I just thought I would follow up about Alan Baker in court. Court was yesterday at 1:30, it started an 1 1/2 late. The boy pleaded no contest. Alan and three others did not testify. It was pretty pitiful, the judge pulled out his record, which was over 2″ thick. She said if he got an anymore trouble, he would go to jail. At that time the judges assistant pointed out he was stopped by the police yesterday for driving without a license. Nothing happened, she choose to ignore that.
Columbia residents wonder how many more people have to get hurt or even die at a dangerous intersection they say needs a left turn lane.
Residents say they’ve asked their county commissioners, and they’ve asked TDOT to look into the matter.
So far, nothing.
The intersection is Lookout Drive and Nashville Highway on the Northern end of the city.
There have been numerous accidents there over the years.
Lisa Trimble lives in the nearby sub division. She says she has been a victim and she has witnessed crashes that include fatalities.
“If we don’t fix this, I’m afraid someone else will die,” she says.
This nurse and mother says making a left turn across Nashville Hwy. onto Lookout Drive can be a risky proposition, especially for South bound traffic that comes up over a blind ridge and finds itself right on top of stopped cars waiting to turn.
“It’s hard to stop and you are in someone’s rear end,” she says.
Trimble’s 16 year old son watched a woman die here making the turn.
“He ran in, left the car running, there is a dead woman out there.”
Columbia police tell messed up, there have been 4 wrecks at this one intersection this year all ready. Assistant Chief Tim Potts says there were 3 wrecks here in 2007. Potts shows me an accident report that seems to be representative of these types of collisiions.
One car into the next. Sometimes pushing the cars in front into the lane of on coming traffic.
Potts says a left turn lane would make a difference, but since this is a state highway, TDOT has to also sign off on the plan.
B.J. Doughty works for TDOT. She says traffic engineers studied this intersection last year and did not deem it worthy.
“A left turn lane could run 25,000 to 45, 000 dollars,” she says, adding: “that intersection was compared to intersections across the state they have a one thru five rating system and this was less than a one on the safety measures.”
Lisa Trimble says TDOT’s traffic study came at the wrong time.
“Saturn plant was not working, and schools were out so traffic was not as bad”
TDOT says they will look at the intersection again, if Maury County leaders ask them to. And Assistant Chief Potts says he will present his data and Trimble’s concerns to the city manager. I
In the meantime, Lisa Trimble says, “We need a turn lane. To avoid increasing bills from wrecks and medical expenses and ambulance runs a simple turn lane would be much less expensive than all that other expense.”
The day TDOT did its survey traffic engineers counted a high of 42 cars in a single hour making a left turn onto Lookout Drive.
Columbia Police tell me because of the massive growth along this stretch of road they are developing a long range traffic strategy for Nashville Hwy.
Danny Dodd breaks down at the mere mention of the new Montessori School scheduled to be built next to his bucolic property.
“I have been here 30 years. That is my home. I am very proud of. It’s all I got,” the 52 year old says, tears welling in his eyes.
“It’s not right for the city to let 9 people sit on that board and vote and not even give me a right to speak my mind about it. I didn’t know anything about this.”
Dodd is wearing a UT baseball cap and UT shirt accentuated by a pair of dark suspenders. Dodd says the 14,000 square foot school will ruin his bucolic neighborhood bringing traffic headaches and a layer of asphalt to an otherwise green grass world that fills his heart with joy.
“Every morning. You gotta see my place. I got like 3 green acres. Every morning I wake up and look out my kitchen window. I see pretty green grass and I have cows.” Dodds words are filled with sobs and sniffs as he once again breaks down.
“And Now I will wake up every morning and see a parking lot in my neighborhood. I have nothing against schools, but there is certain places they belong and don’t belong and Right is right and wrong is wrong and this is not right.”
Dodd is not alone. A consortium of angry Eddy Lane residents join Dodd. They are holding stacks of papers and design plans that they are eager for me to see.
Rebecca Jackson is holding an artists rendering of the school. The 40 plus year resident of Eddy Lane says the project leaves a terrible taste in her mouth.
