Puckett Gets 10 Year Sentence for Downloading Child Porn onto his Computer

July 23, 2019
By: Dwayne Page

A man accused of downloading child pornography onto his laptop computer two years ago has been sentenced in DeKalb County Criminal Court.

39 year old Winston Puckett entered a plea Monday to one count of sexual exploitation of a minor (over 50 images) and one count of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor (less than 25 images). He received a 6 year sentence in one case and 4 years in the other to run consecutively for a total of 10 years and he must serve at least 30% of the term before he is eligible for parole. However, Puckett has already been in jail for 739 days and will be given credit for that time.

Sheriff Patrick Ray said that on Thursday, July 13, 2017 a search warrant was executed by a DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department Detective on a Dell laptop computer belonging to Puckett. The computer was in Puckett’s possession on June 27, 2017 when it was turned over to law enforcement. The search warrant revealed over 400 images of child pornography that had been downloaded to the computer.

July 23, 2019
By: Dwayne Page

After touring the sheriff’s department and jail Monday, members of the DeKalb County Grand Jury issued a statement on “a lack of correctional officer to prisoner ratio” there.

Grand Jury Report (pdf)

The Grand Jury’s report states that” the DeKalb County Grand Jury met on July 22, 2019. We toured the jail and found it satisfactory other than lack of correctional officer to prisoner ratio. The sheriff has asked for additional funds to hire needed help but was denied.”

On an unrelated matter, the Grand Jury stated that “ DeKalb County Clerk Jimmy Poss came and discussed county surety bonds with us. We heard from various law enforcement agencies regarding different criminal issues,” the report concluded.

During a budget committee meeting of the county commission in March, Sheriff Patrick Ray asked that funds be included in the new budget (2019-20) for five new positions including one extra court officer, two extra shift supervisor positions for the sheriff’s department operation, and two extra shift supervisors for the jail. That proposal was later determined to be too costly and the committee voted 3 to 2 to reject it.

In May, the budget committee reached a compromise with the sheriff in providing more manpower to meet the demands of courtroom security and other needs

The committee voted to fund in the 2019-20 budget two new officer positions solely from a proposed new litigation tax through the General Sessions Court budget. One other new deputy position will be created and funded by the county through the sheriff’s department budget. And while no new positions will be added to the jail budget, the sheriff plans to promote two existing correctional officers to the rank of corporal as jail supervisors. Each one will get a $2,000 increase in pay under the existing wage scale for sheriff’s department employees for a total of $4,000. The move keeps the sheriff’s department compliant with standards for around the clock jail supervision under standards of the Tennessee Corrections Institute.

The county commission Monday night adopted the new 2019-20 consolidated budget for all county departments and a 29 cent property tax increase to help fund it.

July 22, 2019
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County property owners will see an increase in their tax bills this fall.

By the slimmest of margins, the county commission Monday night voted 8 to 6 to raise the county property tax rate by 29 cents per $100 of assessed value as recommended by the budget committee. The new rate, with passage of the 2019-20 fiscal year budget, now goes to $2.12, up from $1.83 per $100 of assessed value.

(View PDF of 2019-20 County Budget Here)

Dekalb 2020 Budget Final .pdf

The eight commissioners voting in favor of the tax hike were Sabrina Farler, Jenny Trapp, Dr. Scott Little, Janice Fish-Stewart, Anita Puckett, Matt Adcock, Jeff Barnes, and Beth Pafford.

The six commissioners voting against it were Jerry Adcock, Bruce Malone, Bobby Johnson, Julie Young, Myron Rhody, and Dennis Slager.

The new tax rate will be divided among the funds as follows:

*County General: $1.21.35 cents, up by 25 cents from the current rate of 0.9635 cents

*Highway/Public Works: 0.04 cents, up by 1 cent from the current rate of 0.03 cents

*General Capital Projects: 0.9 cents, down by 1 cent from the current rate of 0.10 cents

*Debt Service: 0.13 cents

*General Purpose Schools: 0.65 cents, up by 4 cents from the current rate of 0.61 cents.

Following the vote on the tax levy, the commissioners approved the 2019-20 appropriations resolution on the consolidated budget totaling $45,697,589. All voted yes except for Bruce Malone, Myron Rhody, and Dennis Slager.

