DISTRICT 9

District Attorney

Russell Johnson

Serving Loudon, Meigs, Morgan and Roane County | Tennessee

Both of Gen. Russell Johnson’s parents, Lawrence and Dr. Martha Russell Johnson, were teachers and instilled in him an interest in history and political science from an early age. He was inspired to become a lawyer by his maternal uncle, William Russell, who was both a lawyer and involved with politics. During his late high school career at Lebanon (Va.) High School, Gen. Johnson had the opportunity to follow around a local attorney named Randy Campbell for half a day, once a week. There he was able to watch his first criminal jury trial – a “whisper stop” drug case.

Gen. Johnson stayed focused on being accepted to law school throughout his undergrad at Auburn University. Upon graduation from the University of Tennessee College of Law and passing the bar exam, Gen. Johnson started an independent practice in Loudon County, Tenn. When presented with the opportunity to run for the Tennessee General Assembly in 2000, he took it and served in the Tennessee House of Representatives for three terms.

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Assistant District Attorneys

Bob Edwards

Assistant District Attorney
Criminal Court Supervisor

Mike Davis

Assistant District Attorney
General Sessions Court Supervisor

Kristin Curtis

Assistant District Attorney
Meigs & Roane County Drug Prosecutor

Joe Caldwell

Assistant District Attorney
9th Judicial District DUI & Vehicular Homicides Prosecutor

Chris Rodems

Assistant District Attorney
General Sessions/Juvenile Courts

Jed Bassett

Assistant District Attorney
Loudon & Meigs Criminal Court Prosecutor & Child Abuse Prosecutor

Jonathan Edwards

Assistant District Attorney
Morgan & Roane County Criminal Court Prosecutor & Child Abuse Prosecutor

Jason Collver

Assistant District Attorney
Loudon & Morgan County Drug Prosecutor

Kelly Ingle

Assistant District Attorney
General Sessions/Juvenile Courts

Anna Howard

Assistant District Attorney
General Sessions/Juvenile Courts

Marla Holloway

Assistant District Attorney
General Sessions/Juvenile Courts

Staff

 Tina Jarnagin

Grand Jury Coordinator
Assistant to the ADAs

Karen Joseph

Drug Unit
Assistant to the ADAs

Cynthia Noles

Drug Task Force
Assistant to the ADAs

Charlene Hipsher

Grant Coordinator

Cortney Dugger

ICAC Investigator

Chanel Finnell

Criminal Investigator

News/Press Releases

Facebook Posts

Russell Johnson - 9th Judicial District, District Attorney General

1 week ago

Russell Johnson - 9th Judicial District, District Attorney General
Former City of Kingston Finance Director Pleads Guilty to ‘Overpaying’ Herself During Tenure as Director per Comptroller Investigative AuditThe Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury received a report of potential fraud on June 13, 2023, concerning the former Finance Director Carolyn Brewer (age 81 of Kingston). The almost three-year long investigative audit revealed overpayments of salary and benefits (unaccounted for overpayments of weekly salary, over-calculation of sick leave reimbursements, etc.) that also resulted in over-credit of retirement benefits from Finance Director Brewer’s retirement covering a period of time from her retirement in June 2020 back to July 1, 2014, which is as far back as auditors went with their review due to time and workforce constraints. Because of the labor-intensive review of the process of scrutinizing each individual weekly payroll and performing recalculations, the auditors had to choose 2014 as a point at which to stop, even though Brewer served in the Finance Director position for decades.From the date of retirement until the end date of the audit in 2014 the Comptroller’s Office determined that Brewer had paid herself over $131,000 in unearned salary and benefits. The report was finally approved and made available to Russell Johnson’s District Attorney General’s Office several weeks ago. Upon receipt of the investigative audit report, District Attorney Johnson and ADA Jonathan Edwards, who was assigned the case, reached out to Brewer’s legal counsel and met with Brewer, her husband, legal counsel and private investigators for the defense, along with the two auditors from the Comptroller, and Kingston City Attorney Andrew Thompson to review the audit results and to explore the probability of a successful prosecution on the alleged theft. As a result of that meeting a felony plea agreement was reached and Carolyn Brewer appeared in Wartburg today (Friday, June 5th) where Criminal Court was meeting with Judge Jeff Wicks presiding, to enter a guilty plea to Class C felony theft with a three-year TDOC felony sentence. She paid $131,596.22 in restitution to the City of Kingston, court costs and fines. Due to her advanced age, Brewer will serve the three-year felony sentence on probation.ADA Jonathan Edwards handled the review of this case, and the resolution was worked out by District Attorney Johnson and ADA Edwards. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation assisted the Comptroller auditors (Jimmy Hodges and Brett Bell) with the interview of Brewer. Hodges and Bell prepared the report that the Comptroller’s Office will be releasing to the public since the guilty plea has been entered. Kingston City Attorney Thompson will be reviewing the report with Kingston City officials on Tuesday.END OF RELEASE ... See MoreSee Less

