Chris Brooks, Josh Cross, Jennifer Easton, Craig Harris, Tena Lee, Dessislava Yankova and Mealand Ragland-Hudgins

Gallatin News Examiner and Hendersonville Star News

This year has seen increased educational opportunities in Sumner County; tax increases for county residents; and continued success for local athletes. But the news hasn’t always been good, with several legal cases making headlines.

As we close out 2015, the Gallatin News Examiner and Hendersonville Star News offers a compilation of 15 stories reporters considered the major news of the year. And so, in no particular order, we present the year in review.

1. Welch College breaks ground on Gallatin campus

After years of searching for a buyer, Welch College officials finalized a deal this year to sell its Nashville campus, allowing the school to relocate to Gallatin.

In July, officials broke ground on the college’s new Gallatin campus. The move came one month after the school sold 7.14 acres of its 7.6-acre West End Avenue property in Nashville to Mike Ford Custom Builders for $11.25 million.

The college purchased 66 acres just north of Station Camp High School between Bison Trail and the Stone Creek subdivision in August 2008 for $3 million.

Phase one of the college’s new campus will include five buildings – an administration building, separate male and female dormitories, a cafeteria/multipurpose building and a gymnasium/student activities center – totaling 104,800 square feet, according to plans submitted to the Gallatin Planning Department.

Welch officials said earlier this year that they hope to have construction competed for the start of classes in September 2016 or January 2017 at the latest.

Established as Free Will Baptist Bible College in 1942, the four-year Christian school changed its name to Welch College in 2012. The regionally and nationally accredited school offers 40 majors and has an annual enrollment of about 400 students.

2. Teen found guilty in mother's death

Following a four-day trial in April, a Sumner County jury convicted Hendersonville teen Zachary Davis in the 2012 bludgeoning death of his mother, Melanie.

Davis, 17, was found guilty of first-degree murder in his mother’s death as well as attempted first-degree murder and aggravated arson for also setting his house on fire while his older brother slept.

His case garnered national attention when television show personality Dr. Phil McGraw aired a jailhouse interview with the teen in May. In the interview, Davis detailed killing his mother with a sledgehammer and striking her nearly 20 times while she slept.

McGraw said that the teen’s exaggerated head nods and laughing at inappropriate times were “common behaviors for disorders ranging from severe anxiety to schizophrenia,” and suggested psychiatric treatment over prison.

However, Criminal Court Judge Dee David Gay, who watched the television interview in court during a sentencing hearing in June, said Davis knew right from wrong and was focused on death.

The judge sentenced the teen to life in prison plus 20 years, making Davis eligible for parole in 71 years.

3. Senior standout remains sidelined

Hendersonville High School football fans were excited over the possibility of having one of the state’s top-rated prospects donning the black and gold this fall, but Joejuan Williams didn’t play a down during his senior season.

Williams – a 6-foot-3, 195-pound defensive back who was ranked as the state’s top prospect by some recruiting services – had his hardship petition denied by the Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Association (TSSAA), leaving the four-star prospect ineligible this fall.

Williams was a two-year starter in the secondary at Father Ryan before transferring to Hendersonville following the 2014-15 school year.

A TSSAA rule that stipulates that players transferring from a private school to a public school are required to move to a school at least 20 miles away from the school they are transferring to prevented Williams from being eligible. Hendersonville and Father Ryan are less than 20 miles apart.

Williams had a slew of scholarship offers from major college programs – including the University of Tennessee, the University of Alabama, Penn State (Pa.) University, Florida State University, Arizona State University, Auburn (Ala.) University, Louisiana State University, the University of Georgia and the University of Southern California – but he recently verbally committed to Vanderbilt University.

4. Buchanan debate prompts land use plan

A heated debate over the controversial Buchanan Estates development fueled a study for a long-term land use plan starting with the Long Hollow corridor.

Michigan-based Orco Investments Inc. presented a plan in February to rezone 58 acres off Long Hollow Pike from R-1A to low-density residential to build 111 new homes in the proposed development.

Residents from at least five neighboring subdivisions protested, saying that many homes will further flood their homes, keep them stuck in traffic longer and would have a negative impact on property values and quality of life.

For nine months, the unsettled debate bounced around the Sumner County Planning Commission, town hall meetings and the full commission. That led leaders to initiate a study for a long-term land use plan starting with Long Hollow Pike, one of Sumner’s most traveled and developed arteries.

