We started a 3-part investigation last night looking at the money owed from criminals to the county and their victims.
In the Knox County General Sessions Court system, four men notorious for
having been arrested thousands of times collectively owe more than
$600,000 in fines and court costs.
That's money they'll never pay back. Never.
If the amount were
10 percent of that they couldn't afford it. If it were only 1 percent -
$6,000 - the public would never see a dime.
Michael Pierce, Harvey
Alley, Donald Street and Aubrey McGill are the four worst offenders
when it comes to people who owe the court system money, according to
figures given to 10News by Knox County Criminal Court Clerk Mike
Hammond's office.
A fifth man, Anthony Joe Mason, also appears on
the Clerk's Office's list of worst offenders, but 10News has determined
he died in April.
The defendants' bills never go down. They have
been growing since the 1980s when the names of many of the five first
were typed into the county's computer system.
Within all of his purview, Sessions Court,
Criminal Court and Fourth Circuit Court, Mike Hammond said he faces $159
million in uncollected costs and fees. He said it's not realistic to
think his office actually could collect all that money.
Rest of the story RIGHT HERE.
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