The Other McCain

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Meth-Crazed Lesbian Dies in Proverbial Hail of Gunfire; No Charges for Cops

Posted on | December 23, 2023 | Comments Off on Meth-Crazed Lesbian Dies in Proverbial Hail of Gunfire; No Charges for Cops

Methamphetamine is a bad drug, and when the final report about the death of Whitney Leanne Fox, 36, was issued last month, probably the most important finding was the autopsy that showed “the amount of meth found in her blood was double the amount normally associated with irrational and violent behavior in meth abusers.” This is sufficient to explain why she led cops in Cocke County, Tennessee, on a high-speed pursuit that ended with her getting shot to death while apparently trying to run over officers who were attempting to get her out of the vehicle.

That happened in May this year, but authorities didn’t release body-camera footage of the incident until after a special investigation cleared the two county deputies of wrongdoing in the case: “Both deputies were placed in the position of being on foot in an open field with a driver who had no intention of surrendering and who was in command of a fully operational vehicle, which could reasonably be considered a deadly weapon.” And so last night I watched the YouTube video of the incident:

 

One of my pet peeves with local journalism these days is that there’s so little follow-up reporting on criminal activity. Surely, there must be a fascinating story of how Whitney Fox’s life ended this way, but apparently no reporter in East Tennessee considers the story worth pursuing.

Who was Whitney Fox? That question rooted itself in my mind, and when I started Googling for answers, among the things I noticed was that her obituary listed her as the mother of a daughter named Ryleigh, but made no mention of her being survived by a husband (or any other partner).

Then I found a Facebook page (which I won’t link) showing that, circa 2015-16, Whitney was in a relationship with a woman whose initials are T.A. Some time during the past decade, however, Whitney’s life seemed to descend in a downward spiral. About a year before her fatal confrontation with Cocke County sheriff’s deputies, there was this report from April 2022 in Newport, Tennessee:

On April 29, Patrolman Paul Weber initiated a traffic stop for a Buick with an expired temporary tag. The driver was identified as Whitney Fox, age 35. Fox was known to have an active arrest warrant out of Sevier County for Aggravated Kidnapping. Weber placed Fox under arrest and transported her to Sevier County, where she was released to the Sevier County Sheriff’s Department.

Whoa! Aggravated kidnapping? That is a serious felony, so why was Whitney Fox back out on the street barely a year later? What was involved in this Sevier County kidnapping case? Did the case go to trial? Was there a plea bargain? Or was Whitney Fox out on bail awaiting trial?

You see what I mean about the lack of follow-up by the local media? Other than the report that she was picked up on this warrant in April 2022, I could find no reporting about her Sevier County charges. My hunch — and it is only a hunch — is that she must have gotten out on bail and then failed to show up for a court hearing, because the reason cops tried to pull Fox over in what turned out to be the fatal May 2023 encounter was that she “reportedly had several outstanding warrants.”

It’s not just urban “blue” districts where the judicial system fails society by a turn-’em-loose approach to criminals. Even in rural East Tennessee (Cocke County voted 82% for Trump), somehow a meth addict with a criminal record was on the street. And this was not good for Whitney Leanne Fox. The cops fired 22 shots, hitting her 13 times.



 

Category: Crime

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