From The Herald-News: A former Spring City Commissioner is facing drug charges as well as child abuse and reckless endangerment charges after inve
From The Herald-News: A former Spring City Commissioner is facing drug charges as well as child abuse and reckless endangerment charges after investigators with the Rhea County Sheriff’s Department allege he and two others were operating a drug house with children in the home.
Jeff “Bimbo” Rhear was elected to the Spring City Commission in July 2005, according to records on file at the Rhea County Election Commission, but later lost bids for re-election to the city commission and the Spring City mayor position.
Rhear was indicted on the charges of child abuse and reckless endangerment early this month by the Rhea County Grand Jury, and was indicted alongside Amber Rhear and Rose Rhear, who also lived at the home and are facing the same charges.
Rhea County Sheriff’s Department Investigator Rocky Potter said the investigation into the alleged abuse began in early June when investigators with the sheriff’s department executed a search warrant at the residence after an investigation into suspected drug use.
Potter said that the search uncovered several guns, ammunition, needles, “all kinds of controlled subsances” and counterfeit money.
“Investigators also found out that there were children present for all of this,” Potter said.
The three were charged with various drug-related charges at the time, and Potter said he began to investigate the treatment of the children and gathered enough evidence to take before the grand jury.
Potter said that upon further investigation and interviews with the children he learned that the three adults would make the kids clean up, dumping out pills and throwing away straws used to ingest narcotics.
“The children saw their mom very inebriated,” Potter said. “And all the children were trained with Narcan.”
Narcan is an opioid overdose treatment, Potter said, and the children did see it used on family members. In addition, he said that narcotics found at the residence were within easy reach for the children.
Potter said investigators considered the narcotics as a dangerous weapon, and the grand jury returned indictments for two counts of child abuse or endangerment and four counts of reckless endangerment on all three adults at the residence.
“The district attorney’s office and the Rhea County Sheriff’s Department are going to take a hard stand on these controlled substances, especially when there are children present,” Potter said.
According to officials at the Rhea County Sheriff’s Department, both Jeff “Bimbo” Rhear and Amber Rhear received bonds of $50,000. As of press time Friday, Amber Rhear was still incarcerated at the Rhea County Jail. Potter said that Rose Rhear was wanted on federal charges and will be held at the Rhea County Jail until handed over to federal authorities.