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Russell Johnson - 9th Judicial District, District Attorney General

1 week ago

Russell Johnson - 9th Judicial District, District Attorney General
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of Officer Bobby Lankford.This morning, our community lost a great man. Recently retired Loudon Police Department Officer Bobby Lankford passed away and went home to be with the Lord.Bobby faithfully served the citizens of Loudon for 27 years before retiring in 2024. Throughout his career, he demonstrated unwavering dedication, professionalism, and a genuine commitment to the community he loved.Funeral arrangements are pending, and we will share those details as soon as they become available.Please keep Bobby's family, friends, and former colleagues in your thoughts and prayers during this difficult time. His service and legacy will not be forgotten. ... See MoreSee Less

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Russell Johnson - 9th Judicial District, District Attorney General

2 weeks ago

Russell Johnson - 9th Judicial District, District Attorney General
Former Preacher Pleads Guilty to Stealing Money from his Church in Lenoir City The case against former Canvas Church of Lenoir City pastor Nicholas Rains started with members of the congregation becoming aware of his immoral behavior and misuse of funds which resulting in the leadership asking Rains to step down as pastor. Church leaders conducted their own ‘audit’. Their efforts revealed the extent of the fraud/theft of funds, and the church leadership notified our office in April of 2023. In turn we requested the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office to perform an investigative audit for purposes of prosecuting criminal charges. Their audit determined the Rains had been using the church credit card, as well as church funds for personal purchases such as shopping for groceries and numerous other person purchases and expenses. The Comptroller’s audit was recently released to our office, and we presented the case against Rains for theft of over $250,000 which was indicted by a Loudon County Grand Jury. The theft included paying for family vacations, along with a trip to Alaska, as well as making his house payments and expenditures for female companionship, even though Raines is married with a family, and not to mention being the spiritual leader of his congregation. The investigation was extensive and time consuming and involved using various church personnel to help make determinations as to what numerous purchases went to church use versus Rains’ personal use. From a ‘victim impact and input standpoint’ the membership of the Canvas Church has been divided on how to proceed with the ‘theft’ allegations against their preacher. Rains is no longer in charge of the Canvas Church, but he has apparently moved to another church in Roane County and can be seen participating in various roles on YouTube videos from that church. A significant number of Canvas Church members were for forgiving Rains of his crimes (several of whom are related to Rains), but then there were obviously many that expressed indignation at Rains’ conduct and are wanting prosecution and punishment. After the Comptroller’s auditors recently completed the investigation, we met with several church leaders and decided to offer Nicholas Rains to plead guilty to the Theft Over $250,000, a Class B felony. The plea hearing on this agreement took place in the Loudon County Courthouse today (Friday, May 29th) in front of many members of the Canvas Church (which has been rebranded as Vineyard Church of Lenoir City). The felony conviction plea agreement was for a sentence of eight years with Rains immediately going into custody (on Sunday) to serve 120 days (day for day) in the Loudon County jail and the remainer of the eight years on supervised probation with Rains to pay the church $100,000 in agreed upon restitution, plus court costs and fines. The church has placed a lien on Rains’ house as part of the plea agreement, which will draw interest and must be paid whenever Rains sells his house that is currently up for sale, or within a year, whichever occurs first. This is obviously a compromised plea agreement due in part to the divided opinion of the church who all want to move forward and forgo a jury trial that would have required going line by line through each purchase as many of the purchases include both church and personal uses, and as is the nature of many small churches, a lack of proper accounting controls that should always be in place to prevent and detect fraud, as there is usually a large amount of trust involved when the preacher is allowed to have control of the church funds. ADA Bob Edwards of District Attorney General Russell Johnson’s Office worked closely with church members and the Comptroller’s Office on this audit, investigation and prosecution, and both Edwards and Johnson worked with Defense Attorney Brian Nichols to fashion the plea deal to eventually get reimbursement of a large amount of the funds back to the church, but also to provide punishment in the form of four months in jail for this egregious conduct. The purpose of this extended explanation is to bring light to the conduct of Rains who was trusted by his family and his church family, and to serve as a cautionary tale to similar churches and organizations that trust can only go so far – therefore, “trust but verify” [Ronald Reagan]. END OF RELEASE ... See MoreSee Less

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