A long-term land use plan, leaders say, is needed to unable sustainable growth throughout the county while preserving existing investments.

Leaders are looking at a few consulting firms for the study. The full commission is slated to revisit the Buchanan project in January 2016.

5. County residents see property tax increases

Hendersonville residents saw their property taxes increase for the first time in six years in June when that city’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen narrowly voted to raise the rate from 65 to 75.8 cents per $100 of assessed property value.

Few residents opposed the 16.6 percent increase officials said was needed to fund, among other things, five new positions in the police department, paving and drainage projects and several vehicles for the police and fire departments.

The increase came on the heels of Sumner County’s first property tax hike in a decade. Although the County Commission voted on a 23 percent increase on Nov. 3, 2014, residents weren’t given an opportunity to publicly voice their opposition to the measure until a Jan. 26, 2015 meeting.

The January meeting lasted six hours and more than 50 residents addressed commissioners during citizens’ comments. An estimated 250 people — both in favor and against the tax hike — crowded into a standing-room-only commission chambers while hundreds more packed an adjoining hallway.

Residents had asked to speak about the 23 percent increase at two prior commission meetings, but were turned down since it wasn’t a regular agenda item.

6. Judge rules Sumner County Schools violated law; board votes to appeal

Sumner County Schools will go back to court in 2016 to appeal a judge’s decision determining the district violated the Tennessee Public Records Act and would have to change their policies.

During the two-day trial in July, Judge Dee David Gay heard testimony from Ken Jakes, an open government advocate from Joelton, who sued district after Sumner Schools Spokesman Jeremy Johnson denied his emailed request for the school board’s public records policy in 2014. Johnson denied the request three days later because it was not made in person or through a written request sent through mail.

In his ruling, Gay said the school board's policy was outdated, unclear, inconsistent and "a clear violation of the law" and does not give citizens the fullest possible access.

The school board's position that their policy offers citizens choices in making a request is a "hollow argument" when one choice — via U.S. Postal Service — is expressly prohibited in the TPRA as well as time consuming, Gay said.

"We no longer live in a Pony Express world," Gay said in his November ruling. "We live in an instant communication world — communication that used to require days now requires only seconds."

The 11-member school board unanimously voted on Dec. 1 to appeal Gay’s decision.

The Gallatin News Examiner has made several requests for complete billing information related to how much the district has spent defending the Jakes case. To date, Sumner County Schools has only provided billing from April 2014 through February 2015 totaling about $83,000, School officials have said the firm has not billed the district in 10 months.

7. Hostages held at Sumner County jail

A Macon County man held more than two dozen people hostage at gunpoint in September while inside the Sumner County Jail’s visitation area.

The incident began not long after former Westmoreland Police Officer Karl Haynie transported James McCutchen to the Sumner County Jail on Sept. 2. While inside the jail’s sally port, a secure entrance into the facility, the 40 year old was able to get into the officer’s patrol car, which he then used to crash through a security gate before grabbing a shotgun from the front seat, according to police.

McCutchen then ran around the side of the jail and entered the facility’s visitation area after a brief confrontation with deputies outside, according to police. Once inside, he held approximately 30 people hostage until he was tackled by Nashville resident Anthony Hyde and taken into custody.

A Sumner County grand jury indicted McCutchen on 24 charges earlier this month including 13 counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, seven counts of aggravated assault and one count of vandalism $10,000-$60,000.

Haynie was discharged from the Westmoreland Police Department effective Sept. 30 for policy and procedures violations related to the incident, according to a termination status record obtained by the Gallatin News Examiner through a public records request.

A settlement hearing for McCutchen is scheduled for March 24, 2016 in Sumner County Criminal Court.

8. Search for Gallatin fire chief comes to an end

Gallatin’s search for a new fire chief this year spanned more than nine months and two national searches.

City leaders began the nationwide search earlier this year after late Fire Chief William “Billy” Crook announced in February he would retired March 1. Crook, who spent 49 years with the department and had served as chief since 2007, died Dec. 4 at the age of 70.

In May, Greg Main, district fire chief for the Evansville Fire Department in Evansville, Ind., was chosen to lead the department from an initial pool of 70 candidates. However, Main unexpectedly opted out of the job in June.

Following a second search, Victor Williams, assistant fire chief for the Delray Beach Fire-Rescue Department in Delray Beach, Fla., was unanimously chosen by city leaders on Dec. 17 to become Gallatin’s next fire chief.

