![]() Follow her on Twitter at /jamiescoop.Faced with two deadly epidemics - gang violence and opiate addiction - Knox County's law enforcers and prosecutors unveiled Friday a new tool and a new case targeting both.įor the first time in Knox County history, authorities are employing the state's Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act, or RICO, in the prosecution of alleged members of a street gang also accused of peddling heroin. Though Wilson admitted in federal court that he violated the terms of his release by having the drugs, it's not clear how that will affect the state court case filed against him by KPD's Repeat Offenders Squad. Wilson is black, but he was arrested in a predominantly white neighborhood. Wilson faces two to four years in prison if convicted of possessing marijuana in the drug free school zone.ĭefense attorney Susan Shipley is challenging the constitutionality of the squad's use of DFSZ, citing statistics showing that 82 percent of the cases filed so far by the squad involved black defendants, most of whom, she alleged, were nabbed in inner-city housing projects. The arrest is part of the agency's Repeat Offenders Squad's effort to use the Drug-Free School Zone to target hard criminals. ![]() The Knoxville Police Department charged Wilson with a Drug-Free School Zone act violation because he was stopped within 1,000 feet of Norwood Elementary School. "The defendant claimed full responsibility for the drugs," U.S. Police later found more than 200 grams of marijuana in the car and $300 in Wilson's pocket. ![]() Wilson and Tory both later took plea deals that required them to testify against gang leader Walter "Heavy" Williams, who is serving a life sentence for his role in a gang that dominated the crack cocaine trade in East Knoxville in the late 1990s and early 2000s and used violence to protect its turf.Įight years after the groundbreaking bust, Williams' underlings are rolling out of prison and back into trouble.įederal court records show that Wilson and Tory left an apartment on Tillery Ridge Road in September and immediately drew law enforcement notice because of Wilson's erratic driving on Clinton Highway. One of those videotapes showed Wilson being beaten by his gang brethren for an infraction of gang rules. District Judge Tom Varlan inked his approval Tuesday to a deal that puts Wilson, nabbed in 2002 along with two dozen fellow Vice Lords gang members, behind bars for another two years after he and fellow Vice Lord Jahmal Tory were stopped by police in September with more than seven ounces of marijuana packaged for resale.Ĭourt records show Wilson insisted Tory, who a decade ago ordered Wilson to take part in a plot to execute a Vice Lord the gang suspected was a snitch, was blameless and agreed without a court fight to return to prison in a bid to spare Tory further scrutiny.įederal prosecutors took down the Vice Lords in Knoxville in 2002 using federal drug conspiracy laws after the Knoxville Police Department's then-active gang unit managed to gain access to the "honeycomb," the gang's clubhouse, and set up a video camera to record the group's meetings. Imperial Insane Vice Lords gang member Scott "Stu" Wilson knows what it means to take one for the team.īeaten without resistance by his Knoxville gang brethren, readily agreeing to a plot to kill another wayward member, Wilson is now headed back without a fight to federal prison for two years to exonerate a fellow Vice Lord after the pair were nabbed recently with nearly a half-pound of marijuana. The penalty range was incorrect in an earlier version of this story. ![]() Editor's note: Scott Wilson faces two to four years in prison if convicted of possessing marijuana within a drug-free school zone. ![]()
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