“I think it is a horrible thing they are doing to our neighborhood. How will it enhance our neighborhood. The street is not wide enough for a sidewalk. But they can give us 125 students brought in every day.”
If there is a leader of this anti school movement, i would say it is Jackie Wiggishoff. The 15 year resident stands in front of the group and eloquently tells me why a private school along Eddy Lane will irrevocably destroy the equanimity that is Eddy Lane.
“Eddy Lane is the best of Franklin! It’s A mix of old and new. It adds to the historical and pastoral charm of Franklin,” she says, the other residents nodding affirmatively.
“Recently the planning commission approved a site plan for a Montesori school in Franklin, right down the road. Currently there is a residential home on 7 acres. That home is from the 1860’s. The city planning commission did this without notification to myself or my neighbors. They did this where it would dramatically change the character of a neighborhood and impact our traffic and our flood plane. it will impact the Drainage situation, They signed off on the demolition of a 1860’s house and they didn’t feel that anyone on this street had the right to know.”
Wiggishoff’s face tightens as she relays this part of the story. “We asked them to explain why? They remarked. We didn’t have to tell you!!!!”
I ask how she feels.
“I feel betrayed to be honest with you. Most of us on this street have been here 20 plus years. We had a right to know.
A toddler is bitten in the face by a neighborhood dog that is roaming freely.
The dog is in quarantine and the child is recovering.
Metro Animal Control officials say dogs running loose is one of the biggest problems the city faces, and it usually is the dog owner’s fault, not the fault of the dogs.
That was the case Monday August 18th
“We had almost 650 bites last year,” Judy Ladebauche says.
Metro Emergency crews respond to Boulder Park Drive in Donelson.
“Over 20,000 complaints a year,” the animal control director in Metro tells me.
It’s here that a toddler is bitten in the face by a neighborhood dog.
“Bottom line: you have a dog - you have a responsibility.”
The black lab’s name is Buckley. In every shot we have, the one year old lab mix is wagging its tail.
Buckley also has a collar and a rabies tag. What Buckley doesn’t have is any supervision.
“Its tragic this child was bitten,” Ladebauche says.
While the toddler goes to the hospital a police officer fashions a crime tape leash around the dog’s collar and walks it to a waiting patrol car. Buckley is brought to Metro Animal Control Quarantine Division.
The moment you walk in the sounds of angry snarling dogs fills the air, bouncing off the smooth concrete walls.
We pass by these angry animals to get to Buckley, the only dog still wagging its tail and looking at us with his big brown eyes.
Buckley will be in this cage or 10 days, all the while surrounded by vicious dogs who show aggression, and lots of sharp teeth, animal control director Judy Ladebauche tells me that Buckley is in doggie jail, but the real fault lies with Buckley’s owner. She tells me how the owners come to play with the animal and she can’t help but get mad knowing the animals are here because they are irresponsible.
“What is really messed up. If the owner loves their dog so much why are they not in the home backyard fenced leashed it is your job to protect your pet.”
Ladebauche tells messed up that dogs running loose is one of the agencies biggest problems.
While at the shelter, I will meet a man who is on the verge of tears.
“It’s like losing a child”
Terry Johnson is looking for another puppy to replace the one he has recently lost.
“It has us all tore up,” He says.
The same day that the 18 month old child was bit.
Johnson’s chihuahua “Lucky” was running loose in South Nashville. Johnson says the animal was run over and killed by a hit and run driver.
“A gold car, come up the road, and the guy swerved into the ditch and hit him.”
“I am sad your dog was destroyed. But I have to ask if the dog was chained or in the backyard confined somehow this would not happen,” I ask him delicately.
“That is why I partially it is my fault too,” says without hesitation trying to drive home his point.
“Yes sir, I am living this and it hurts real bad.”
“Bottom line is you have a dog, you have a responsibility. Keep your dog home or under your control at all times.. Otherwise you should not have one. It is a privilege not a right,” Ladebauche adds.