Williams said he hopes to have an agreement reached with the city by the end of the year and would likely be able to start the first week of March 2016.

9. Family, friends question woman’s ‘accidental’ death

Immediately after Ashley Mason, 29, died in a Nashville hospital in May, her family and friends posted photos of her bruised body on social media saying that she was a victim of domestic violence and demanding that her boyfriend be charged in her death.

In November, Hendersonville police released a 60-page investigative file that includes interviews with dozens of witnesses who reveal a volatile relationship between Mason and her boyfriend, but provides little evidence of foul play in her death.

Hendersonville officers were called to the Cherry Hill Drive condo Mason shared with her boyfriend on May 18 after witnesses said the woman appeared to be intoxicated. They spoke with her boyfriend through a window. Police later said they lacked enough probable cause to enter the condo.

Sumner County EMS responded a day later to a call of an unresponsive female. Mason was declared brain dead at Skyline Medical Center on May 21.

Citing an autopsy report released by the Davidson County Medical Examiner’s Office, Hendersonville police in August ruled that Mason’s death was an accident likely caused when she fell and struck her head.

10. Man dies following police encounter

A police standoff came to a tragic end in August when a Hendersonville man pointed what police thought was a semi-automatic pistol at an officer who was attempting to negotiate with him on an overpass above Vietnam Veterans Boulevard.

Steven Dodd, 22, died around 2:30 a.m. Aug. 26 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He fell off the Indian Lake Boulevard bridge after being shot in the leg by police.

The incident began just before 11 p.m. Aug. 25 when police received a 911 call about a man on the bridge. Hendersonville Master Patrol Officer Hunter Raymond found Dodd standing on the barrier of the edge of the bridge. Raymond, who called for backup, began talking with Dodd, who "indicated he had a gun in his pocket," law enforcement officials said.

In the incident which was captured on police dash cam video, the 2012 Station Camp High School graduate held what was later determined to be a pellet gun to his head several times during the 40-minute stand-off before aiming it at one of the negotiators.

Following a TBI investigation, Sumner County District Attorney General Ray Whitley said Raymond was “totally justified” in his response.

11. Environmental groups concerned about TVA operations

The Tennessee Valley Authority faced legal woes due to coal ash pollution and concern of chemicals seeping into groundwater and the Cumberland River related to operations at the Gallatin Fossil Plant.

In January, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation sought a permanent injunction to establish a schedule for TVA to come into compliance with environment law at the Gallatin site. A federal lawsuit filed in April accused the TVA of violating the Clean Water Act. The Cumberland River is the region's main source of drinking water.

Then in October, the Southern Environmental Law Center filed a motion in federal court on behalf of two other environmental groups citing testing that found the hexavalent chromium in two private water wells near the plant and the Cumberland River. Rarely found naturally, hexavalent chromium is typically the result of an industrial process and can be found in coal ash. It has been found to cause cancer in lab animals when they drink it in water and cause lung cancer when inhaled, according to the National Institutes of Health and the EPA.

Two wells on Odoms Bend Road wells met the overall national U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards, levels of hexavalent chromium were found to be "slightly above" the EPA risk levels, says a Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation letter sent to residences in early October.

Independent testing of raw water taken by the Gallatin Water Treatment Plant from the Cumberland River and of drinking water treated at the facility on Nov. 30 found no detectable levels of the hexavalent chromium.

TVA is in the process of spending $1.2 billion to reduce air pollution at the plant and will begin storing coal ash in a dry form, a far safer way to handle the material. The first 19-acre cell of a new 52.4-acre lined landfill for the ash storage is expected to be complete by April 2016.

Once complete, the upgrades are expected to reduce nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, mercury and particulate emissions between 90 percent and 99 percent.

12. Tennessee Promise impacts students, colleges

In August, Gallatin-based Volunteer State Community College welcomed 1,486 freshmen, many able to pursue higher education thanks to the Tennessee Promise scholarship program.

The program provides a last-dollar scholarship for students, enabling them to attend a state community college or technical school at no charge. The program is a key of Gov. Bill Haslam’s Drive to 55 initiative, aiming to equip 55 percent of Tennesseans with college degrees or certificates by 2025.

Tennessee Promise also inspired President Barack Obama to pitch a similar nationwide program, America’s College Promise, while visiting East Tennessee in January. The fall 2015 freshman class represented almost 19 percent of the college’s fall semester enrollment of 8,046, almost 6 percent increase from the fall of 2014.

