Woman who Allegedly 'Hoarded' Tornado Relief Supplies Charged with Coercing a Witness

The woman who was accused of hoarding disaster relief goods at an East Brainerd trailer park after the Easter Sunday tornado is facing additional charges related to the incident.

According to a Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department press release, Kimberly Gail West was taken into custody late Tuesday afternoon on two felony charges of coercion of a witness.

West, 49, had been arrested on April 23 and charged with offenses related to hoarding of tornado relief items. The current charges, the press release states, involve actions taken by West concerning trailer park tenants after being released on her original charges.

Couple Charged with Theft, Conspiracy in Tornado Relief Hoarding Case

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.