Top 10 stories of 2020
Staff Reports
comes down
One limb at a time, the locally famous leaning tree came down Sept. 3. For more than 150 years, the tree stood at a 30-degree angle about 3 miles south of Franklin in the 3500 block of Airport Road. The tree’s removal was initiated after a citizen submitted a formal complaint asking the highway department to look into the safety of it. On June 4, Airport Road, also known as Nineveh Road, was closed after an initial inspection determined the tree was unsafe to drive under. Then, in June, two master arborists determined the tree was at “extreme risk” of falling. So, the Johnson County Board of Commissioners voted 3-0 to remove the tree. County officials and local artisans are still looking at ways to preserve the tree, such as a memorial.
Dec 11, 2020 / 10:40 PM EST
FRANKLIN, Ind. (WISH) Johnson County officials say multiple people were arrested in a child solicitation investigation.
The Johnson County Sheriff’s Office and the Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office announced the charges at a Friday morning press conference.
The operation started on Dec. 8.
Investigators with the sheriff’s office say detectives created a fake profile of an underage girl was created on a “sex-oriented website,” according to Johnson County Sheriff Duane Burgess.
“It turns your stomach. I don’t care who you are. How tough. This is unacceptable. We don’t want it anywhere. We’ve got to protect our children,” Johnson County Sheriff Duane Burgess explained.
PULLING BACK THE CURTAIN: 10 captured in child solicitation operation
12/11/20 8:20 PM
Over the course of three days, nine men came to Johnson County intent on meeting a teenager for sex.
They drove some for more than an hour to undisclosed locations in Greenwood to meet up with undercover detectives posed as an underage girl. It was part of a first-of-its-kind sting operation in the county, dubbed Operation Firewall, a partnership of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office, the Johnson County Prosecutor’s Office and Covenant Rescue Group, an Alabama-based nonprofit that’s fighting human trafficking across the country and working with law enforcement agencies on operations such as this.