Author

Jamie Satterfield

Jamie Satterfield

Jamie Satterfield is an investigative journalist with more than 33 years of experience, specializing in legal affairs, policing, public corruption, environmental crime and civil rights violations. Her journalism has been honored as some of the best in the nation, earning recognition from the Scripps Howard Foundation, the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Awards, the Green Eyeshade Awards, the Tennessee Press Association, the Tennessee Managing Editors Association, the First Amendment Center and many other industry organizations. Her work has led to criminal charges against wrongdoers, changes in state law and citations in legal opinions and journals. She was married to the love of her life for 28 years and is now a widow and proud mother of two successful children of good character and work ethic.

Coal ash slurry left behind in a containment pond near the Tennessee Valley Authorities Kingston Fossil Plant Dec. 29, 2008 in Harriman, Tenn., after the dyke at left broke Dec. 22, 2008, unleashing a billion gallon flood of toxic sludge into the Emory River. (Photo: Greenpeace USA)

Jacobs Engineering settles Kingston coal ash case

By: - May 23, 2023

After 10 years of litigation, workers who were forced to work without personal protection to clean up the Tennessee Valley Authority’s massive coal ash spill at its Kingston Fossil Plant in 2008 have reached a settlement in the case. TVA’s disaster clean-up contractor Jacobs Engineering posted a one-line notice Monday on its website affirming that […]

A hopper car on a train filled with coal to be delivered to a TVA coal-fired plant.(Photo: John Partipilo)

Report: TVA’s Allen Fossil Plant in Memphis ranks #10 in most contaminated U.S. sites

By: - November 28, 2022

(Editor’s note: This story has been updated with comment from TVA.)  The Tennessee Valley Authority’s coal ash dumps in Memphis rank among the worst in the nation for contamination of groundwater with cancer-causing toxins, according to a new report that relied on the power provider’s own records. TVA’s coal ash dumps at the now-defunct Allen […]

The Tennessee Supreme Court Building in Nashville, Tennessee, is the historic building that houses the Tennessee Supreme Court offices and where the court meets when it is in session in Nashville. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014. (Getty Images)

Landmark TN Supreme Court decision finds mandatory life sentences for juveniles unconstitutional

By: - November 18, 2022

In a landmark decision, a majority panel of the Tennessee Supreme Court on Friday struck down as unconstitutional mandatory life sentences for juveniles. “In fulfilling our duty to decide constitutional issues, we hold that an automatic life sentence when imposed on a juvenile homicide offender with no consideration of the juvenile’s age or other circumstances […]

Stethoscope on hospital bill from Getty Images.

Knoxville-based TeamHealth sued by insurer for “fraudulent conduct”

By: - November 15, 2022

An insurer for a Tennessee firm embroiled in a medical overbilling scandal is refusing to pay the tab for what it calls “fraudulent conduct,” court records show. Ironshore Specialty Insurance Company has filed suit in U.S. District Court against Knoxville emergency medical outsourcing firm TeamHealth. The insurer says in the litigation that TeamHealth wants the […]

(Photo from Hamilton County Sheriff Facebook page)

6th Circuit serves victory to Marine Corps veteran agains Hamilton County sheriff’s deputies

By: - November 7, 2022

A federal appellate court this week served up a legal victory for a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who sued the Hamilton County law enforcers who detained him on the side of the road without cause for nearly an hour in a fruitless search for marijuana. The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals is refusing to […]

Photo from Knox County Sheriff's Office

6th Circuit upholds decision to strip Knoxville cop of immunity in shooting

By: - November 3, 2022

A federal appellate court is upholding a decision to strip a Knoxville Police Department officer of immunity in a wrongful death lawsuit over the officer’s shooting of an unarmed man in the back. The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals turned aside an appeal by KPD Officer Dylan Williams, who fatally shot an unarmed Channara […]

Photo from Knox County Sheriff's Office

Indicted former Knox County Sheriff’s chief no longer mentally competent for trial, lawyer says

By: - October 31, 2022

A former chief of the Knox County Sheriff’s Office accused of using the agency’s drug fund and a county credit card as a piggy bank and on-duty subordinates as a private construction crew is no longer mentally competent enough to stand trial, his attorney says. Attorney Robert Kurtz says in a recent motion that David […]

(Getty Images)

Grainger County settles suit over “sex shows” in jail

By: - October 28, 2022

Grainger County taxpayers will be shelling out $110,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging a former corrections officer forced female inmates to put on “sex shows” that he viewed from atop milk crates in a control room as he masturbated, records show. Attorneys for Candace McGhee, Chasity Bailey and Wendy Brown have filed notice in U.S. […]

Evelyn Boswell. (Photo: Tennessee Bureau of Investigation)

As trial looms, accused child killer Boswell fires her attorney

By: - October 21, 2022

With her trial looming, a Sullivan County teenaged mom accused of stuffing her 15-month-old daughter inside a trash can where she smothered to death has fired her court-appointed attorney. Sullivan County Criminal Court Judge James Goodwin on Friday allowed Megan Boswell’s current attorney to withdraw from her case and appointed a new attorney. The move […]

The remains of a home smolder in the wake of a wildfire November 30, 2016 in Gatlinburg, Tenn. More than 100 houses and businesses were damaged or destroyed. Drought conditions and high winds helped the fire spread through the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. (Photo by Brian Blanco/Getty Images)

Prominent Tennessee lawyers get malpractice suit from former client over Gatlinburg fire claims

By: - October 20, 2022

A man whose wife and children died in the 2016 deadly wildfires in Gatlinburg is suing the lawyers he says cost him and more than 500 other victims a chance at restitution from the federal government. Michael Reed, whose wife and two children burned to death after being trapped by a wall of fire in […]

(Photo: Johnson City Police Facebook)

Johnson City top cop admits officers were aware of sexual assault claims against businessman

By: - October 19, 2022

Johnson City’s police chief is admitting in court records that his agency knew a downtown business owner was suspected of plying women with drugs and sexually assaulting them but never sought to question him about it — even after a distraught woman told officers she had just been raped by him. Despite that admission, Johnson […]

(Getty Images)

Tennessee court upholds Second Amendment rights for public housing tenants

By: - October 14, 2022

In a landmark decision, a state appellate court on Thursday ruled public housing landlords cannot bar tenants from possessing guns in their residences. The first-of-its-kind ruling by the Tennessee Court of Appeals means public housing authorities across the state can no longer prohibit tenants from having guns as a condition of their leases. The decision […]