Search Results for: audrey hale

The Star News Network Files Legal Action Against FBI in Seeking Covenant School Killer’s Manifesto

M.D. Kittle

The Star News Network’s attorneys have filed a new case with the U.S. Department of Justice demanding the Federal Bureau of Investigation turn over Nashville mass shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto.

The Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) on Wednesday filed an administrative appeal with the Justice Department’s Office of Information Policy after the FBI twice rejected The Star News Network’s Freedom of Information Act requests, seeking the expedited release of the documents.

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Metro Nashville Police Department Says It’s Getting Ready to Review What It Will Release of Covenant School Killer’s Manifesto

M.D. Kittle

A day after the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department denied The Tennessee Star’s request for mass shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto, an official says the department has entered a “stage” of considering how to release the controversial documents. 

“The investigation is now at the stage that we are beginning the close review/preparation process for the public release of written material,” Metro Nashville PD spokeswoman Brooke Reese wrote in an email Wednesday to The Tennessee Star. 

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Davidson County Sheriff Wants Covenant School Shooter Manifesto Released

Peter D'Abrosca

Davidson County’s sheriff said he wants the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to release the manifesto The Covenant School shooter left behind.

“I think the manifesto needs to be released ASAP,” Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall reportedly said. “I think it would help. I don’t see any reason for it to be private any longer in my opinion.”

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Metro Nashville Police Department Denies The Tennessee Star’s Public Records Request for Release of Covenant Killer’s Manifesto

M.D. Kittle

On Tuesday, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department denied The Tennessee Star’s request for mass shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale’s manifesto because the case “remains open.”

Hale died on the day of the shooting, March 27.

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Republican Lawmakers Introduce Bill to Arm Wisconsin School Employees

M.D. Kittle

Two Wisconsin lawmakers, looking to stop school shooters before they have a chance to take more innocent lives, have introduced a bill that would allow teachers and staff members to carry firearms on school grounds.

State Representatives Scott Allen (R-Waukesha) and Cory Tomczyk (R-Mosinee) recently introduced a bill that would create an exception to the state’s prohibition on guns at schools.

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Leftist Lawmakers Raising Money Off of Their Expulsions from the Tennessee House

M.D. Kittle

Tennessee State Representatives Justin Jones (D-Nashville) and Justin Pearson (D-Memphis) are looking to cash in on their expulsion battles — and their friends on the far-left are, too.

Jones and Pearson, who were expelled last week from the Republican-led House of Representatives, are back in their seats after each was reinstated this week — Jones on Monday, Pearson on Wednesday. They were removed from their positions after being accused of inciting a riot on the House floor amid a chaotic protest demanding gun control laws. State Representative Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville), who helped lead the protest, survived expulsion by one vote.

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Minister Rips Biden Administration for Refusal to Condemn Nashville Shooting as ‘Hate Crime’ Against Christians

Susan Berry, PhD

A Presbyterian minister condemned the Biden administration’s refusal to denounce the Nashville school shooting as a “religious hate crime against Christians.”

Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Washington, D.C.-based Christian Defense Coalition, said in a statement Thursday that President Joe Biden and his administration’s failure to declare the shooting at the Covenant Christian school a hate crime against Christians “is deeply troubling and concerning.”

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Clint Brewer Considers What Name the Public Will Remember the Covenant School Shooter By

Julie Carr

Thursday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed recovering journalist Clint Brewer in studio to comment upon the national media’s questioning of the Covenant school shooter’s pronouns.

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GOP Presidential Candidate Ramaswamy: Department of Education’s Radical Gender Ideology Creates Psychopaths

M.D. Kittle

Republican Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy blasted the U.S. Department of Education for creating “psychopaths” through gender ideology agendas while the nation’s schools are left unprotected from mass shooters like the one that terrorized a Nashville elementary school this week. 

“The real question is why this psychopath in Nashville was able to get into the school in the first place,” the Ohio entrepreneur and anti-woke crusader wrote in a tweet. “We protect green pieces of paper in a bank with more armed guards than we do our kids in schools … There’s more security at a random mall than in a public school.”

