NEWPORT—In three straight day-long sessions this week, Circuit Judge Ben W. Hooper II and prosecution and defense lawyers cleared more than 100 cases from the court's criminal docket.

The cases came from plea-bargains, formal motions in some cases, and some charges were dismissed on the recommendation of the state. Fourteen more defendants came before Judge Hooper on Wednesday.

The mother of two students in the Cocke County School System was granted judicial diversion Wednesday after pleading guilty to violations of the state's compulsory school attendance law. She was also sentenced in a separate case for two thefts.

Miranda Marie Ellison Shropshire, 28, of Comanche Drive, was given a net sentence of four years in jail on all three cases, but Judge Hooper granted judicial diversion for the defendant “in hopes that it will help her in the future.”

For more details, please see the Thursday edition of the Newport Plain Talk.