A failed bid to hold two Anderson County teenagers legally responsible for the state's deadliest wildfire in a century is sparking a new mystery - who doctored an official agreement between federal and Tennessee governments and why?
Aggravated arson charges against the boys, ages 17 and 15, were dropped Friday in part because 4th Judicial District Attorney General Jimmy Dunn did not have authority under a 1997 agreement between the state and federal government to prosecute crimes committed in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
The park was left out of the 1997 agreement, which granted both state and federal authorities the power to prosecute crimes committed on federal lands within Tennessee. That meant only federal authorities could level charges for crimes committed in the park. That omission was discovered during Dunn's attempt to prosecute the boys.
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