Video summary
Three men accused of a double murder in Bellefroy are set to appear again at Pike Circuit Court just days before their scheduled trial on August 31st. The defendants, Jolon McCree, Orlando Pack, and Devon Overstreet, face charges for the killings of Jacob Adair and Rodney Eastep, as well as an attempted murder charge against Chastity Adair. During today's proceedings, Judge Eddie Coleman reviewed motions regarding which evidence will be admissible in court but deferred a final ruling on that issue to ensure due process. Additionally, McCree's legal team requested more time to hire experts for analyzing ballistic and DNA evidence found at the crime scene; the judge granted this request and set an October 14th status update as the new timeline for reviewing those specific motions while keeping the original trial date intact for Pack and Overstreet.
In separate local news, Mountain Comprehensive Care Center has filed a defamation lawsuit against three former employees—Rebecca Hall, Rachel Williams, and Kendra Allen—who have been accused of making false claims regarding healthcare billing fraud within the organization. The center states that these allegations have harmed its reputation and business relationships, emphasizing their duty to defend themselves when trust is threatened by unproven statements. While Mountain Comprehensive Care asserts that internal and federal reviews found no evidence of fraud and cites an independent auditor's clean opinion, all three former employees maintain they were retaliated against for objecting to billing practices they deemed improper. Notably, two other former staff members who filed similar lawsuits are not being sued by the center because their claims have also been investigated without supporting evidence of wrongdoing.
The broadcast concludes with a sports recap and an urgent public service announcement regarding a new cryptocurrency scam targeting Kentucky residents through fake jury duty notifications. In local sports news, the Lawrence County Bulldogs suffered a 3-0 loss to Boyd County on Wednesday night due to poor weather conditions that limited recent soccer activity elsewhere in the region. Volleyball is set to resume this Monday with live streams planned throughout the season, and the University of Pikeville men's soccer team was recognized as one of the top five teams in the Appalachian Athletic Conference preseason poll. The segment also features a commercial for Appalachia Wireless highlighting their commitment to supporting local community groups like marching bands and robotics teams rather than relying on major carriers that may not serve these organizations effectively.
Finally, Sheriff Rodney Scott provided critical advice on identifying and avoiding the latest phone scam involving cryptocurrency kiosks where scammers pretend to be law enforcement officials claiming victims missed jury duty or owe fines. The sheriff explained that legitimate court summons always arrive via mail as a physical letter rather than through unsolicited text messages or calls demanding immediate payment or banking information over a link. Scammers often use prepaid phones purchased at retail stores like Walmart, making it nearly impossible to trace the caller's location or identity once they initiate contact with victims asking for sensitive financial data. Residents are urged to remain vigilant against any unexpected communications regarding court matters and should only respond directly through official mail channels provided by their local courts.
Read the full video transcript
Three double murder suspects appeared in
Pike Circuit Court today and Mountain
Comprehensive Care files a defamation
lawsuit against three former employees.
I'm Nick Colum and this is the
Mountaintop Daily.
The three men accused of a double murder
in Belelfrey were back in court today,
just days before their August 31st trial
date. That trial is still on, but one of
the defendants will not be part of it.
Robin was in the courtroom and tells us
why. Three Cincinnati men accused of a
double murder in Belelfrey in 2023
appeared in Pike Circuit Court today to
take care of lastminute motions ahead of
their August 31st trial date. Jolon
McCree, Orlando Pac, and Devon Overreet
were charged with the murders of Jacob
Adair of Belelfrey and Rodney Eastep of
Lexington, as well as the attempted
murder of Chastity Adair of Belelfrey.
One motion discussed what evidence will
be allowed in court. Judge Eddie Coleman
took this under advisement and will rule
on the issue within the next few days.
The other motion discussed was a request
by McCree's attorney for a continuence
to allow him time to retain experts to
examine the ballistic and DNA evidence
found at the scene. Coleman granted this
request, scheduling a status update for
October 14th at 1:30 p.m. The original
trial date of August 31st is still set
for Pack and Over Street. Reporting for
Mountaintop News, I'm Robin Tilman.
Mountain Comprehensive Care Center and
its CEO are suing three former
employees, accusing them of making false
allegations of healthcare billing fraud.
The lawsuit names former CFO Rebecca
Hall, former regional billing
coordinator Rachel Williams, and former
revenue cycle manager Kendra Allen.