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Tennessee Lawyer Sues over Federal Court Rule Cited to Limit Attorney Speech Under Threat of Contempt

Tom Pappert
Daniel Horowitz

Tennessee civil rights lawyer Daniel Horwitz is suing the U.S. Court for the Middle District of Tennessee over a 2022 gag order demanding he cease commenting publicly about a case or be held in contempt of court, arguing a rule cited by the federal court too broadly restricts attorney speech.

Horwitz, in a lawsuit first reported Tuesday by the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee University on Tuesday, accuses the federal court system in Middle Tennessee of creating and enforcing an unconstitutionally vague rule that specifically limits the speech of attorneys through its gag order enforcing local rule 83.04 in his lawsuits against CoreCivic, the Tennessee-based private prison company being sued by Horwitz in multiple lawsuits.

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Covenant School Announces Plan for New Campus Years After Attack

Tom Pappert
Covenant School Gym

The Covenant School and Covenant Presbyterian Church announced in a joint statement Thursday that they will begin a capital campaign to move the school to a new campus years after the March 27, 2023, attack on the Nashville school.

A new web page for the capital campaign suggested the decision was prompted by the continued growth of the Covenant School. This growth prompted school and church officials to determine that students would return to the church campus for “a three-year rent-free lease agreement with continued financial support from the church.”

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Robby Starbuck: Attorney General Merrick Garland ‘Should Be Removed Immediately’

Kaitlin Housler
Merrick Garland

Tennessee political commentator and documentary filmmaker Robby Starbuck said Attorney General Merrick Garland should be “removed immediately” following the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) release of a hand-written letter by Ryan Routh, the man accused of attempting to assassinate former President Trump on September 15.

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DOJ Publishes Letter by Alleged Attempted Trump Assassin Despite FBI Memo Policy Against Release of ‘Legacy Tokens’

Tom Pappert
Ryan Wesley Routh

A note purportedly written by Ryan Wesley Routh, who is accused of attempting to assassinate former President Donald Trump on September 15, was released on Monday by the Department of Justice (DOJ) in a public court filing.

According to the court filing, Routh asked an associate to keep a box of his belongings. After the attack, the associate opened the box and discovered the letter, wherein prosecutors claim Routh confirmed his intent to assassinate Trump and offered a $150,000 bounty should someone prove successful.

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Transgender Covenant Killer’s Journal Hints at Bipolar Disorder, but Prescription List Includes No Medications Associated with Illness

Tom Pappert
Audrey Hale

Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who killed three 9-year-old students and three adult staff members at the Covenant School in March 2023, referenced “bi-polar” in the journal from her “manifesto” released by The Tennessee Star on September 3.

Hale wrote in an entry dated January 16, 2023, “I’ve been anxious all last week, all day today [stressed] then I’m told I’m bi-polar by some prideful b****.”

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Federal Judge Releases Alleged Cyberstalker McKenzie McClure from Psychiatric Center Despite Objections of Nashville Christian School

Tom Pappert
McKenzie McClure

Alleged cyberstalker McKenzie McClure, who identifies as a transgender man named Kalvin, was released on Thursday from the East Tennessee psychiatric facility where she was ordered to receive treatment before her case could move forward following a detention hearing held by U.S. District Court Judge Chip Frensley.

McClure will now receive outpatient care while living at home with her parents, a location the court heard from the Christ Presbyterian Academy (CPA) Head of School is only blocks away from a bus stop used by its students.

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YouTube Censors Police Video of Jon Bon Jovi Talking Distraught Woman off Nashville Bridge During Music Video Shoot

Tom Pappert
Jon Bonjovi

A Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) spokesman confirmed to The Tennessee Star on Thursday that YouTube pulled its video of legendary musical artist Jon Bon Jovi talking a “distraught woman” off the ledge of a Nashville bridge, potentially saving her life.