At last check: Buckley’s owner is not charged with any violation….that could change if the boy’s parents decide to press the issue.
As far as lucky the little Chihuahua, the family tells me they are offering a 500 reward for information that leads to the motorist who killed their beloved pet now buried in the family’s back yard. That hit and run happened on Rosedale Avenue and the driver was reportedly driving a gold Chrysler.
It’s an act of vandalism perpetrated primarily by teenagers
After her mailbox was destroyed for the 8th time, one Rutherford County woman said enough all ready and called that is messed up.
Della Molloy is a fun loving woman who has a dry wit and a quick quote. She realizes we’re not talking about world peace so she plays the story with some tongue and cheek enthusiasm.
“If this mailbox could talk what would it say?,” I ask her, standing by her bashed in mailbox on a four by four that is leaning like it should be a tourist attraction in Italy.
“I’m sick and tired of being hit,” she says. “What is the point of replacing it.”
Della Molloy is fed up. Why wouldn’t she be. She points to the old mailbox, crumpled and sad, lying in her front yard.
“How many times has this mailbox said help me,” I ask grabbing the mail box lid, opening and closing it like it is speaking to her.
“How many times?”
“8 times.”
8 times. 8 times!!
That is not only Messed Up. It is ridiculous.
“It is a dangerous person who hits a defenseless mailbox,” she says in her straight forward way.
“Enough is enough. Why should I care? ”
“Did you report this to Johnny Law man?”
“No I reported it to you.”
“Why?”
“I felt it was time that the mailbox needs someone to stand up for them.”
I have to laugh out loud clutching her broken mailbox.
“Andy. Andy help me! No one is an advocate for mailboxes like they should be.”
Molloy can’t prove it, but she suspects neighborhood teens are responsible for her damage, which says has also affected dozens of her neighbors over the years.
It’s an easy deduction to make when you see how many videos on line are dedicated to the act of mailboxing…
YouTube is loaded with video of teens breaking, bashing, smashing and vandalizing. The videos show a dark, nefarious element of teens, unsupervised, wreaking havoc and causing expensive damage where they live.
We drive through Molloy’s neighborhood which looks like it has been visited by these video vandals we find mailbox after mailbox that is either dented or ready to topple over.
“The problem is people are protecting their mailboxes by placing them in metal like armor,” I say to Al standing on this rural country pike.
According to the U.S. Postal Service: it is a federal crime to destroy a mailbox. People who have been caught have been severely punished.
The penalty? Up to $250,000 or federal prison for up to 3 years for each violation.
Are you kidding me? The 3rd fattest? That’s what the Centers for Disease Control recently reported. 3rd fattest. How do you even gauge something like that?
The Centers for Disease Control says it surveyed 350,000 people and asked them how tall they are and how much they weigh.
“The heavier you are, the more you underestimate your weight, probably because you don’t weigh yourself as often,” Dr. William Dietz who heads the CDC’s nutrition, physical activity and obesity division says.
The study found that 27 percent of respondents were classified as obese.
For what it is worth, the CDC defines obesity as a body mass index of 30 or above. Body mass index is calculated using height and weight. A 5-foot 9-inch adult who weighs 203 pounds would have a BMI of 30 which is considered the threshold of obesity.
So if the South is fat, the question is why? Are the lakes of the Volunteer state lakes filled with lard? Is the air coated with grease? Do we dip our meals into vats of bubbling goo and then eat till our insides are ready to burst?
I stop by a popular pancake restaurant in Hillsboro Village to gauge the mood of the people.
The line, per usual, is winding around the corner. People are literally salivating before me, dreaming of powdered sugar, and warm, flowing maple syrup, easing over a stack of pancakes.
I find a woman at the front of the line. She is from New York City. She has a bit of size to her, and a pleasant disposition to match. She tells me that people in the South do eat differently than people in the Empire State.
“We travel here twice a year for this. We come for the food. It is great. It is cooked with love and passion.”
“What about all that fat?,” I ask.
“Don’t worry about that. You have to move more than you eat,” she says with a smile as the wisp of pancake floats out the door.
