Beer and Wine Can Flow After All

Just when it looked as if MTSU’s hopes were dashed for selling alcoholic beverages at campus sporting events, state lawmakers found a way to get it done.

The legislation was sponsored by Sen. Frank Nicely, a Republican from Strawberry Plains in East Tennessee, and amended by state Sen. Bill Ketron of Murfreesboro to meet the needs of our local normal college. And in the House, Rep. Rick Staples, a Knoxville Democrat, carried the (beer) bucket for MTSU and Tennessee State University to be able to see booze (no liquor) at campus ball games.

The measure barely made it by in the House, receiving the 50 votes necessary for passage but fared much better in the Senate, getting 25 votes and only four against.

MTSU officials have been pushing hard for the chance to sell beer and wine, hoping it will give them another draw for fans and a chance to bring in some more money.

As Nicely pointed out, they’ll probably be charging about $12 a beer at games (maybe not quite that much), so he doesn’t expect fans to be killing themselves for a beer. Plus, people who have access to an open-air box or skybox at football games already can have as much booze as they want. And there’s plenty of beer poured by tailgaters before and after games.

For basketball and baseball games, though, it could be a major attraction. Seriously, what’s better than having a hot dog and beer at a baseball game or grabbing a cold one and watching Kermit Davis yell at his players and the refs. Oops, I almost forgot, Kermit is gone to Ole Miss. We’ll miss him but wish the best for the new kid in town, Nick McDevitt.

Anyway, when you’re having a cold one at a ball game, tip your hat to Frank Nicely and Rick Staples. They need all the love they can get. Meanwhile, Rutherford’s House delegation hardly lifted a finger.

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Are the Records of Local Business Owners Expunged, or Not, After Operation Candy Crush CBD Bust?

It’s a technicality that is a harbinger of things to come.

The District Attorney General’s office recently asked Circuit Court Judge Royce Taylor to vacate orders expunging the records of store owners arrested in Operation Candy Crush, the ill-advised bust of some 20 people for allegedly selling pot-laced cannabidiol items that turned out to be hemp-based.

Less than two weeks after the businesses were raided and padlocked, DA Jennings Jones reversed course when it became clear the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation could not confirm the items came from illicit weed. Jones said all charges were being dropped and records expunged.

But Assistant DA John Zimmermann, who prosecuted the case, wound up filing a motion with Judge Taylor notifying him the State Attorney General’s office advised that the court doesn’t have the jurisdiction to order criminal records expungements without the defendant filing the petition.

It sounds sort of mundane. But what it really means is those people who were busted, had the cash registers seized, stores padlocked and businesses more or less done in for weeks need access to all of the records involved in the operation against them.

And why do they need them? So they can sue.

What wound up happening is the judge had to reverse the orders against those business owners to allow them to file their own petitions so they could obtain records and then file for expungement, which clears them of these criminal charges.

Attorneys have been mum about the matter, which most attorneys are before taking legal action. They have several more months to file, but don’t be surprised to see a spate of federal lawsuits filed against Rutherford County authorities before next February rolls around.

In their zeal to send a message to area businesses about selling what they thought was pot, local authorities could put the county on the hook for millions in legal settlements.

Experts say marijuana is a billion-dollar industry, but I think they mean consumers are spending the money, not taxpayers.

This is a shame, considering an internal investigation found that sheriff’s detectives tried to stop the investigation but got overruled.

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Years in the Making

The race between Circuit Court Clerk Melissa Harrell and Robin Gentry stretched back nearly four years when Harrell won election over Laura Bohling, Gentry’s former boss in the clerk’s office.

Harrell took office even though she was still the owner of AAAA Bonding Co., which, technically, was probably illegal because the clerk is charged with overseeing bonding companies and is not allowed, under state law, to have a direct or indirect interest in a bonding company.

Nevertheless, Harrell was sworn in Sept. 1, 2014, even as Democratic candidate Avent Lane tried to challenge the matter because of her bonding company ownership. AAAA Bonding also had about $30,000 in outstanding bonds on two men who fled the country after being charged with selling drug-laced brownies on the way to Bonnaroo.

With all of that swirling and DA Jennings Jones seeking to stop Harrell from having an interest in AAAA Bonding, I had to check on bonding company records with the Circuit Court Clerk’s Office. Guess who was in charge of those records at the time: Robin Gentry.

It was her job to make sure I got those records under the Tennessee Open Records Act. But this caused a good deal of friction between Harrell and Gentry. And I was caught somewhere in there, which was probably a violation of sorts of the state’s Open Records Act. Even though I opted to let things cool off for a while, Harrell fired Gentry anyway. Ultimately, Gentry sued the county and won a lawsuit settlement of about $90,000 and a job in another county department.

Here we are four years later, and whoever won the Republican primary on May 1, that’s the back story.

Harrell also sat on her hands as AAAA Bonding continued operating—after she divested herself—even though it didn’t have a business license.

AAAA Bonding was administratively dissolved in August 2016 by the Secretary of State, and in November 2017, Circuit Court Judges David Bragg and Royce Taylor suspended its license, because it had been writing bonds after being dissolved, court records show.

The company received a new state business license and started writing bonds March 23 with court approval.

Harrell has declined to say whether she knew if AAAA Bonding was writing bonds without a license.