Davidson County District Attorney General Glenn Funk filed an amicus — friend of the court — brief on Monday in the nationally watched public records lawsuit over the Covenant killer’s manifesto and related documents. Funk, as attorneys for the parents of students at the Covenant Presbyterian School do, argues that the parents are victims and entitled to certain rights.
Attorneys for family members of the students and staff argue those rights allow them to keep the documents locked from the public, a controversial legal theory that plaintiffs in the lawsuit say could have a chilling effect on Tennessee’s public records laws.
Also Monday, Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles denied a motion by Star News Digital Media, parent company of The Tennessee Star, and other plaintiffs in the lawsuit to stay a show cause hearing until an appeals court weighs in on a separate motion.
Myles set the show cause hearing, which was originally slated for last week, for July 13-14, as Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto and related documents said to detail her March 27 mass shooting at Covenant Presbyterian School remain locked from the public in police custody.
In his amicus brief, Funk argues what attorneys for Covenant Presbyterian Church, its school and parents of the private Christian school contend: That under Tennessee’s constitution, parents should be deemed victims and afforded granted protections. Attorneys for the parents believe those protections extend to the right to keep Hale’s manifesto locked from the public.
“As the District Attorney General of the 20th Judicial District in Nashville and Davidson County, General Funk is well versed in criminal law, and especially regarding the rights afforded victims by the Victims Rights Amendment to the Tennessee Constitution and the Criminal Injuries Compensation Act,” Funk writes. “General Funk urges the Court to find all students of Covenant School, as well as their families and all school staff, are victims under the Constitution and statutes of the State of Tennessee.”
In requesting he be allowed to file an amicus brief, Funk said his office has an interest in the case “due to the possible repercussions to victims in this case if erroneously denied as non-victims.”
But the plaintiffs — including The Tennessee Star, The Tennessean, The Tennessee Firearms Association, The National Police Association, State Senator Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) and a Nashville private investigator — argue that the constitution and other statutes do not grant such broad descriptions of victims and that blocking the release of writings by murderers is not a right provided.
Last week, the attorney for the parents of Hale notified the court his clients intend to assign rights to her manifesto and related documents over to the children of the school.
The church, its school and the unidentified group of parents of the children who attend the private Christian elementary school have sought to have a seat at the table in the public records lawsuit. They want to block the release of the writings of Hale, who stormed into the school and shot dead three 9-year-olds and three staff members before police fatally shot her.
Plaintiffs have filed an appeal attempting to overturn Myles’ previous ruling allowing those connected to the school to intervene in the lawsuit. A decision in state appeals court is pending.
Read DA Funk’s amicus brief:
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Glenn Funk” by Glenn Funk For District Attorney of Nashville. Background Photo “Covenant School” by Metro Nashville PD.
They are very afraid, but probably many of whom want reactionary authoritarian new laws to punish and attack the rights of millions who did nothing wrong.
“We are not AFRAID to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies and competitive values. For a nation that is AFRAID to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is AFRAID of its people.” –John F. Kennedy
Or was it a false flag ? If my child was killed I would not have the time nor care to let all see who she was. The only people to see any action was Hollywood movie stars. Don’t be bewitched ..
There is something really awful regarding Covenant is my only take from all this suing to prevent the writings being released. It is past time for these parents/Church to realize it isnt ALL ABOUT THEM.
I grieve for the lives lost but something compelled this deranged, dangerous killer to pick there to conduct her murder spree.
Yet another reason not to live in a blue controlled city. “Justice” is always interpreted with political bias.
Funk is a stinking liberal Democrat! Enough Said!
It isn’t the first time Covenant has used influence in local government and police to conspire to protect their pedo-hiding, kidnapping, cult ways. See how they have already created false shooter threat claims in the past against their own member who was a threat to reveal their pedo protecting ways. Ecclesiastical tyranny:
https://www.wadeburleson.org/2014/05/austin-davis-covenant-presbyterian-and.html?m=1
How old was Audrey Hale in that era? When was she a student at Covenant? Was she also kidnapped from her parents by Covenant leadership and kept in a pedo-owned “safe house”? Is there something else regarding Hale that Covenant can’t afford to be revealed? Would additional coverups by Covenant leadership of sex crimes against minors be revealed? Would Lockdown Lee’s friends be implicated? Would they again use any legal means necessary to destroy the truth and protect their cult?