According to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, O. Duane Slone was walking east on E Highway 25/70 towards Mountain Vista Trail around 1:30 a.m. when he walked out into the roadway and was struck by a car. The Jefferson County Sheriff said Slone had a flat tire, which was why he was walking along the highway.
Slone was first elected to the Fourth Judicial Circuit Court in 1998 and co-founded his judicial district’s Drug Recovery Court in 2009. He was known for his work helping people overcome addiction. The Fourth Judicial Circuit has jurisdiction in Cocke, Grainger, Jefferson, and Sevier counties.
He was the recipient of the National Center for State Courts William H. Rehnquist Judicial Excellence Award in 2019, the nation’s highest state court judicial honor, in recognition of his work addressing the opioid crisis.
Charlotte Booker went through drug recovery court with Judge Slone in 2014 after winding up in Sevier County Jail.
“He was just a one-of-a-kind man. He believed in everybody, that’s the thing, because a lot of us addicts don’t believe in ourselves. But he was one that believed in me,” Booker said.
Booker was also pregnant when she started the recovery process.
“Unfortunately, my baby passed away nine months after she was born, but for that nine months I got to be with my baby and if it wasn’t for Judge Slone and his recovery court, that wouldn’t have been possible,” Booker said.
Thanks to the court and her own hard work, she’s now five years clean. She also now works at an addiction treatment center, helping others overcome the same battle she did.
Lydia Stoutt was 21 years old when she first met Judge Slone, after probation and rehab proved unhelpful to her.
“It was always this excitement. This, ‘yes, we got some clean time. Yes, we got a job. Yes, we got our driver’s license. Yes, we’ve reunited with our families.’ You know, there was always that encouragement every single time,” she said.
Lydia Stoutt completing Drug Recovery Court with Judge Slone (Courtesy of Lydia Stoutt).
In February, she celebrated 10 years clean, and still remembers what he taught her.
“He helped me to be able to see that, I’m not a bad person, it’s a bad situation, I made a wrong mistake,” she said. “And as long as I take accountability for those actions, I can become a better person from that. So he instilled that in me at a very crucial part of my recovery.”
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