MNPD Public Affairs Director Don Aaron confirmed to The Star the video was originally published to a YouTube channel operated by the police department, and that it was removed from the platform by YouTube. The platform did not impose additional punishment to the MNPD-operated channel beyond removal of its video, Aaron told The Star.

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Tennessee Schools Can Now Purchase Panic Buttons Similar to Those Credited for Rapid Response at Apalachee High School

Tom Pappert
Teacher with Centegix badge

The Tennessee General Assembly last year provoked a change within the Tennessee Department of Education that allows school districts in the Volunteer State to purchase identification badges for teachers which contain buttons to request rapid response from school administrators, a nearby School Resource Officer (SRO), or request an immediate law enforcement response.

Such a system, created by the company Centegix, was in place at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia last Wednesday, when police say 14-year-old Colt Gray committed an attack that claimed the lives of four and injured nine more before he was quickly confronted by armed SROs.

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Roger Simon on Common Features Among Mass Shooters: ‘They’re Crazy!’

Kaitlin Housler
Roger Simon and MPL

Roger Simon, the co-founder of PJ Media and author of the newly-launched Substack “American Refugees,” said the noticeable common factor among a majority of mass shooters is that the perpetrators are simply “crazy.”

“In every case of these kinds of shootings, one of the things that is always amusing to me is that you get a report that police are looking for the motivation. The motivation is they’re crazy,” Simon said on Friday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.

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Law Expert Phill Kline Explains How the Left Transformed the Government to View the Public as a Threat to Its Power

Kaitlin Housler
Phill Kline

Phill Kline, former Kansas Attorney General and current law professor at Liberty University School of Law, said the Left has transformed “the attitude of our government” in a way that views the American public as a threat to its maintenance of power.

Kline used the example of the government’s ongoing refusal to release the full manifesto of the Covenant School killer as a way it works to “shape” what the public “thinks,” “knows,” and “believes.”

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Tennessee Coalition for Open Government Executive Director Deborah Fisher Says the Continued Withholding of Covenant Killer Materials Is ‘Disturbing’

Kaitlin Housler

Deborah Fisher, the executive director of Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, described the continued withholding of documents by the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) relating to the case of the Covenant School killer as simply “disturbing.”

On Tuesday, The Tennessee Star published all 90 pages of the journal written between January and March of 2023 by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the 28-year-old biological woman who self-identified as a transgender man and who, on March 27, 2023, murdered three 9-year-old students and three staff members at the Covenant School in Nashville before being subsequently killed by MNPD officers.

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AbleChild Co-Founder Sheila Matthews: FBI Omits Use of Psychiatric Drugs When Studying Common Factors Between Mass Shooters

Kaitlin Housler
Sheila Matthews, Michael Patrick Leahy

Sheila Matthews, co-founder of the national non-profit parent organization AbleChild, is raising concerns about the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) omission of the use of psychiatric drugs when examining the common denominators among mass shooters across the nation.

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Michael Patrick Leahy: Publishing of the Covenant School Killer’s Journal Offers Glimpse into How the Mental Health System Is ‘Destroying Children’

Kaitlin Housler

Aaron Gulbransen, executive director of the Tennessee Faith and Freedom Coalition, and Michael Patrick Leahy, CEO and editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star, discussed The Star releasing  90 pages of writings left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale on Tuesday, both agreeing that the case is an example of how the mental health system is “destroying children.”

On Tuesday morning, The Star published all 90 pages of the journal written between January and March of 2023 by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the 28-year-old biological woman who self-identified as a transgender man and who, on March 27, 2023, murdered three 9-year-old students and three staff members at the Covenant School in Nashville before being subsequently killed by officers with the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD).

