompetent public employees without admitting anything, the Smoaks family of North Carolina gets $77,000 for being pulled from their car on Jan. 1, 2003, handcuffed on the side of the road and watching Cookeville Police officer Eric Hall blow the head off their dog Patton execution style.

''We felt like we had a good case and we did nothing wrong. We admitted no liability in the settlement. In my opinion, it was a good economic decision,'' Shipley said.

Here's the Tennessean story

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Letter to the editor (4/28/04)

Cookeville, Police Department, still insensitive on utility issues

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Are pot, tobacco, cocaine or meth next in schools?

Putnam schools look for money despite children's welfare

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Area poverty so great it takes 125 volunteers to distribute government food to thousands of families

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More traffic horror for South Willow
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New disciplinary action against state lawyers by Tennessee Supreme Court

Wisconsin atty.  Ray Pollen, who defended City Manager Jimmy Dale Shipley and City Attorney Thomas M. (T. Michael) 'Mike' O'Mara in Web site hacking case, is sued in Milwaukee for withholding records

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Defending a criminal charge in Cookeville may be illegal, DA warns

D.A. Bill Gibson, who can't tell when a death is a murder, tells Hair-Oiled Citroen that if a consideration (or stake, such as legal fees) has to be paid, the event is totally chance-related rather than a test of skill (as with which judge you draw) and there is a prize (justice), the endeavor is illegal. Story.

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Shipley singles out police for gambling ban, H-C reports
No word on whether they can still run over bodies, shoot dogs or each other
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For years, The Putnam Pit has been calling former Putnam County Court Clerk Lewis Coomer a thief . On Jan. 29, we give him a chance to prove it
County Attorney Jeff Jones defends Coomer in federal civil rights case depositions ________________________________________

Danny L. Newton asks . . .
How many dead Chamber of Commerce buildings
in Cookeville Mismanager Jim Shipley's back yard?

Cookeville Police: To abuse and deny
Sign the 'Protection from Cookeville' petition before something happens to your family

Happy New Year/anniversary to the fathers of modern Cookeville . . .

Eric Hall and Bob Terry
You co-defendants put Cookeville on the terrorism map
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Ten months after high-speed police chase

City Manager Jimmy Dale Shipley releases altered, edited video of Cookeville cops running over suspect

Download and view 17MB .avi format police chase video (Very large file)
Still photos in .pdf (Requires free Adobe Reader)

Videos suggest two squads were traveling too fast, too close together Jan. 31, 2003 before victim was hit

 Crucial portions of video are blank, audio missing:

Defective or altered? Tapes fit pattern of Cookeville cops avoiding accountability
Read about the incident
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How'd Country Inn Suites get on the Water? 

It was one thing when the employee at Cookeville's Country Inn Suites used the Internet to defame guests, but now it looks like since that didn't help business the company is being represented as being on the water.  Click

Mismanager Jimmy Dale Shipley misevaluates Cookeville Top Cop Bob 'Smut Boy' Terry

Above average? On some other planet, maybe.

To look at his personnel file, you'd think Cookeville Police Chief Bob Terry never sent pornography to D.A. Bill Gibson or City Councilman Ricky Shelton; never used his alpha-numeric pager to receive sleazy messages from a subordinate; never spent too much public money on photos of himself; never was investigated for a breach of security; never collected  more overtime than anyone in the department when he was a manager; never oversaw a department riddled by a binge of civil rights cases by officers he supports and defends. That's because Terry stuffs his file with only the good correspondence -- even if it is about someone else --  and the city manager has nothing to say that would raise a red flag.

Click here to see the 'Official' correspondence file

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (Nov. 9, 2003) -- Over the past five years, the City of  Cookeville reported 344 employee accidents. A review of the  workers comp losses over the five-year period revealed  that the City recorded 36 severity claims, each over $10,000,  according to a report by the TML's Risk Management Pool. Nine of these City of  Cookeville employee claims incurred amounts over $75,000  each while 5 of those claims surpassed $100,000 each. Who's getting the money this year?

