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Seven Days

Thursday, March 13
The Associated Press reports that a Great American Country cable TV channel fired a Nashville employee who called band leader Charlie Daniels' sharp criticism of celebrities' anti-war statements "(expletive) propaganda." The news account fails to mention that Daniels is an "(expletive) slobbering, sociopathic, jingoistic war monger" who's too old to fight. But it could have.

Friday, March 14
Legislation to take the Knox County Public Library system out of the hands of its appointed board and into the open arms of the Knox county executive advances in Nashville. It would work out great if we could just change that law every time the yo-yo in the executive's office is worse than the yo-yos on the library board, and/or the yo-yos on County Commission. Call it the Yo-Yo Act.

Saturday, March 15
It's reported that a former Athens preacher has been jailed in McMinn County for allegedly selling a church he didn't own to an Athens businessman. The unnamed businessman is believed, however, to retain his controlling interest in the Brooklyn Bridge.

Sunday, March 16
The basketball Vols, losers in their first game of the SEC tournament, are snubbed by the NCAA but are invited to play in the National Invitational Tournament. The NIT gives extra credit to teams who can't seem to capitalize on their breaks.

Monday, March 17
Lawmakers are said to be considering raiding the state's E-911 fund to help offset the projected budget shortfall. All along we've been telling you there was a budget emergency, but "No," you said. Now see.

Tuesday, March 18
The basketball Vols, who vowed to show the NCAA they deserved to be in the Big Dance, lose in the first round of the NIT. Too bad the NIT doesn't give extra points as well as extra credit.

Knoxville Found

(Click photo for larger image)

What is this? Every week in "Knoxville Found," we'll print the photo of a local curiosity. If you're the first person to correctly identify this oddity, you'll win a special prize plucked from the desk of the editor (keep in mind that the editor hasn't cleaned his desk in five years). E-mail your guesses, or send 'em to "Knoxville Found" c/o Metro Pulse, 505 Market St., Suite 300, Knoxville, TN 37902.

Last Week's Photo:
Melissa Hansen-Petrik, who works nearby, was first to let us know that "this large metal rocking horse is near the same location as the oversized shopping cart that you featured a couple of weeks back...on 12th street between White Avenue and Clinch Avenue in Fort Sanders." She also notes that "The site of the rocking horse is also in the proposed location for the new Fort Sanders hotel." Yep, get a look at them while you can folks; they may not be there much longer. For her prize, Melissa receives the Daily Word for Couples book. which, curiously, was written not by a couple, but by the trio of Colleen Zuck, Janie Wright, and Elaine Meyer.

Meet Your City
A calendar of upcoming public meetings you should attend

HISTORIC ZONING COMMISSION
Thursday, March 20
8:30 a.m.
City County Bldg.
Small Assembly Room
400 Main St.
Consideration of historic overlays for the Hill Avenue Historic District (Lord Lindsey, Mary Boyce Temple House, and The River House) and the Miller's Building will be considered.

KNOXVILLE UTILITIES BOARD
Thursday, March 20
12 p.m.
Miller's Building
Fifth floor
Corner of Union and Gay streets
Given all the mud-slinging betwixt the mayor and KUB, this might be fun.

NINE COUNTIES. ONE VISION.
Thursday, March 20
5:30-7:30 p.m.
Knoxville Convention Center
525 Henley St.
Downtown Task Force public meeting. Crandall Arambula reps will present development ideas based on feedback from February public meeting. Group discussions, presentations, and a vote on options will follow.

COUNTY COMMISSION
Monday, March 24
2-7 p.m. City County Bldg.
Main Assembly Room
400 Main St.
Regular meeting.

MPC CENTRAL CITY SECTOR PLAN OPEN HOUSES
Monday, March 24
3-5:30 p.m.
L.T. Ross Building
2247 Western Ave. Tuesday, March 25
3:30-6:30 p.m. *
O'Connor Senior Center
611 Winona St.
Meeting to present the draft Central City Sector Plan.

KNOX COUNTY ELECTIONS ADMINISTRATOR OPEN HOUSE
Tuesday, March 25
4-6 p.m.
City County Bldg.
Small Assembly Room
400 Main St.
The public is invited to give the new administrator input on how to make it easier to use his office.

Sequoyah Cult Caper
Religious order raises neighborhood anxiety

The house at 4001 Kingston Pike looks pretty much like any other in the neighborhood. The brick rancher is a little on the modest side, compared to some of the showplaces that line the long, leafy blocks between Cherokee Boulevard and Western Plaza. All in all, it's a pretty unremarkable structure, except perhaps for the big gold Cadillac parked out back with the "God Rox" decal on the back window.