Just then a large woman from Chicago steps forward. She is good natured and immediately tells me that in Illinois she is considered fat, but here in the South….
“You come to the South, and you are considered skinny. If you are plump, then you are still skinny,” she says getting a loud roar from her fellow patrons in line.
Dr. Kevin Niswender specializes in endocrinology.
“That’s high blood pressure, adrenal diseases, diabetes, high cholesterol,” he tells me.
When informed of the CDC’s report, the medical man has plenty to say.
“Obesity is just as large here as many states,” he says. “it is misleading to say Tennessee is more obese than other states. the change in obesity over time is not much different than the change in other states. Even skinny states are getting fat as quickly as we are. We think it is a combo of environment, and certainly the type of food we eat and the physical activity is a component of that. For some people, it is genetics and they are more susceptible to getting obese than others.”
I ask Dr. Niswender why we should care.
“Obesity is a disease,” He says. “You don’t go to someone with diabetes and say you have a willpower problem or a character flaw, but people really have that thought when we talk about Obesity. It is a defect in the push away from the table muscle. It is not. It is a potent disease process like diabetes. We don’t understand it yet, but if we did we would understand why Tennessee is more susceptible.
I tell him that humans eat too much because we are trained to clean our plates from the time we are children.
“Why do we eat 3 meals a day as humans?,” he tells me he often asks young med students. “animals don’t eat three meals a day? the answer, because your momma told you to,” he laughs. “feeding and food intake in humans is extraordinarily complex. We also are beginning to understand things like addiction. parts of the brain that tell you like cocaine and alcohol, actually become activated in some kinds of food in some people. for some, increased food intake is food that have a lot of fat and sugar in them.”
And then there is the financial aspect of obesity:
“the idea that Obesity is a cosmetic disorder is not true. when you are heavy, your chance of having a heart attack goes up dramatically. Stroke goes up. Diabetes, cancer and liver disease increase. Why should we care as a state? Because it is costing us a fortune.
Underestimate: it costs the USA economy North of $300 billion per year.10-percent of health care expenditures are related to obesity. It is a staggering economic statistic, and it is killing people. “Skinny people should care, because they are paying for it,” he says bluntly.
We spoke with Sumner County General Sessions Court to follow up on how 16 year old Cody Richardson’s court case went on the “wreckless driving” citation we reported about last week. Messed Up was told this was a juvenile case and no information would be released unless we spoke directly with the family.
So we did.
Rhonda Richardson is Cody’s mother, and this is what she said happened.
“It was in General Sessions Court. We went. We waited our turn. The court went through everyone. We told the judge who we are. ‘You are not on our docket,’ they said. So they sent us to another room and we spoke to a woman who said ‘he was on the docket, but now he is off. The trooper called here last week and realized the boy was 16 and was in this court. The trooper said he called you all to tell you this, that it had been rescheduled.’”
Rhonda tells MessedUp that the Trooper had not called them as he claimed to the court and added: “We took off work, we took 2 of our 3 kids out of school. I took off whole day off. I took cody out of school and emily, who is 14, she is witness, we took them with us. They said this is the wrong court.”
Rhonda also says she asked the court what happens next and was told the Trooper has to start all over. That means the trooper has to refile the case, and the clerk says this has yet to be filed. It would have to be done from scratch thru juvenile. If he doesn’t refile, it goes away. If he does, then it is set.
When the mother asked how the family would know she was told to call the Trooper, and that’s something the mother said the family cannot do.
Messed Up took this to Department of Safety Spokesperson Mike Browning who told us the ball is in the Trooper’s court. ”Sgt. Curry is currently on approved leave and is scheduled to return to work on Friday, August 15. It is up to his discretion whether he intends to file the charge in juvenile court in the future.”
It’s June 22, and an off duty Trooper writes a teenager a moving violation. The incident happens in front of the Trooper’s house. The Trooper alleges the 16 year old was driving recklessly.
Cody Richardson begins accelerating down Honeysuckle Drive.
