Couple arrested
for selling pain pills
MURFREESBORO (AP) — Police arrested a Smryna couple after they were charged with selling more than 600 painkillers to undercover officers.
According to The Daily News Journal (http://on.dnj.com/LMpUmv), 27-year Richard A. Williams was arrested Wednesday after police say he sold 300 hydrocodone pills to an officer on May 2 and roughly another 300 on May 11. That day, police say he also had more than 200 pills in his possession for another deal.
Following the May 11 arrest, investigators went to Williams’ home and arrested his girlfriend, 26-year-old Brittany McCool, for her involvement in the deal.
During a search of the couple’s home, authorities seized 6,334 pills, $67,100 in cash, 9.7 ounces of cocaine, three new plasma televisions and nine vehicles.
Police say Williams refuses to tell investigators where he got the pills.
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Funeral held for officer killed in crash
CLEVELAND (AP) — Hundreds of citizens and police officers attended the funeral for a Cleveland city officer killed in a car crash.
Officer Justin Maples died Sunday night when his patrol car struck a utility pole. The 34-year-old Maples was responding to a call from a Bradley County Sheriff’s deputy who was pursuing a car theft suspect.
The Chattanooga Times Free Press (http://bit.ly/LhB7cu) reported Maples’ wife, Danielle, covered her face with her hand on Thursday as her 5-year-old son Jace, reached out to touch his father’s casket on a horse-drawn caisson. The couple has three sons.
According to the Cleveland Daily Banner (http://bit.ly/KfWiLI ), the caisson was provided by the North Carolina Highway Patrol and the North Carolina Troopers Association.
The chase suspect was caught, but isn’t likely to face charges in Maples’ death.
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Veteran receives
mortgage-free home
COLUMBIA (AP) — Shaun Meadows knows how to make an entrance.
The wounded warrior and a skydiving team parachuted onto the front lawn of Meadows’ new home in Lynnville on Thursday for a dedication ceremony.
Meadows, along with his wife and son, were presented with keys to the home provided by Operation Finally Home, a nonprofit organization that donates new, mortgage-free homes to wounded and disabled veterans.
Meadows told The Daily Herald (http://bit.ly/MMLDKv) of Columbia that he’s grateful for the 3,500 square-foot home, because he wasn’t sure how he would provide for his family after a 2008 explosion in Afghanistan left the Air Force special forces veteran without his legs.
He says providing a home for his family “means more than you can ever know.”
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Contractor sentenced to prison for illegal dumping
MEMPHIS (AP) — An excavation company owner in Memphis was sentenced to eight months in prison and ordered to make restitution to property owners for illegally dumping construction debris.
The Commercial Appeal reported that (http://bit.ly/LhpMsU) Thomas Bolton’s B&W Excavating Co. contracted with the city of Memphis to bulldoze hundreds of condemned houses, but avoided hundreds of thousands of dollars in disposal fees by dumping the rubbish on privately owned land in Southwest Memphis.
State prosecutor Kirby May said Bolton’s company was awarded more than $1 million between 2007 and 2009 to bulldoze more than 450 condemned homes around the city.
He was also ordered to make restitution of $1.56 million to three landowners and perform community service annually while on probation for 15 years.

Published in The Messenger 5.25.12