Star News Digital Media Inc., parent company of The Tennessee Star, is suing the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County seeking the release of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto.
The lawsuit, filed in Tennessee’s 20th Judicial District Court-Davidson County on Wednesday, follows on the heels of Star News Digital Media’s federal lawsuit demanding the FBI turn over the documents that law enforcement officials have kept locked away from the public for more than six weeks.
Metro Nashville, through the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, “has violated the Tennessee Public Records Act by failing to provide the records” that The Tennessee Star has requested, writes Nicholas R. Barry, attorney for America First Legal Foundation, the Washington, D.C.-based civil rights law firm representing Star News Digital Media.
The complaint asks the court to set a show cause hearing requiring the local government to “immediately appear to show cause” or their legal reasons for denying the records requests and, ultimately, the release of the records sought.
“It is in the public interest to release the Covenant killer’s manifesto and related documents now,” said Michael Patrick Leahy, chief executive officer of Star News Digital Media, resident of Tennessee, and plaintiff in the lawsuit. “We are taking every possible avenue, in federal court by suing the FBI, and in state court by suing Metro Nashville government, to ensure this vital information is released to the public.”
On April 24, Leahy filed a public records request with MNPD asking for what police have referred to as Hale’s “manifesto.”
The request sought:
“[A]ll written records and documents, including written manifestos. journals, written notes, memoirs, and school yearbooks obtained by the Metro Nashville Police Department from search warrants executed on Monday March 27, 2023 and throughout the week of March 27, 2023 at the residence of Audrey Hale in Nashville and the car driven by Audrey Hale and left at the Covenant Presbyterian School parking lot on March 27, 2023 related to the investigation of the murder of six people at Covenant Presbyterian School by Audrey Hale on Monday March 27, 2023.”
MNPD denied the request, citing Rule 16 and Tennessean v. Metro. Gov’t of Nashville, 485 S.W.3d 857 (Tenn. 2016) in support of the denial. 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.
And, as the lawsuit argues, Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 16(a)(2) is not applicable if there is no “case.” Police arrived within minutes of Hale’s violent errand in which she shot dead three 9-year-olds and three staff members at the private elementary school. Officers fatally shot Hale upon confronting the 28-year-old woman who reportedly identifies as a transgender male.
“Audrey Hale is deceased. There is no ongoing investigation of Audrey Hale,” the complaint argues.
Early on, MNPD said that there is no indication Hale had any accomplices or that the police were investigating any partners in the deadly crime.
On April 27, the same day The Tennessee Star requested autopsy and toxicology information, a Metro Nashville PD spokeswoman said the agency was beginning the review process to release the manifesto and related records.
Just six days later, however, MNPD backtracked and in a catch-22 statement claimed it would not be releasing the requested records because of pending lawsuits seeking the release of the records.
The Tennessee Firearms Association and the National Police Association have filed separate lawsuits against Metro Nashville demanding the police department turn over Hale’s manifesto. Tennessee 20th Judicial District Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles has consolidated those cases and has scheduled a conference hearing for later this month.
Tennessee’s Public Records Act does not grant an exception if litigation is filed to obtain documents improperly withheld. Star News Digital Media argues the records have been improperly held.
“[The government] cannot shift its obligation to provide public records to the Court simply because litigation was filed seeking to enforce the Public Records Act,” states the lawsuit, which also seeks court costs.
Also on Wednesday, Star News Digital Media sued the Federal Bureau of Investigation alleging the law enforcement agency has broken a critical First Amendment guard in repeatedly denying Freedom of Information Act requests seeking the Covenant School killer’s manifesto.
The federal lawsuit asks the U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee to order the FBI, which has assisted MNPD, to release all related documents and to issue a declaration that the agency violated the FOIA in denying the request for the information.
FBI officials have rejected multiple records requests from The Star News Network, with the U.S. Department of Justice this week denying the news outlet’s administrative appeal.
As that lawsuit notes, the FBI has on multiple occasions released similar manifestos from other mass shooters.
The delay in the release of the Hale manifesto has led to speculation, including theories that President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice is playing politics with the investigation — and the records attached to it. As someone who identified as transgender, Hale doesn’t fit the left’s usual narrative of a school shooter, critics say. LGBTQ+ groups early on warned the release of the manifesto could lead to serious consequences.
“The federal government does not get to pick and choose whether they release information that lawfully belongs to the public,” said Lucas Vebber, deputy legal counsel for the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, the Milwaukee-based law firm representing Star News in the federal lawsuit. “Our efforts are critical to holding our federal government accountable and promoting transparency.”
Read the latest complaint here:
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Be sure to seek monetary punishment. The law allows for damages to both the government and the individual.
Sunshine will provide light on the subject. Release the records.
The truth will set you free.