Letter to City Manager Jim Shipley regarding the  inclusion of employee Social Security numbers for all Workers Comp  claimants, right after being slapped with a civil rights suit for  the same thing by Dog-killing Cookeville Police officer Eric 'I  saw the doggie's tail wagging and was afraid so now I want money'  Hall  http://www.putnampit.com/ship_ltr.pdf

Police vanity budget  revealed What's wrong with this  picture? How  BIG  is  Police Chief Bob Terry's  ego?    Shipley/Womack support Terry regardless of  how dumb he acts, regardless of how much damage his alleged  leadership causes COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (Nov. 8, 2003) --  Not long ago, the City of Cookeville did not  have  money to replace bandages in City Hall first-aid kits. Tax  revenue is down; civil rights cases against the city are  abundant. A police officer is suing the City. One of the  biggest civil rights cases in City history is pending over a  cop shooting a dog. What does Police Chief  Bob Terry do? He has pictures of himself and  his pals taken at City expense.    Here are City's photography bills, including the  frames:  Bob Terry $2,760 for police/Bob Terry  photography sessions since 12/14/98. By comparison: $142.95  for City Mismanager Jimmy Dale Shipley since 1997; $537 for one photo  shoot of Mayor Womack in October 2002; Command staff $100 for a  20X24 frame and glass for a City Council  portrait and $575 for City of Cookeville Water  Department "Environmental of Home Sitting" photo sessions  and "Portraits" billed to "Bonnie" on 6/22/02.  See the  bills

Patton's  revenge  James  Smoak et al. v.  Eric Hall et al. Count the Cookeville  defendants:  City of  Cookeville (1); Police Chief Bob Terry (2); Officers  Eric Hall (3), Mead McWhorter(4)  and Bruce Lamb  (5);  Dispatchers Angela Cheseboro (6) and Laurie  Graham (7) Each defendant is  entitled to a separate lawyer at your expense.  Bobby  Andrews settlement:  After demanding that Bobby Andrews agree to not  release the terms of Cookeville's payout of $20,000 to end  his civil rights employment case against Police Chief Bob  Terry and Cookeville, the City backs down and turns it over  to The Putnam Pit. Why does the city demand  confidentiality when the law demands openness?  Read the  agreement.

From the TML Risk Management  newsletter:

"Beginning last year, and continuing this year and  into the future, the Pool will increasingly price to  experience.  That means that the worse a member's losses  continue to be, the more the Pool will charge that member.   But in addition, the Pool will provide these members with a  summary of their loss history, together with an offer to help with  intensive training and loss control. The Pool will do everything  it can to help these members, but in the end, the losses, no  matter how great, must be paid.  And those members with the  worst loss history will pay the most.  Fair is  fair."  Read the newsletter.

 How should  Cookeville raise money to pay the city's legal fees and damages to  the Smoak family in their suit against the City and Police Officer  Eric Hall?

 Poll results:

 Slash cop salaries/cut City  jobs

Putnam Pit readers responding  to our on-line poll send this message to City Mismanager Jimmy  Dale Shipley, Police Chief Bob 'Smut Boy' Terry, and Eric 'They  Gave Out My Social Security Number and Now I Want Money'  Hall:

 'Let the people who cause the trouble  feel pain'

24% of Putnam  Pit readers voting in our poll want to sell Cookeville Hospital to  compensate Hall's  victims. More than half (58%) want police salaries  slashed and City job  cuts.  97% oppose tax hikes to pay for legal fees  and damages.

Bob Terry is the apparent scapegoat, but who hired  him?

Here are the facts in black and  white:

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The only part of this case yet to be ruled on is  whether the City's tax-paid insurance lawyers will be sanctioned  for disingenuous statements to The Court. A Rule 11  motion is pending, according to the case  docket,  and Cookeville lawyer Daniel Hurley "Threatening  to Kill A Nigger Is Not A Citeable Offense" Rader, III, and  his firm, Moore, Rader, Clift & Fitzpatrick, may be held  accountable for violating Federal court rules.

Special  Bible Belt edition
 

Cookeville City  Mismanager J. Dale 'Jimbo' Shipley Party on, Dude,  as though there were no cascade of ominous terrible stuff  aimed directly at you

