Three men appear in court on Cleveland airport vandalism charges

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

ATHENS, Tenn. - Three men suspected of vandalizing the new Cleveland, Tenn., airport to the tune of more than $100,000 and tossing items off Interstate 75 overpasses in McMinn County entered no pleas this morning in court.

But two of the men had their bonds reduced by the judge.

McMinn General Sessions Court Judge James Watson reduced the $956,000 bond for defendant Jeremy Mulkey, 19, to $25,000 and the $13,000 bond for Barry Burbank, 20, to $5,000.

The $83,000 bond for Casey Thomas, 18, was not reduced.

The three defendants are scheduled to appear in McMinn court again Feb. 14.

They also are facing theft charges in Bradley County in connection with the airport vandalism and in Athens for vandalism at a construction site there.

In connection with the overpass incidents, each of the three was charged with three counts of reckless endangerment, two counts of felony vandalism and one count of criminal conspiracy to commit reckless homicide.

Mulkey also was charged with 18 counts of attempted reckless homicide stemming from an incident in which a fan motor was thrown from the County Road 130 overpass and struck a charter bus carrying a group of Lee University students, injuring the driver.

For complete details, see tomorrow's Chattanooga Times Free Press.