“I do know that I got up to 25 MPH before I began to slow,” Cody tells me.
According to the 16 year old, a few seconds later, he’s passing by the home of Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) Sgt. John Curry.
“When I passed Officer Curry’s driveway, he was on the front porch,” Cody said.
That’s when, the teenager says the off-duty law man raced to his parked police cruiser and gave chase.
“I looked and saw the car pull out so I just went ahead and pulled over,” Cody added. “He came to the window and was agitated.”
The 21 year veteran, now assigned to the truck scales in Robertson County, writes the boy a citation for reckless driving.
Cordan: “You were in the driveway and you pull out and 100 feet later a trooper sees you jumps in the car and takes off after you?” Cody: “Yes sir.” Cordan: “Alleging in the short distance from this driveway to that driveway you were doing something reckless.” Cody: “Yes sir. I don’t know what I could have done from there to there to be reckless. He told my dad and my uncle I got up to 65 and 70 mph.” Cordan: “Apparently he must have clocked you on the radar gun, right?” Cody: “No sir.” Cordan: “He must have seen you with video device right.” Cody: “No sir.”
Shortly after the traffic stop, Trooper Curry reportedly called Cody’s father, Chad Richardson.
“And Officer Curry called me and told me he has been doing this all day and five or six witnesses saying he was there at the pool all day so I know this was an out right lie,” Chad told me.
Cordan: “The allegation is that you have been out all day running up and down the road recklessly could that be true?” Cody: “No sir. I came home after church. Got it in the pool big cookout.” Cordan: “Even if for a moment if you thought your boy was guilty would have taken this on? Chad: “No.” Cordan: “If you thought your boy was guilty would take this on? No. i tell you that right now.” Chad: “you know kids. He is 16 year old.” Cordan: “Is it possible that the officer is right and you are just a daddy?” Chad: “Nope.” Cordan: “do you think he is abusing his power as a THP officer?” Chad: “yes. 100 percent.”
We try and get comment from Officer Curry.
Knock-Knock-Knock. He answers the door. “Good morning.”
Are you getting ripped off at the pumps? With gas hovering around $4 a gallon, many of you say yes. But are you getting what you pay for. Do you get a gallon when you pay for a gallon?
Those are the questions one man asked me to look into.
Luis Roque bought gas at a Murfreesboro Shell station on July 22nd.This is the same gas station he has frequented for years.
“I pulled in with a little under a 1/4 tank,” Roque said.
According to Roque’s gas receipt, he purchases 17.7 gallons of gas even though his Honda Accord, bone dry, can only hold 17.1 gallons.
Roque reports his findings to the station which refunds him 2.30 cents. They test the pumps and find they are within acceptable parameters.
“I didn’t know whether to trust them or not, so I brought it to your attention,” he says.
“Do you find that stations knowingly rip off consumers?,” I ask Bob Williams who is the administrator for the state’s Dept. of Weights and Measures.
“Not very often,” he says.
Because of spiraling gas prices Bob Williams says complaints like Roque’s are almost twice what they were last year
Though complaints are up, Williams says the level of infractions has remained constant, and surprisingly low.
To see for ourselves, Messed Up cameras go with state inspectors to the Shell Station.
Using a precisely calibrated 5 gallon container, we watch inspectors measure gasoline.
Inspectors dispense 5 gallons of gas from pump number 5 which Roque claims ripped him off. Five gallons on the pump should equate to five gallons in the can.
In this case, the reading is “plus 2″ meaning the pump dispensed a little more gasoline than the 5 gallons purchased.
“So this pump is giving away too much gas?,” I ask Bert Mansfield, who is conducting the test.
“Yes sir, but it is within legal limits,” he says.
Messed Up viewers are among some of the most talented people in Nashville, aren’t they? Check this out. Local song writer Lee Bogan teamed up with country music artist Ronnie McDowell and wrote a song about high gas prices. You can click here to listen (.mp3)
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Shortly after the traffic stop, Trooper Curry reportedly called Cody’s father, Chad Richardson.