Smoaks sue over dog execution In the beginning God created the  heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and  void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the  Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God  said, Let there be light: and there was light. And then  Cookeville began to annex the Earth, and darkness returned.  Cookeville City Manager Jimmy Dale Shipley said, "Let former Chief Richard Holt be fired to  protect Police Captain Wayne Bandy in a  reckless gun incident," and Bandy was protected. Later, Shipley  said, "Let Bob Terry be Chief, although he is the least qualified for the  job," and it was so;  then Shipley said, "Let Bob Terry not be  disciplined for sending pornography to  the DA, other cops and now-Councilman Shelton," and  he was forgiven, for Shipley is a compassionate and  understanding  Mismanager; then Shipley said, "Let  Bob Terry receive inappropriate  personal messages on his alphanumeric government pager," and it was so; then Shipley said, "Let  Zac Birdwell  shoot another officer in the neck while drunk with no  consequence to Bob Terry," and it was so; then,  Shipley appeared to the Profit-from-it-all, O'Moses, who  later read from the Tablet,  'Let  Police Officer Eric Hall shoot  the puppy Patton execution-style, while his owners are  handcuffed along the side of the road,' and it was  so; then Shipley appeared and said, "Eric Hall shall sue Cookeville  because he was victimized  when he killed the dog execution style," and he did.  Then, The Mismanager said, "The  City will pay The Putnam Pit for hacking its Web site with  public money,"and they did. Stay tuned for  Shipley's Exodus. More about  Cookeville

Is there a pattern here? Do you know  what a pattern is? A pattern is the same thing happening over and  over.  A pattern is a reliable sample of traits, acts,  tendencies, or other observable characteristics of a person,  group, or institution.  Like "Bandy-gun," "Birdwell-gun,"  "Hall-gun-"  is a pattern of Cookeville police officers terrorizing people with  a firearm. It's is not a random occurrence. It's Cookeville's  style, essence, signature. And Mr. Shipley's response: CENSOR THE  MESSENGER.

 

Does Shipley have  any responsibility whatsoever?

 Police chief, City in secret $20,000  settlement to payoff   Bobby Andrews' discrimination  case

 Tennessee Municipal League has  already funneled $12,243 of city money to lawyers defending Chief  Terry since November 2000 in this case alone not including the  secret payoff! Docket

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And furthermore . . .

Cookeville taxpayers shelled out a whopping $635,966 between July 2000 and June 2003 in legal fees and damage awards to victims of the Shipley/O'Mara/Womack gang. That's an average $580 a day, every day, for 1095 days . . . not including a separate paycheck to City Attorney Thomas M. (T. Michael) "Mike" O'Mara.

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But now, even more bad news:  

Click here for full-size image

Dog-killing cop Eric Hall sues City of  Cookeville, Chief Bob Terry

From Cookeville, Tenn., a living example  of what happens when public officials take personally criticism that they  are incompetent, and don't care how much public money they squander  maintaining the facade of being nondescript. 

 

• See deposition of Defendant John C. Duffy, of  the Knoxville law firm Watson & Hollow, accused of taking part in a  conspiracy to hack this Web site. - - Click  here  (Requires free Adobe  Reader)
    
• See deposition of Cookeville Computer Manager Steve  Corder, who carried out the plan to alter Putnam Pit pages before a  jury could see them at his co-defendants' instructions. -- Click  here  (Requires  free Adobe  Reader)
    
• Before you get bogged down in our Petition for  Certiorari to the US Supreme Court, Read U.S. Court  of Appeals affirms Judge Wiseman in Putnam Pit v. Cookeville link  case 

 Cookeville and Putnam County taxpayers bear the costs  for these federal cases, among others:

• Burton v. Terry et al

• Cookeville v. Upper Cumberland Electric

• Davidian v. Coomer

• Gamble v. Cookeville

• Hargis v. AAA Collections

• Hewitt v. Cookeville

• Putnam Pit Inc. v. City of Cookeville 

Cookeville pays law firm $5,000 in legal fees after  cops violate speech rights of Tennessee couple

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (August 12, 2003)  -- City  taxpayers will fork over $5,000 in legal fees to the firm representing a  Tennessee couple whose First Amendment rights were violated when police  stopped their peaceful demonstration in front of a local church. See  previous story  The plaintiffs in Hewitt v. Cookeville  received just $2 in the settlement, but Cookeville has agreed to obey the  Constitution from now on as part of the deal. No word on how much the  City's defense team made because the Tennessee Municipal League's Risk  Management Pool is exempt from public scrutiny for the time being.   

