Recently returned to the United States to face allegations of smuggling illegal immigrants for nearly a decade, Kilmar Abrego Garcia informed the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee earlier this week of his intention to dismiss his public defenders in favor of attorney Rascoe Dean, of the Nashville law firm, Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison, as well as three attorneys from the Hecker & Fink law firm in New York.
Rascoe Dean is the son of former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and attorney Anne Davis. His mother serves as the trustee of the Joe C. Davis Foundation, established by Rascoe Dean’s great-uncle, who was an accomplished tennis player and businessman who died in 1989.
The foundation states it provides grant money to charitable organizations that exemplify the values of its founder, Joe C. Davis Jr., including “the importance of personal initiative, perseverance, hard work, education, and entrepreneurship.”
Local immigrant nonprofits began appearing in the foundation’s Form 990 tax documents in 2020, including Conexion Americas and the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), which provided seed money to the controversial “Belonging Fund” established by Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell in response to federal law enforcement detaining nearly 200 illegal immigrants in May.
From 2020 to 2023, the tax documents filed by the Joe C. Davis Foundation reveal it gave more than $205,000 to Conexion Americas and TIRRC, with the foundation giving $110,000 to Conexion Americas and $95,000 to TIRRC over this period.
According to the forms, the foundation provided “program support” to both nonprofits. The federal tax document for 2023 shows the Joe C. Davis Foundation distributed almost $8.7 million that year, indicating the funding to Conexion Americas and TIRRC were a small part of the total amount it distributed that year, but previous years reveal similar levels of contributions to both nonprofits.
The “Belonging Fund” was announced by O’Connell’s office in May as a partnership between Metro Nashville and the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT). After The Tennessee Star reported that both Conexion Americas and TIRRC helped seed the fund after receiving millions in Biden-era stimulus money from the Metro Council, a congressional probe into the mayor’s actions was announced by U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05).
“Instead of defending our state, Mayor Freddie O’Connell is sabotaging it. He’s weaponized his office to dox and surveil federal agents who are trying to stop violent criminals — and worse, he’s embraced those criminals by creating a taxpayer-funded program to aid illegal aliens,” wrote Ogles earlier this month, also referencing claims the mayor administration publicly listed the names of federal immigration officials encountered by Metro police.
Ogles wrote, “The recipients of these funds are untraceable. The purpose is crystal clear: help illegal foreigners evade the law.”
A frequently asked questions page for the fund, created by CFMT, additionally reveals that Conexion Americas and TIRRC are now “coordinating the provision” of the fund they helped to seed.
The Joe C. Davis Foundation also provided support to nonprofits unaffiliated with the controversial “Belonging Fund,” including $120,000 to the Siloam Family Health Center from 2020 to 2023. Siloam is a nonprofit health care provider whose website states it serves, “Nashville’s uninsured, underserved, and culturally marginalized,” including patients “from over 80 homelands” and who speak “more than 50 languages.”
As The Star reported on Thursday, Rascoe Dean’s entry to the case came after Hecker & Fink was asked to defend Abrego Garcia from the federal charges, alleging he smuggled illegal aliens throughout the country for nearly a decade, by other lawyers who represent the citizen of El Salvador.
The entrance of Hecker & Fink to the case then became dependent on locating an attorney in Nashville who was familiar with the local prosecutors and judges, with Rascoe Dean eventually rising to the task, despite his brief time in private practice.
Prior to joining Sherrard Roe on April 1, Rascoe Dean worked at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, where he served as the deputy chief of the Criminal Division for the Middle District of Tennessee.
Rascoe Dean’s tenure as a federal prosecutor notably overlapped with that of Ben Schrader, who reportedly resigned from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in May over objections to the indictment against Abrego Garcia.
Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The Star was the first outlet to report that Abrego Garcia was pulled over by the Tennessee Highway Patrol in November 2022, and that his release was ordered by the “Biden-era FBI” despite troopers suspecting the Salvadoran of being engaged in human trafficking.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
