Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles on Monday afternoon ordered the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) to provide a redacted copy of the manifesto written by Covenant School shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale for the judge to review.
Myles made the order after Metro Nashville attorney Lora Fox previously confirmed MNPD holds no objections to releasing a redacted version of the manifesto, and would now make less redactions to the manifesto than were previously proposed in 2023.
Among the demands Myles made of Metro, she ordered that the following be delivered to her: “An updated set of redacted documents, which counsel for Metro contends may be released without compromising any active investigation.”
The redacted manifesto must be delivered to Myles by May 2, 2024. The judge clarified she will not grant MNPD “exceptions or continuances.”
Judge Myles also stated later in her order that her demand that the Metro Nashville Police Department deliver these documents by May 2 is not an indication as to whether or not she will order the public release of the documents “at this juncture.”
Metro legal argued last week that it would not object to releasing documents retrieved from Hale’s vehicle after she killed six at the Covenant School last year.
While images of three pages retrieved from the vehicle were published last year after they were leaked by sources close to MNPD to conservative comedian and pundit Steven Crowder, Metro legal also revealed Hale had a “voluminous” trove of additional written materials in her residence.
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit include both Michael Patrick Leahy, who is the editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star, and the publication’s parent company The Star News Digital Media Inc.
After Fox confirmed MNPD would not object to a partial release of redacted documents, Leahy confirmed he seeks all of Hale’s written materials and will not be content with a partial release.
“I’m a plaintiff and I will not go away,” Leahy pledged. “If we only get 20 percent… No. We want it all.”
In the judge’s order, all parties were also asked to analyze the copyright claims raised by a group of Covenant parents who were allowed to intervene in the case by April 29.
The intervenors claim to have obtained copyright ownership of Hale’s written materials and now seek to use their ownership to prohibit their publication, though Myles previously expressed skepticism about their chances of success.
Hale, who identified as a female-to-male transgender person, created the manifesto and other written materials before her devastating attack on the Covenant School in March 2023. Before Hale was slain by police, her actions claimed the lives of three students and three faculty members.
Star News is simultaneously a plaintiff in the federal lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Investigation to release Hale’s manifesto.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Judge I’Ashea L. Myles” by Tennessee Courts.
How can anyone other than the author or their heirs of the documents claim copyright privileges? This defies any logic. Must be a Hail Mary rom some of the more aggressive parents. You would think that the parents would want the documents released in order to possibly help prevent future school shootings.