Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said independent gubernatorial candidate David Hatley has not explained why he omitted a Virginia misdemeanor conviction from his autobiography, Tested in Tennessee, despite detailing a separate federal fraud conviction in the book.
During an appearance Friday on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Pappert discussed his reporting on Lee County, Virginia, court records showing Hatley pleaded guilty to misdemeanor petit larceny in August 1999 after initially facing felony charges. The conviction stemmed from a case involving approximately $1,300 allegedly taken from two individuals.
Pappert said Hatley did not disclose all of his past criminal activity in his autobiography.
“And in fact, this is what reporters should do when they’re given a treasure trove of information like this. What I did is I tried to recreate all of the information that he put into his book, and all of a sudden I started finding out there’s more,” he said.
Pappert said the Virginia prosecution was ongoing during the same period Hatley was facing federal charges in Tennessee for a financial scheme involving checks he wrote to himself using a checkbook belonging to someone else.
“There was an entirely unmentioned case out of Lee County, Virginia, about an hour away from Johnson City, Tennessee, where he was living at the time, that was ongoing during the same exact time this felony case was proceeding in the federal courts, and this one is happening in the Virginia state courts,” Pappert explained.
According to the court records reported by The Star, Hatley was initially indicted on two felony charges in October 1998. The conspiracy charge was dismissed, and the remaining charge was reduced to misdemeanor petit larceny. Hatley pleaded guilty on August 20, 1999, received a 30-day jail sentence that was suspended, and was ordered to serve 12 months of unsupervised probation and pay court costs.
Pappert highlighted the timing of the Virginia plea, which occurred while Hatley said he was serving a period of home confinement following his federal incarceration.
“But what’s interesting about this, again, it’s not mentioned in Tested in Tennessee at all,” Pappert said. “This was happening during the same exact period his federal case was playing out, and when he went to go plead guilty and accept that suspended sentence, this was during the period that he was in home confinement for his federal case within Tennessee.”
Pappert said the records do not establish how Hatley traveled to Virginia or whether federal authorities authorized the trip.
“Somehow he left the state of Tennessee, ostensibly, we don’t know how exactly this took place, but he left the state of Tennessee ideally in order to go to Virginia and accept his guilt in an entirely unrelated case,” Pappert said.
The Star asked Hatley’s campaign why he omitted the conviction from his memoir and whether the federal judge and other authorities involved in his federal case knew about the Virginia prosecution.
Pappert said the campaign had not responded despite repeated requests.
“Our first attempt to get a response from the Hatley campaign was sent last month, almost an entire month ago at this point, and it was a lengthy email where I asked a series of questions about Tested in Tennessee, his claims, and how they matched up with reality, and we didn’t get a response,” Pappert said.
He said he resent the inquiry two days before his Friday appearance on Lehahy’s show, narrowing it to two questions: why Hatley omitted the misdemeanor conviction and whether he informed federal authorities about the concurrent Virginia case.
“Now its been over 48 hours or so, and we’ve had zero response from the Hatley campaign,” Pappert said.
Pappert also addressed Hatley’s characterization of criticism of his memoir, saying the candidate had described such scrutiny as a “book report.”
“He has so far described all criticism as a book report,” Pappert said. “In other words, we’re just reiterating the claims from his book. These claims are not in his book. They’re not in his book. We’ve asked why they weren’t there.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “David Hatley” by David Hatley.
