The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) on Friday confirmed the authenticity of the 80 pages of writings from the journal of Covenant School killer Audrey Hale, which were obtained by The Tennessee Star last week.
A Friday morning legal filing by the police department involves a declaration by MNPD Lieutenant Alfredo Arevalo, who claimed to have information about the possible identity of the individual or group of people who provided the Covenant materials to The Star.
The Star has not named the sources who provided the journal left by Hale nor the documents related to the Covenant investigation.
While naming individuals who had access to the Covenant case file and journal, Arevalo confirmed the materials given to The Star are authentic files and evidence from the investigation into Hale’s devastating March 27, 2023 attack that claimed the lives of three 9-year-old students and three adults.
In his declaration, Arevalo claimed he gave an “external hard drive containing the criminal investigative case file” for the Covenant investigation to retired MNPD Lieutenant Garet Davidson (pictured here, left) on November 7, 2023 while investigating the previous leak of three pages from Hale’s writings in November 2023.
Davidson recently filed a 61-page complaint against MNPD leadership and senior officers.
According to Arevalo, Davidson later removed the hard drive from his safe and gave it to Arevalo on November 20. The hard drive was then transferred to MNPD Lieutenant Brent Gibson.
Arevalo noted Davidson was the lieutenant overseeing the MNPD Office of Police Accountability (OPA) at the time in November 2023, but that he retired from law enforcement in December 2023.
The MNPD Lieutenant confirmed, “In attempting to identify the source of this leaked information, I have learned from Covenant school investigative supervisors assigned to the Criminal Investigative Division that the information in the Tennessee Star stories is the same information that was in the case file in November 2023 when I gave it to Mr. Davidson to store in his office at OPA.”
The Star has published more than 40 articles about the Covenant investigation since it obtained Hale’s writings and files related to the police investigation.
Arevalo also noted in his declaration that Davidson made multiple appearances on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show and discussed the Covenant case with Star News editor-in-chief Michael Patrick Leahy.
In reality, Davidson appeared in both the first and second hours of the June 4 broadcast of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Davidson, in the first hour of the broadcast, first revealed to Leahy the existence of the May 2023 memo sent by the FBI to MNPD Chief John Drake, which advised against the release of any materials written by Hale.
The Star later obtained and published this memo, which advised against the release of “legacy tokens” from individuals like Hale and raised the precedent for their destruction. MNPD told The Star it has not destroyed any documents, and while the FBI declined to confirm the authenticity of the memo, it told The Star it regularly sends such “products” to local law enforcement partners.
In the second hour of the broadcast, Davidson told Leahy that Hale was a longtime mental health patient who was referred to Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) after she expressed violent fantasies.
According to Davidson, no mental health professionals at VUMC reported Hale’s violent fantasies to law enforcement.
The filing by Arevalo comes as Leahy is ordered to appear before Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles for a Show Cause Hearing on Monday. While Myles initially ordered Leahy to provide information about the source of the materials published by The Star, the judge entered a one-sentence order on Thursday night that stated, “The Court will not hear live from any witness on Monday, June 17, 2024.”
Leahy has appealed the Show Cause Hearing to a higher court.
Both Leahy and Star News Digital Media, Inc. are plaintiffs in the lawsuits to compel the full release of Hale’s full writings by the MNPD and the FBI.
Watch the first hour of Davidson’s appearance on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show:
Watch Davidson’s appearance during the second hour of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show:
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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].
The illegality is by those withholding information about crimes, murders which then were used as a pretext to takeaway the rights and punish those who committed no crimes.