Cookeville taxpayers get hit for  $7,000 to buy O'Mara, Shipley out of a Wisconsin hacking case 

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (July 30, 2003) -- City Attorney  O'Mara, co-conspirator Jim Shipley, the city manager, and John Duffy, a  lawyer for the Knoxville firm Watson & Hollow, agree to pay $7,000 to  settle hacking  case they insist they did nothing wrong in.  Defendants,  who include the city's computer manager and who are named in their  individual capacities, also have managed to get the City of Cookeville to  give up money it has coming to the general fund from other cases to bail  them out of the hacking case. Settlement  transcript
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Cookeville city council reappoints O'Mara city attorney  without performance evaluation

Should  the Cookeville City Council vote to retain part-time City Attorney Thomas  M. (T. Michael) "Mike" O'Mara for another term at between $125 and $150 an  hour? The question is not just whether Mr. O'Mara has performed well  enough to deserve the city's trust for another couple of years. It is also  whether the Shipley-Womack government actually evaluates the issues it  votes on, or whether the City Council is just a rubber stamp. The question  of retaining Mr. O'Mara is a straightforward one and involves two parts:  quality and value. To answer the question intelligently, members of  the City Council must compare Mr. O'Mara's performance to a baseline or  standard that reasonable people will agree constitutes the acceptable  minimum. Editorial

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There's hope for TTU's journalism program!

Tennessee Tech University alumni C. Douglas and  Mildred Norman recently endowed the Dr. C. Douglas Norman Journalism Scholarship Endowment at  Tennessee Tech. The Norman's are the parents of c.d.  'Sonny Boy'  norman, a chronic contributor The  Putnam Pit. 

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Should police break the law to enforce  it?

Local police sting was organized fraud;  may leave taxpayers liable for 663 laptop computers to everyone cops  deceived.

Here we have law enforcement piggybacking on  lowered civil liberties respect to cash in for overtime pay in a  racketeering scheme that includes a judge and so-called newspaper. 

How could the district attorney and Judge John  Hudson (who used to work for the DA) approve false advertising? Isn't a  judge supposed to be neutral? Here he is, part of a fraud scheme, as  defined by TCA  47-18-104 meant to "collect money." Read  the H-C verbiage

Who can Cookeville City  employees thank for losing their raises?

 BOB TERRY can't  get it together and everyone else loses their raise.

 IS THAT  FAIR?

First it was the murdered Smoak family  Dog; then it was the Hewitt case.
Now, although the H-C didn't tell you . . .

 Cookeville Police Chief Bob 'Smut Boy' Terry,  2 other cops, drag city into another federal lawsuit

". . . Defendant, Chief Robert Terry, had  a duty to train officers properly in order to prevent [Cookeville Police  Officers Jonathan Williams and Brent Anderson] from the outrageous  conduct and illegal and negligent actions . . . "  -- Lawyer  Richard Brooks

• Complaint in  Burton v.  Terry

• Defendants' Answer and Notice of Removal to Federal  Court

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How to deal with a budget  crisis

By GEOFF DAVIDIAN
Putnam Pit  editor
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (July 12, 2003)  -- As the  Cookeville City Council votes  on a whopping property tax increase, I  feel the need to take the lead in my own household and set my own budget  priorities. Where can I cut my own fat and stay out of the dog  house?  Man, it is  tough when crisis is everywhere and no money.   Story

Meanwhile:

• Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals blasts Judge  Lillie Ann Sells for improper behavior; throws her off Keathly case  --  Read  the opinion  (Cookeville is still great place to live, Porno e-mailing  Police Chief 'Smut-Boy' Terry says.)
   

• Herald-Citizen buries facts about exploding Cookeville  murder and rape rates in gushy police item about a new drug "program"  with an acronym, and a quote from Chief Terry that Cookeville is a  good place to live. How good was it for the rape victims, Chief? Did  Terry E-mail the rape pictures to the DA and Councilman Shelton? Story 

• U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit tells  O'Mara to correct all his mistakes, but who pays for his time?  US Court of Appeals  for the Sixth Circuit Case Summary 

Don't make us laugh!

hey claim to be 'pleased' to be partners with the Knoxville  News-Sentinel in the defense of constitutional liberties, but  the law firm of Watson &  Hollow in fact defends  government officials accused of violating civil rights. In fact,  John C. Duffy, one of the firm's lawyers, when he's not decrying  the world's greatest art, is accused of being  part of a conspiracy to hack  this Web site in an effort to recreate  exhibits for a jury in a case where his clients were on trial for  censoring critics and retaliation.

'Huffy' John  Duffy