Former Sevier County Deputy Clerk Asking For Separate Trial

A former deputy clerk in the Sevier County Clerk’s office that was indicted last fall for taking cash payments for an official act is asking for a separate trial from her co-defendant. Last October, Brandy Thornton and Rebecca Lynn Webb Allen were indicted on charges that they accepted cash payments or food in exchange for registering titles for stolen vehicles. Those stolen vehicles were part of a drug trafficking ring out of Florida involving Juan Lopez Gallardo. According to indictments, Gallardo created and obtained false title and registration documents for stolen vehicles. The stolen vehicles were then registered with the state of Tennessee using those fake documents. That is where Thornton and Allen came into the picture. Thornton is asking for her trial to be separated from Allen, as currently the two women are being tried together. Thornton’s lawyers are also asking that statements from Allen in the current trial be removed from her seperate trial. Thornton’s lawyers say Allen’s statements, would violate their client’s right to due process and a fair trial if the trials aren’t separated.