In the eyes of many neighbors, however, the car is symbolic of something disturbing at the house on the northwest corner of Kingston Pike and Forest Glen. The Caddy is but one of many vehicles that have been coming and going and parking in the yard and along the narrow residential street behind the house. The number of cars associated with the house has decreased since the neighbors complained to the property owner (who has rented the house to the present residents), but traffic is just one of several concerns for nearby residents.

For starters, it's not a stretch to say that the new neighbors, who moved into the rental house in November (after being evicted from their Loudon County home because there were more people living in the house they were renting than their lease allowed) are infamous. Ariel Ben Sherman and Jacqueline P. Crank made national headlines last year when they were charged with felony abuse and neglect in Loudon County in the death of Crank's daughter, Jessica. The 15-year-old girl died of Ewing's Sarcoma, a form of bone cancer, in September after Crank, 41, refused to avail the girl of medical treatment for the basketball-sized tumor on her shoulder. Sherman, whose age is listed as 71, is the founder and leader of New Life Ministries (also called New Life Tabernacle), a religious sect that practices faith healing.

The felony charges were dismissed when a Loudon County judge ruled prosecutors had failed to meet the burden of proof against Sherman and had only produced enough evidence to pursue a misdemeanor charge against Crank. Some testimony indicated that Crank and Sherman are married, although they have both denied that they are husband and wife. Sherman identified himself as Jessica's "spiritual father." A Loudon County grand jury may consider a new set of charges soon, sources say.

The couple's Knoxville neighbors were distressed to learn that the Loudon County charges against Sherman are not the first he's faced. As leader of the Good Shepherd Tabernacle Commune in Oregon in the 1980s, he was charged with child abuse after social workers discovered children at the commune were denied food and locked in a room. Sherman fled Oregon during that investigation and was arrested three years later in Indiana. He was convicted and served jail time.

Kingston Pike Sequoyah Hills Association president Jim Bletner says the goings-on at the house have been the subject of much concern this winter.

"What's so bad about it is that's where kids are walking to school," says Bletner. "We've discussed this at an executive board meeting, and in addition to the traffic and the parking, we are concerned about zoning implications, and if they are meeting there as a church. There are also an unknown number of unrelated members living in the house, which is a problem in areas of R-1 zoning..."

The neighborhood where Crank and Sherman live is zoned R-1, which means that not more than five unrelated people can live there. This restriction is difficult to enforce, however. Because of the heavy volume of traffic in and out of the house, neighbors suspect that Sherman is conducting church services there, which would raise additional zoning questions.

"Kingston Pike is a very congested area, and there is also a very precarious balance between churches and residences... We have worked out compromises with other churches there—we opposed expansions by Calvary Baptist, the move by the Unitarian Church, so this isn't the first time we've had church-related issues to deal with" Bletner says.

News stories from the 2002 case indicate that at least two more adult couples plus children lived in the Loudon County house with Sherman and Crank's children, and that Sherman told people that he was conducting "bible study" in the basement of the house.

Attorney Don Bosch represents Sherman, who is not speaking publicly because of the threat of renewed legal action in connection with Jessica's death. Bosch says Sherman is the head of a nationwide religious organization that supports him financially. Bosch also says he finds it "...upsetting that the people of Sequoyah Hills and the surrounding neighborhoods simply do not want Ariel Ben Sherman there because of what they perceive as an inappropriate faith."

He points out that Sherman and Crank are not in violation of any of the restrictive covenants in place for the home they are renting. (Which isn't saying much, since one of the requirements set forth in the archaic deed, drawn up in 1928, prohibits sale or lease of the property "to any Negro, for a period of 99 years after this sale.")

Jacqueline Crank's lawyer Greg Isaacs, not surprisingly, agrees with Bosch.

"My client is still mourning the loss of her daughter, and really doesn't want to comment on all of this. I find it ironic that she is coming under fire because of the apparent traffic around their residence, when typically the neighborhood is crawling with political fund raisers, events, and sundry social occasions, not to mention park visitors that create a continual barrage of traffic and pedestrians, and they are within the zoning ordinances... "

Both Bosch and Isaacs say their clients are not conducting church services in the house. They also say they do now know how many people are living there.

—Betty Bean

Taking Back the Night
The struggle to make sense of a senseless attack

The seemingly unprovoked assault on Pellissippi State student Jonathan Rule outside an Old City coffee house on March 6 was shocking at once for its wanton brutality, for the relative lack of subsequent news coverage, and for the extent of the debilitation suffered by the victim, who's now a patient at Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center.

