Karaoke Killer Arrested
Police nab Joseph Crouch in Daytona Beach.
By Chris Davis
As of March 16th, Joseph Crouch Jr. is no longer
a fugitive. Thanks to a pair of America’s Most Wanted
episodes, Crouch was identified by friends
he’d made on the karaoke circuit and apprehended by police in Daytona Beach, Florida.
In June 2001, Crouch, a failed mortgage specialist and karaoke enthusiast from
Southeast Memphis, allegedly murdered Betsy Crouch, his wife of 40 years. He then packed up his
golf clubs and, leaving his own battered car behind, disappeared in her brand-new Mercury
Sable. Letters to family all but confessing his crime were postmarked from New Orleans, which
led authorities to believe Crouch was living along the Gulf Coast. There he would have
easy access to his three biggest habits: gambling, golfing, and karaoke.
“The [Florida] SWAT team used flash-bang grenades,” said Lt. Mickey Williams of
the Memphis Police Department’s violent-crime division. “They rushed in, caught him by
surprise, and he gave up without a fight.”
Police found three guns in Crouch’s Beach Club condo, including a .25-caliber
pistol believed to be the murder weapon. Crouch claims to have supported himself as a
gambler during his two years as a fugitive. Papers discovered in his condo naming various locations
in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Florida, as well as dollar amounts, may prove otherwise.
“We think he’s been on a crime spree,” said Williams. “Of course, we don’t know
right now if he was actually robbing people or if he was committing fraud.”
“This has been the case from hell,” Williams said. “Finding this guy has been a bear
[but Crouch] is going to be in jail for the rest of his life. The minimum sentence for
first-degree murder is life with the possibility of parole. Before you can be paroled you’ve got
to serve 51 years. Joseph Crouch is going to die in jail.”
“Unfortunately, this does not bring any closure for me,” said Crouch’s daughter,
Teresa Wampler. “We now have to face a trial, and [I] will eventually have to face him. There
is nothing he could say to me that would bring me closure or peace. Bringing him to
justice does not bring me peace. I only wish it did. I’m not sure what would, really.”
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Speeding Up
Speed limits raised on some areas of interstate.
By Bianca Phillips
Although it seems that many Memphis drivers set their
own interstate speed limits, the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) will soon
be officially increasing those limits on certain areas of I-40, I-55, and I-240.
TDOT had not performed a speed assessment in the urban Memphis area since the 1970s, when
Congress lowered speed limits nationwide from 75 mph to 55 mph. According to Luanne
Grandinetti in TDOT’s public affairs office, the new changes should be posted in the next few weeks.
On I-40, the limit will be increased to 70 mph from the Fayette County line to
U.S. Highway 64. It will slow down to 65 mph from Highway 64 to the ramps at State Route
300 west of North Watkins, and will remain 55 mph from there to the Arkansas state line.
On I-55, the limit will be increased to 65 mph from the Mississippi state line to
Highway 51. It will remain 55 mph to the Arkansas state line.
On I-240, the limit will be increased to 65 mph from the I-40 interchange to
Highway 51, where it will remain 55 mph. Changes for this stretch will not be posted until
construction in the area is completed.
“We look at how fast folks are traveling,” said Grandinetti. “If the average motorist
is going 65-70 mph with all other factors considered, then a lot of thought is given to the
fact that the speed limit should be changed.”
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Second Time Around
Rejected TennCare enrollees get reapplication extension.
By Janel Davis
More than 166,000 TennCare enrollees who lost coverage
during last year’s reverification process will get a second chance to reapply for services
through the Department of Human Services (DHS).
The extended grace period runs until March 31, 2004, and applies to enrollees
who failed to respond to the agency regarding their eligibility status. The grace period
follows criticism that the reverification process confused some enrollees.
Last Monday, during his budget address, Governor Phil Bredesen pledged to revise
the state’s health-care system for its poor and uninsured citizens. In a statement from
DHS, Bredesen described the TennCare program as “complex” and “facing serious challenges.”
“Bringing costs under control will require major change. But it is only fair that
people have every opportunity to prove they are eligible before they are permanently removed
from the program,” he said.
According to TennCare spokesperson Lola Potter, only 6,000 of the initial 126,000
dropped enrollees appealed the judgment. In a survey of 200 enrollees who failed to appeal the
judgment, “I don’t know” was the main response given for their failure to take
action. n
Judging the Jail
Fewer inmates mean fewer officers.
By Mary Cashiola
Federal Judge Jon McCalla ruled Friday that he will review a brief filed by the Shelby County jail officers’ union
before approving a new staffing plan that cuts 326 officers.
Shelby County sheriff Mark Luttrell presented his jail-staffing
plan last week to McCalla and a courtroom filled with correctional
officers and union officials. Luttrell has said the cuts could save the
county about $19 million, but because of a federal court order stemming
from a 1996 inmate rape case, the plan must be approved by McCalla to
be implemented.
Court-appointed jail monitor Chuck Fisher told the assembly
he thought the jail is overstaffed under the current plan. “The prior
staffing analysis had one relief officer for every three on posts. Each
one gets two 15-minute breaks and 30 minutes for lunch,” he said.
“The one relief officer had to relieve them for three hours then had
three hours with no specific duties and one hour for himself.”
Added to a decline in sick leave and a reduction in the jail
population, that means the overall number of officers needed to staff the
jail for a year has decreased as well.
Luttrell thinks the system can actually work better with fewer
employees. “Fisher’s report talks about deficiencies in the system — all
are system weaknesses that need to be corrected,” Luttrell said.
“They’re not in the area of staffing. The staff we have adds to the deficiencies.”
To prove his point, Luttrell said the jail has been running with
the proposed number of officers since the beginning of March. “We
have been training staff members on a daily basis,” said Luttrell. “My
predecessor had a different management philosophy than I do. I think
it was a grave mistake to increase the workforce by 500. The idea that
if we put enough staff into the jail, if we put enough money in the
jail, we’ll solve all the problems … I have a difference of opinion on that.”
Of the county’s $3.70 tax base, almost a dollar of it now goes to
the sheriff’s department.
At the hearing, uniformed and non-uniformed officers filled
one courtroom and spilled into another, connected via a closed-circuit
television. The officers were predominantly African American and a
majority of them were female. One brought a sign that read, simply: “I
need my job.”
For the court, however, the only issue is one of inmate and
officer safety. Both Luttrell and Fisher said the jail would be safer once
operations were streamlined.
Byron T. Williams, president of the American Federation of
State, County, and Municipal Employees Local 1733, disagreed. “How
can you predict the psychology of an inmate?” he said after the
hearing. “That’s what they’re asking us to do.”
One corrections officer, who has been on the job about two years
and didn’t want to be named, said previous sheriff A.C. Gilless had more
support among the officers than Luttrell now does. Williams seconded
that morale was low in the department, even in the patrol division.
The attorneys for Shelby County and the inmates’
representatives objected to McCalla reviewing the union’s brief, and Williams was
offended by their complaint. “This is more about politics than about
the issues of the people,” he said.
The staff inmate ratio is less than 1 to 2 — one of the highest in
the country — and will remain less than 1 to 2 if the cuts are approved.
The Direct Response Team, which responds to emergency situations in
the jail, will not lose any members, and the number of jail counselors
under the plan actually increases.