The Tennessean on Wednesday followed The Tennessee Star and other organizations in filing a lawsuit against the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County demanding the release of the Covenant School Killer’s manifesto and related documents.
The Nashville-based newspaper’s lawsuit comes nearly two months after Audrey Elizabeth Hale shot her way into the Covenant Presbyterian School and shot dead three 9-year-olds and three staff members before being fatally shot by responding police officers.
State Senator Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) is also named as a plaintiff, pursuing the case in his individual capacity as a citizen of the State of Tennessee, according to the complaint filed in the Chancery Court for the 20th Judicial District-Davidson County in Nashville. Gardenhire, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sought the documents for “research” in “writing new laws regarding school safety.”
The lawsuit makes similar allegations as those lawsuits previously filed by The Star, the Tennessee Firearms Association, and the National Police Association: That the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department has violated the state’s Public Records law in denying requests for the release of Hale’s manifesto and related writings.
As in its other denials, the police department rejected the Tennessean’s request, citing Rule 16 of the Tennessee Rules of Criminal Procedure and Tennessean v. Metro. Gov’t of Nashville, 485 S.W.3d 857 (Tenn. 2016). The claim is that “state, federal, or other applicable law prohibits” disclosure of the records of an ongoing or underlying criminal proceeding. There appears to be no such proceeding.
As The Star has argued, the Gannett GP Media-owned newspaper now asserts MNPD can’t lay claim to the exemption because there is no underlying criminal proceeding.
“The Metro Police Department acknowledges that it believes Hale acted alone. Petitioners submit that there is no pending criminal investigation. There is no criminal suspect to investigate,” the lawsuit states.
Tennessee does not recognize a law enforcement investigative exception to the Tennessee Public Records Act, the complaint notes.
“In prior years, law enforcement agencies have sought to establish an exception to the TPRA for records pertaining to law enforcement investigations In Schneider v. City of Jackson, the Tennessee Supreme Court stated that ‘none of the[] express exceptions [to the TPRA] incorporate the law enforcement privilege’ and ‘the law enforcement privilege has not previously been adopted as a common law privilege in Tennessee,’” the lawsuit states.
As others have noted, the MNPD, on multiple occasions, “has released videos of crimes and requested the assistance of media entities to identify the suspect. The Metro Police Department released body cam footage relating to the Covenant School shootings.” Police officials have made myriad public statements that there is no pending criminal investigation related to the shootings.
The Tennessean is asking the court to require the release of all outstanding records requested “as quickly as possible, or alternatively, that some, or redacted versions of the records be produced as quickly as possible.” It also wants the court to declare that Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 16 is not an exemption to the Tennessee Public Records Act, “in this case when there is neither a pending criminal prosecution nor one reasonably likely to begin related to the records sought in a request under the TPRA.” And the newspaper is asking the court to deny all motions to intervene.
Several parties have sought to do just that, including a motion filed Wednesday by a Nashville law firm claiming to represent Covenant School parents.
The motion claims an “overwhelming percentage of parents” are opposed to making the documents public, essentially arguing that the interests of the “victims and survivors of the Covenant School atrocity” outweigh the interests of the public to know what drove Audrey Elizabeth Hale to carry out her deadly errand.
“[N}o one was more traumatized, or has suffered more, than the families of the victims and survivors of the Covenant School atrocity. No one,” the motion asserts. “And no one can claim a remotely similar interest in whether the writings of the shooter be released.
Davidson County Chancellor I’Ashea Myles is hearing a consolidated complaint from lawsuits filed by the Tennessee Firearms Association, the National Police Association and two other plaintiffs. On Tuesday, a district court judge granted a request by Metro Nashville to transfer The Star’s lawsuit to Myles’ court.
Star News Digital Media Inc., parent company of The Star, also has filed a federal lawsuit against the FBI, which is assisting local law enforcement in the Covenant School shootings and is in possession of copies of the records.
Myles has rescheduled Thursday’s conference hearing on the lawsuits for 1 p.m. Monday. It’s yet another delay in an increasingly complex web of lawsuits, consolidations and interventions over the mass shooter’s writings.
Hale, a 28-year-old woman who reportedly identified as a transgender man, was fatally shot by police minutes after she began her rampage. But it seems Metro Nashville is claiming some kind of ill-defined, nebulous ongoing investigation.
One of the pleadings filed Wednesday in Myles’ court includes a declaration insisting that said “investigation” could take up to 12 months to complete.
“I think at some point, if they’re going to rely on a ‘pending criminal investigation,’ they have to identify, in some form, shape or fashion, who,” John Harris, executive director of the Tennessee Firearms Association, told The Tennessee Star. “Otherwise the Columbine massacre is still an ongoing investigation.”
The Tennessean notes in the lawsuit that “debate has arisen regarding Hale’s motivations, goals, planning, and acquisition of firearms while under mental health treatment.”
“For example, did Hale attack a Christian school because of its religious affiliation? Or because of the conservative views of the denomination of which The Covenant’s School’s sponsoring church is a participating congregation? Or because Hale hated the school that Hale once attended? Or because Hale had a grudge against some employee or administrator at the school? What do Hale’s autopsy/toxicology tests show, and are they connected to the shootings? What do Hale’s records show that might be of assistance to the Tennessee special legislative session scheduled to take place in August 2023? What do these records reveal which may help to avoid school shootings in the future?,” the lawsuit states.
“These and other questions have caused debate and intense public interest.”
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Surely Billy Lee knows that he is being used to set up Nashville for another Jan 6 event. Only this will be in August. TN law makers should refuse to go along with this. They can have a safe, sane discussionf or debate or public forum using Zoom or something more powerful, and stay in the safety of their own home. The “Nashville visitors”, on that date, can tour the hallowed halls of TN Legislature building and grounds if they want to.