The commissioners then voted 12 to 2 to fund various non-profit organizations. All voted in favor except for Bruce Malone and Bobby Johnson

Highlights of new spending in the 2019-20 consolidated budget are as follows:

*Board of Education: The school board will fund a local pay raise for the district’s 225 teachers by $1,200 each and that coupled with a state raise of $800 per teacher will put their overall increase at $2,000 for the coming year. The 200 non-certified staff members will each get a $600 local pay raise

*Circuit Court Clerk: New deputy clerk position to be funded. (Office currently has 3 deputy clerks). According to the wage scale for county general employees, a new worker with one year of service is paid $26,786 plus benefits The budget cuts a total of $7,000 in the clerk’s line items for part time and other salaries.

*Sheriff’s Department and Jail: Two new officer positions to be funded solely from a proposed new litigation tax through the General Sessions Court budget. One other new deputy position will be created and funded by the county through the sheriff’s department budget. And while no new positions will be added to the jail budget, the sheriff plans to promote two existing correctional officers to the rank of corporal as jail supervisors. Each one will get a $2,000 increase in pay under the existing wage scale for sheriff’s department employees for a total of $4,000. The move keeps the sheriff’s department compliant with standards for around the clock jail supervision under standards of the Tennessee Corrections Institute.

*Sheriff’s Department: Three patrol cars to be funded at a cost of $100,000 from the capital projects fund. Sheriff Ray had requested the purchase of five cars.

*DeKalb Fire Department: Two shared firefighter positions to be funded at 20 hours each per week at $10 per hour for a total of $20,800. No two specific individuals will get the jobs. Available firefighters, who are trained and certified, will rotate in and out of the positions as needed. The two fire fighters will be assigned to work out of the main station on King Ridge Road, which serves as the hub of the county fire department.

*DeKalb Fire Department: Fire department spending for maintenance to be increased from $7,500 this year to $20,000 in the new budget. The difference, $12,500 will be taken from the capital projects fund to upgrade and add restrooms to three existing fire halls at Johnson Chapel, Blue Springs, and Keltonburg. Unisex restrooms will be added including a sink and toilet in each of these fire halls.

*DeKalb Fire Department: Funding of $36,100 budgeted to meet a 5% local match for an Assistance to Firefighters Grant which if approved will fund the purchase of another fire truck and related firefighting equipment.

*DeKalb Emergency Management Agency: Funding to pay the EMA Director Charlie Parker a salary of $5,200 for the new year. Parker plans to apply for a federal grant through TEMA which if approved will provide matching funds for the local operation. But in order to get the grant the county must have a paid EMA director. If approved, Parker said an Emergency Management Performance Grant will reimburse the county up to 50% of its costs for EMA operations which will be $13,800 including the director’s salary under the 2019-20 proposed budget. The budget to fund the EMA Director position is conditional upon the grant being funded and Parker’s willingness to accept being the county’s flood plain director, a responsibility he once volunteered to do but later gave up.

*Clerk & Master: Funding of $10,400 for part time employee (Office currently has one deputy clerk)

*Alexandria Senior Citizens: Funding to pay the salary of a full time director of the center at $21,291 as a first year employee plus benefits for a total budget impact to the county of $28,051.

*DeKalb EMS: Funding for director pay raise of $3,000. However request to reinstate the ambulance service day truck crew on weekends was denied by the budget committee. In an effort to streamline costs, the county last summer decided to stop the day truck shifts on Saturdays and Sundays from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. while still providing the county coverage with the two other around the clock crews over the weekends. Director Hoyte Hale said there is a need to bring back the day truck. The additional costs to staff it with full time personnel would have been $61,000 per year to the county. The expense would have been less if Hale had used part time staff.

*Smithville-DeKalb County Rescue Squad: The Rescue Squad asked the county to up its contribution from $22, 821 to $34, 821 with the proposed $12,000 increase to be allocated for fuel reimbursement to its member volunteers to recoup some of their personal expense. The budget funds only an increase of $3,279.

*Juvenile Court Youth Service Officer: Current salary of $34,275 to be increased to $36,000. The overall cost is partly offset by a $9,000 grant the county receives for the program.

*County Clerk Office:  The clerk requested the budget committee for additional assistance funding for line items of office supplies & other charges. Currently these line items total $3,500 for an entire year. His request to increase it by $3,000 was denied. In October County Commission funded a new deputy clerk for the office in the current budget year and going forward (Office now has four employees)

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