Friends and family members of Rule as well as Old City denizens who were witness to the fallout are still wrestling with the question of what greater end could come of the senseless attack.

Rule, 19, spent several days at UT Medical Center before transferring to the Neal facility late last week. The massive head trauma he suffered in the attack has affected his balance, speech, writing, and memory.

His alleged assailants—20-year-old Travis Brock, 21-year-old Jimmy Ray Wilmoth, and 18-year-old Bon Scott McGuirt, all of Claiborne County—await a March 30 court date. Rule's family members say they were told the suspects' individual counts of simple assault will likely be increased to a more serious charge. Brock and Wilmoth remained in jail Monday, while McGuirt was free on bond.

According to friends, Rule was enjoying an after-dinner coffee at Cup-A-Joe in the Old City on the Thursday evening in question. Somewhere around 11 p.m., he and two friends walked outside, and Rule was left alone as his companions walked to their cars.

Five minutes later, an Old City resident (who chooses to remain anonymous) pulled into parking spot near the coffee house and saw in his headlights three young men savagely kicking a fourth (Rule) who was lying on the pavement. The attackers bolted at the sight of the witness, although the man says one of them ran back and kicked his victim one more time before joining his fellows in a black Toyota Forerunner—screaming all the while, "We just kicked a faggot's ass!"

The man who interrupted the attack says he first checked on the condition of the stricken Rule, who he says was lying on the sidewalk, hands still in his pockets, head to one side at a wicked angle.

"He had very heavy, snoring-like breathing," he relates. "He was barely conscious; breathing was obviously a strain on him."

The man then went into Cup-A-Joe's to call authorities, even as patrons of the coffee shop poured into the street. Rule's cousin Priscilla Wilkerson was there, and it was she who attended to him until an ambulance arrived. "His eyes were open, and his whole body was shaking," she remembers. "His mouth was full of blood. They must have kicked him repeatedly."

Wilkerson and others credit authorities for their quick response; paramedics and police arrived within minutes of the call. Knoxville Police officers stopped the alleged perpetrators near Broadway and Pembroke within two hours of the attack.

On the police report, in the space allotted to explain the perpetrators' motive, the arresting officer wrote only "to satisfy personal need or desire to injure the victim."

The people who have been touched by this incident understandably want to know what meaning can be drawn from it, what lessons learned. Apparently not much, if one makes that assessment based on the puzzling scarcity of initial news coverage. To its credit, WATE Channel 6 reported on the attack and on Rule's progress a few days later. The television report gave play to the fact that the incident might have been a hate crime, due to the alleged perpetrators' denigration of homosexuals. This seems unlikely, however, given that Rule wasn't gay, and his attackers had no reason to suspect otherwise.

"From what I understood, 'faggot' was just a word they were using to put people down, even when they were arrested by police," says Keri Rule Stafford, Rule's sister. "I think they were just looking to beat someone up."

Efforts are underway to help young Jonathan Rule through his recovery. He will probably need additional reconstructive surgery to repair smashed bones in his face; it's uncertain whether some of his debilitation will be permanent.

Furthermore, medical bills are mounting; his stay in the UT intensive care unit alone cost some $15,000 per day. There's a support fund established in his name at the Knoxville Teachers Federal Credit Union at 104 E. Fourth Ave. His friends are trying to organize fundraisers at area clubs and public facilities.

Finally, Rule's assault begs familiar, nagging questions about public safety. Understandably outraged, Stafford and others have covered downtown-area phone poles with fliers for an impromptu "take-back-the-city campaign." Among other ends, Stafford would like to see local establishments held accountable for the amount of alcohol they serve patrons (the suspects had allegedly been drinking at a bar not far from the Old City prior to the assault.)

"A lot of people say that statistically we're very safe," she says. "But statistics aren't worth a hill of beans when my brother is lying in a hospital." But Stafford adds that she and her family have a long history of patronizing Old City businesses, and she says they will continue to do so, despite Jonathan's brutal misfortune.

The man who witnessed Rule's attack, who is also a local business owner, warns that the incident should not serve as an indictment of the downtown area. "I think this is a negative for us, but then there was a guy murdered [in a grocery store parking lot] around West Knoxville not so long ago, too," he says. "What this should teach people is not that they should avoid downtown, but that they should be aware no matter what they're doing.

"Be aware of what's around you. Now I look around even when I pull into my garage at night."

—Mike Gibson