“Tell me, why are you doing what you do for Loudon County? Why law enforcement?”
Marty Branam
Simple question, but with an answer doused in pride and love by this public servant. His title and name: Sgt. Detective Rondel Marty Branam of the Loudon County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO). He is 39, a 14-year veteran of the department.
Here’s his answer:
“Well, my Dad – I’m named for him – Rondel — was the city of Loudon Fire Chief who served in just about every first responder emergency services job in town. He did some work at the Loudon Police Department, LCSO and Loudon County Emergency Services and even the rescue squad. My great grandfather was John Elec “Bube” Mills and he was Loudon’s police chief for many years and I also have a great uncle, John Lee Mills, who also was Loudon’s police chief (1995-97).” His great grandfather and great uncle are both deceased.
Then he paused a bit. “I used to joke with my Dad that when I grew up I could take his job and they wouldn’t even have to make me a new nametag. I could just use his.”
After another pause he added this:
“The second reason I’m doing this job is that I love Loudon and Loudon County and everybody here. Born and raised here. I consider everybody here as my neighbor. My job lets me give back to my community that helped take care of me while I was growing up here. We all help each other out around here.”
Today, he and his wife, Emilee, married for 14 years, are rearing their only child, son Levi, 10, in this same family atmosphere. “Hey, Levi’s already told me he’s next in line for the sheriff’s department,” Branam said.
Branam is one of seven detectives in the LCSO’s Criminal Investigations Unit and responsible for their ICAC (Internet Crimes Against Children) investigations on top of all the other investigations and cases he handles. He also is a task force officer for the U.S. Marshals Service’s Eastern District of Tennessee under U.S. Marshal David G. Jolley.
He graduated from Loudon County High School in 2004 and played both football and baseball. After a few other jobs, including being a 911 dispatcher for Loudon County, he applied for a job at the sheriff’s office and was hired as a reserve deputy on July 1, 2009. In 2010 he graduated from the 12-week Blount County Basic Regional Law Enforcement Academy. He was assigned to work in the jail and after a month there was shifted to patrol in August 2009. He was promoted to corporal in 2015 and in 2019 after 10 years on patrol he became a detective.
After a year in the CIU, he took over the Internet Crimes Against Children cases, which he still does today. “Being a father myself, and having a kid the same age as some victims, made me a little terrified on what I’d be seeing,” he explained. “But this has been very rewarding. I can speak for the kids. I’m helping them have someone who can speak up for them when they can’t get the help themselves.”
The victims, he says, are any child under the age of 18. He currently has 10 active cases and in 2024 he had approximately 50 cases. In his first year of handling child Internet crimes in 2019 he had only 10 cases. The types of cases involve child pornography, reselling child porn on the “dark web,” done primarily by people overseas, sextortion blackmail cases, among others. Almost every case begins on social media sites that attract the children and lure them in.
“The problem is that this is a growing industry and parents here and everywhere had better start paying close attention to what their kids are doing online and where and with who,” he said.
And like all law enforcement professionals, and other first responders, children who are victims of crime, traffic accidents, fires and other accidents get to these professionals, be they rookies or hardened veterans. “This work can be emotionally taxing, and I can’t say one is more or less emotional than the other when it comes to our children. Every time I have had to notify a family and console them over the loss of a child, or doing CPR on a child, or hearing a child tell their story of the physical and sexual abuse they have experienced … I remember every single one of them vividly. I’ve probably had some PTSD but with no official diagnosis. It’s tough at times for all of us.”
His escape mechanism is with his two favorite people – son Levi and wife Emilee. “We’re woods and water people. Love to fish, especially Citico Creek (in the Cherokee National Forest near Vonore). It’s always peaceful and quiet, and I need that.”
Tom King has been the editor of newspapers in Texas and California and also worked in Tennessee and Georgia. If you have someone you think we should consider featuring, please email him at the link with his name or text him at 865-659-3562.
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