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LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF)- At 4:30 Tuesday afternoon, a white Mazda pick-up truck allegedly failed to stop at the stop sign where Sugar Hollow and Long Hollow Roads meet in south La Follette. Nearby deputies saw the violation and followed the truck up Long Hollow Road. They performed a traffic stop at the corner of Coolidge Road in the 100 block.
Sheriff’s Sgt. John Minor and Det.-Sgt. Franklin Ayers made contact with the driver, Kenneth Edward Durham. Right up front, Durham told the officers he didn’t have a driver’s license. Police soon learned through the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) that Durham’s license was suspended for a failure to appear. On top of that, Durham fessed up that he didn’t have any insurance either.
Durham gave consent for the deputies to search his truck. Suspected meth was found in the form of a crystal rock inside a folded piece of paper between the two seats. A blue glass smoking pipe generally used to smoke meth was found in the same area of the truck. Durham and his passenger, Gary Leach, said those items did not belong to them.
As Durham and Leach were being placed under arrest, Suboxone was found on one of them.
Durham, 54, was charged with multiple offenses including possession of scheduled II and III controlled substances. Leach, 41, faces four charges including possession of a schedule II controlled substance. Each list their addresses as 200 West Iron Street, La Follette. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-05/28/2026-6AM)