The Rhea County courthouse's mounted copy of the Bill of Rights was stolen from the wall, apparently removed by force, in Sept. 2008. What Coordinator of the Tennessee Committee for the Bill of Rights June Griffin wants to know is why no one has been prosecuted during the year and a half it's been missing.

Griffin was especially upset by the theft, since she had donated the document to the county several years before. She noticed its absence as she was leaving Tuesday evening's county commission meeting at the courthouse.

Upon further investigation, official documents showed that the Bill of Rights had disappeared the evening of Sept. 21, 2008, during a regular meeting upstairs.

Chief Deputy John Argo said that since no one witnessed the theft, and since the courthouse was not equipped with video surveillance, investigators had very little to go on.

"We heard there were some high school kids seen in the hallway and in that area, so we went to the high school and talked to a few kids, but nothing ever came of it," said Argo. "What happened to it or who did it we don't know. We never were able to find it."

Chunks of the courthouse wall are gouged from where the thief tore the Bill of Rights from its place, adding the charge of vandalism to theft. Since the Rhea County courthouse is part of the federal registry, according to Griffin, the thief should elicit federal charges.

"This is our Bill of Rights," said Griffin. "You wouldn't be allowed to take this picture," she said, motioning to historic paintings hung on the adjacent walls, "much less the Bill of Rights. I want them prosecuted."

Judge Jim McKenzie said he noticed that the document had been gone for a while.

"I came in one morning, and it was gone," said McKenzie. "I think they did it maliciously, because you have to have a certain key to remove any of these pictures from the wall [without causing damage]."
According to the incident report by RCSD Officer Kenny Cox, the copy of the Bill of Rights was valued at $350, and the damage done to the wall was estimated at $50.

Unfortunately for Griffin and the county courthouse, officials have little hope of tracking down the stolen property.

"It was checked into, and we followed up with several high school students, but nothing ever developed out of it," said Argo. "There's nothing to go on."

Elisabeth Hollingsworth can be reached at elisabeth.hollingsworth@rheaheraldnews.com.