Juvenile injured at Blue Cove Hideaway

Property owner arrested twice

At least one juvenile was taken to a local hospital Saturday after suffering a back injury from jumping off a high cliff at Blue Cove Hideaway in McMinn County, Tennessee.

The business was the subject of a court-ordered closure issued Friday after a number of incidents over the past three years, including criminal complaints, two deaths and deputies allegedly being held hostage, McMinn County Sheriff Joe Guy said in an emailed statement.

Later on Friday, Blue Cove owner, Charles Womac, 67, was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, resisting stop, frisk, and halt and false imprisonment, Guy said.

After he was released on bond Saturday, he again was arrested on charges with reckless endangerment after authorities found he was ignoring Friday’s court order and was encouraging people to walk around the locked gates and ignore the notice of closure.

That is when the juvenile suffered the back injury, Guy said. The child’s most recent condition was not clear Sunday night.

Deputies then made several people leave the location.

In 2015, a man drowned in the former rock quarry, the Times Free Press previously reported. The man jumped off a cliff into the water and never surfaced. His body was found a few hours later.

The following year, another man drowned after jumping from a homemade wooden platform on a 30-foot bluff, WRCB News Channel 3 reported. He appeared to be in distress and went under but never surfaced. His body was found about four hours later.

In Friday’s incident, deputies removed Womac’s wife, Enola Womac, and several others from the property and placed a lock on its gate after serving the court order, Guy said.

The order allows Womac to seek a hearing within five days.

Womac was arrested later Friday night on charges that stemmed from an incident on June 23, when two deputies responded to a 911 call about narcotics use and trafficking at Blue Cove, Guy said.

Guy said Womac interfered with the investigation and then locked the front gate and refused to let deputies leave.

“Other calls were being dispatched, and for close to half an hour, he refused to let them leave, even after being asked several times,” Guy said. “[Mr.] Womac is elderly, and my deputies showed great restraint and professionalism in dealing with him that day.”

Womac was booked into the McMinn County Jail where he was released on a $4,500 bond, authorities said. A hearing for the business closure is set for Thursday in Monroe County Circuit Court to accommodate the judge’s schedule.