MCCCC says the allegations damaged its
reputation and business relationships. A
statement released by MCCCC says the
organization has a responsibility to
defend itself when false statements
threaten its reputation and the trust
placed in it. The three former employees
have filed separate lawsuits claiming
they were retaliated against after
objecting to billing practices they
believed were improper. Two other former
employees, Jennifer Salsbury and Christy
Stiltner, have also sued MCCC, making
similar allegations. MCCCC is not suing
those two women. MCCCC says internal and
federal reviews found no evidence of
billing fraud and says its independent
auditor issued an unqualified opinion.
All of the allegations remain unproven
in court. Coming up after the break,
another jury duty scam is making its way
around the region. We'll talk to a law
enforcement official about it when the
Mountaintop Daily continues. But first,
sports and weather. One more day, then
it's the weekend.
How's it going, sports fans? Cody the
Professor Davis here with your
Mountaintop Sports Recap. And let's just
jump into it. All right, first up, due
to the weather, it's been pretty bad
recently. We haven't seen much area
soccer going on, but one team was able
to lace up Wednesday night and saw some
action. And that leads us to this story.
The Lawrence County Bulldogs fell to
Boyd County 3 to nothing Wednesday
night. The loss starts the Bulldog
season off 0 nothing while [music]
improving Boyd County to one and one. In
other news, volleyball starts back on
Monday and be sure to stay tuned to our
pages and website for all the latest
scores, photos, videos, and written
stories. [music] We will have you
covered all season long. You can count
on it. We've even got some live streams
planned. Finally, in college news, the
University of Pikeville men's soccer
team was named [music] a top five team
in the AAC in a recent preeason poll.
Uppupike was one of four teams to get a
first place vote, and we wish them the
best of luck this season. That's going
to do it for today, sports fans. I'm
Cody the Professor Davis, and as always,
thanks for watching.
>> [music]
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Ned doesn't just [music] talk about
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He's the best pro bono attorney in the
nation.
Now [music] he's bringing his fight to
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I'm Ned Pillarsdorf and I approve this
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>> We understand where you are and we know
where you need connection. Friday Night
Lights, Tuesday Night Basketball, the
marching band, the robotics team, and
here's the funny thing. You'll probably
see Appalachin [music] Wireless supports
all of them. And you know who you
probably won't see? That's right, those
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>> A jury duty scam is making the rounds
again. And like all the rest, it's
simply an attempt to separate you from
your money. I spoke with Sheriff Rodney
Scott about the scam and how you can
protect yourself. Kentucky residents
have become the target for a new phone
scam involving cryptocurrency. Scammers
are calling and pretending to be law
enforcement agencies claiming their
targets have missed jury duty to then
send them a link redirecting people to a
cryptocurrency kiosk asking for banking
information. Pike County Sheriff Rodney
Scott talks on how to avoid and identify
scam attempts. Well, you know, if you're
called for jury duty, you you get a
letter, you get the summons in the mail,
you know, to you you fill the summons
out, you send it back in, and you know,
that's when you ask to be excused or,
you know, they give you a day to show
up. something happens and you don't,
they're they're not they're not going to
send a link or or a text or, you know,
call you and say, "Hey, you missed jury
duty or, you know, you need to pay this
or do this to get out of it or, you
know, fine or whatever." But, uh,
they'll they'll send they'll send you
another letter. Uh, and then when that
doesn't then, you know, they'll contact
us and they'll give us an address to to
go get them, see why they didn't report
for jury duty. I mean, you know, it
usually usually never goes that far, but
you know, that's that's how it can
happen.
>> Scott says although they conduct
investigations for scam callers, it is
often difficult to identify who is
responsible. With new types of scams
becoming more common by the day, it is
best to be wary of any suspicious calls
or emails. Most of your scams, they they
use one of what they call a track phone,
which is you can't track it and they
they'll go to Walmart and
[clears throat]
uh buy a prepaid phone and you know
there's no way to tracking the number to
where it come from. I mean, you might
get an area or where it was bought at,
but you know, as far as getting a person
or or even a location, uh you're you're
not going to get them. So, like I said,
you know, they're they're very
intelligent on doing this and uh they
they know they know all the all the
ropes to go by to get by and and a lot
of it, believe it or not, comes from out
of the country. Seems like every every
week or every other week there's a
different scam going around. Uh you know
uh
jury duty or or any any type of citation
to do with the court system or you know
there there's always something going
around.
>> That will do it for this edition of the
Mountaintop Daily. Be sure to check us
out at 6 p.m. every weekday on
Mountaintop TV, the Mountaintop TV app,
and the Mountaintop News Facebook page.
With your Mountaintop Daily, I'm Nick
Colum for Mountaintop News.