Increased enrollment numbers also upped the college’s full-time equivalency ratio by 15 percent. The ratio helps determine funding for the college.

The demand created jobs, as Vol State increased course offerings and hired more than a dozen new faculty members, as well as four academic completion coaches.

More Tennessee Promise student than expected required 23 percent additional mentors to guide the freshmen. More than 200 residents — a record number among colleges — signed up to mentor Vol State Promise freshmen.

13. Linzy resigns following drug allegations

Former Maj. Don Linzy resigned from the Sumner County Sheriff's Office after allegations that he stole prescription narcotics from the agency's evidence room.

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents began investigating Linzy in August after the narcotics disappeared, officials said.

The Sumner County Grand Jury indicted Linzy in September, charging him with two counts of official misconduct, one count of theft under $500 and five counts of simple possession/casual exchange of a controlled substance. Linzy was booked into the Sumner County Jail and released on $10,000 bond.

Later in September, Linzy pleaded not guilty in criminal court to the charges. Sumner County Criminal Court Judge Dee David Gay and Sumner County District Attorney General Ray Whitley recused themselves from the case.

Linzy was a 22-year veteran of the department who headed up the Criminal Investigations and the records divisions while serving as the chief of detectives.

Whitley described Linzy as “terrific investigator.”

Nashville Judge Mark Fishburn will preside over Linzy’s case, which will be prosecuted by an attorney from the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference will prosecute the case.



14. Hulbig banned from animal contact

Nicole Friedman Hulbig pleaded guilty to 12 counts of animal cruelty at the Sumner County Criminal Court in July.

The Cottontown woman was sentenced to 15 days in jail and 12 years of probation. She is now banned from ownership, possession or being in control of any animals, according to a special condition of her probation.

Hulbig had to also pay $2,000 to be split between the Humane Society of Sumner County and the Sumner Spay Neuter Alliance in Gallatin.

Police launched an investigation after discovering four dead puppies in Hulbig's former Clarksville home in 2014. Then in June 2014, deputies with the Sumner County Sheriff's Office uncovered 37 bags of dog remains and 39 unhealthy dogs at her alleged nonprofit RRR Service Dogs Inc. inside a Cottontown barn.

People from across the country gave dogs and donations to Hulbig, who through the nonprofit, was supposedly healing the animals from war-related and other trauma. She claimed to pair the dogs with military personnel suffering from war-related distress to help revive both. Instead, the dogs and money disappeared with no verifiable results.

In a separate case that concluded in July, Hulbig and her mother Catherine Lupo were found liable for more than $18,000 to William Turecki and wife Melissa for mistreating their dog and misappropriating their money, according to Sumner County Circuit Court Judge Joe Thompson.

Thompson issued a default judgment against Nicole Hulbig and Lupo, who did not appear for trial.

15. Perennial powers return to state

The Westmoreland High girls basketball program and Hendersonville High girls soccer program are no strangers to success.

However, despite each knocking on the door, it had been a while since either reached the state tournament until 2015 arrived.

Unfortunately for both, it was a short stay as each lost in its state opener.

The Lady Eagles set a school record for wins (32) and won the District 9-AA Tournament and Region 5-AA Tournament, defeating eventual state champion Martin Luther King Magnet in the regional championship game before knocking off Giles County in its sectional contest to reach the state level.

It was the third time that the program has reached the state tournament under the direction of head coach Cherie Abner.

Westmoreland suffered a 36-30 loss to Grainger in the Class AA State Tournament quarterfinals.

The Lady Commandos were back in the Class AAA State Tournament for the first time since the 2006 season.

Hendersonville compiled a 15-6-3 record, won the District 9-AAA regular-season title, won the District 9-AAA Tournament, finished as the Region 5-AAA Tournament runner-up and then claimed a 3-1 victory at Independence in one of eight Class AAA sectionals.

The Lady Commandos faced nationally-ranked Houston in the AAA State Tournament quarterfinals, suffering a 5-0 loss. Unbeaten Houston won the state title with a 3-0 victory over Clarksville in the state title match.

It was the eighth state appearance for Hendersonville, seven of which have come under the direction of head coach Russ Plummer.

Plummer has led the Lady Commando program to more than 380 victories since he was named head coach in 1987, while Abner eclipsed the 400-win mark last season.