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Statement by Michael Patrick Leahy on the Publication of the Covenant Killer’s Journal at The Tennessee Star

Michael Patrick Leahy
Michael Patrick Leahy, Hale 2023 Journal

At 9:30 am CT today, September 3, 2024, The Tennessee Star published all 90 pages of the journal written between January and March of 2023 by Audrey Elizabeth Hale, the 28-year-old biological woman who self identified as a transgender man and who, on March 27, 2023 murdered three 9-year-old students and three staff members at the Covenant School and was subsequently killed by Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) officers. Later that same day MNPD obtained this journal and a spiral notebook from the vehicle Hale used to drive to the school. MNPD Chief John Drake initially described this journal and the spiral notebook as the “manifesto” of Hale.

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Nashville Man Charged in Shooting Judge’s Moving Vehicle Out on $125,000 Bond Ahead of Latest Arrest

Tom Pappert
Judge I'Ashea Myles, Divid Bush

The Nashville man arrested on Friday in relation to the shooting of a judge’s moving vehicle last September was out on bail for unrelated crimes at the time of his latest arrest, having previously been granted a $125,000 bond on attempted murder and reckless endangerment charges following a March arrest.

Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) confirmed the arrest on Friday, writing that law enforcement identified 23-year-old David Bush as their suspect using “ballistic evidence and cell phone data” recovered from the time of the shooting.

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Nashville Police Confirm Covenant School Shooting Investigation Remains Ongoing Despite Predicted July Finish

Tom Pappert
Audrey Hale

The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) on Friday was unable to provide The Tennessee Star with an estimated time of completion for its investigation into the Covenant School attack, but spokesman Don Aaron stated the case “remains open and is largely in a documentation phase where the lead detective is writing his and the department’s actions, findings, etc.”

Police began investigating the attack on March 27, 2023, when Audrey Elizabeth Hale claimed the lives three 6-year-old students and three adult staff members at the Covenant School in Nashville.

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Tennessee Lawmaker Plans to Appeal After Judge Blocks Release of Covenant School Killer Journal

Tom Pappert
Todd Gardenhire Lawsuit

Tennessee State Senator Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) confirmed on Tuesday he plans to appeal the July 4 decision by Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles that blocked the release the journals and other written materials left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale.

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Accused Cyberstalker Who Visited Nashville School Requests Hearing to Determine Steps After Commitment

Tom Pappert
McKenzie McClure

Court documents obtained by The Tennessee Star reveal accused cyberstalker McKenzie McClure has requested a status hearing to set a court date which will determine her next steps following the end of her commitment at an East Tennessee psychiatric facility.

Federal prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against McClure in April, accusing her cyberstalking. Video recorded around this time revealed she visited the campus of the Christ Presbyterian Academy, where she attended elementary school decades ago, and was accused of leaving a disturbing voice mail.

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Security Resource Officers Reported Called to Step Back from Memphis Shelby County Schools over Public Safety, Pay

Tom Pappert

The company which provides Security Resources Officers (SROs) to Memphis Shelby County Schools (MSCS) has reportedly warned it will step back from its duties unless Shelby County changes its overtime policies, with the company’s owner claiming in a letter that SROs in the school district have already been told not to provide security for upcoming football events.

Bennie Cobb, who owns the Eagle Eye Security and Training company which provides SROs for the district, reportedly sent a letter to the MSCS Safety and Security division which warned its 128 SROs were told “[n]ot to report for duty on Friday, August 16, 2014 – and not to participate in the [football] jamboree that following night and following day.”

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Judge Restores Freedoms to Alleged Cyberstalker McKenzie McClure, Who Visited Nashville School and Wrote About Gov. Bill Lee

Tom Pappert
McKenzie McClure

U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson ruled on July 29 that alleged cyberstalker McKenzie McClure, the transgender person who wrote publicly about Governor Bill Lee and left an unsettling voicemail before visiting the campus of the Christ Presbyterian Academy (CPA) elementary school in Nashville, will be allowed greater freedom at the East Tennessee psychiatric treatment center where she remains.

A student of CPA from 1999 until 2003, McClure was arrested in May on charges of cyberstalking after she wrote posts claiming Lee would not take action to undermine pro-Palestine protests because the governor “knows if he makes one wrong move it’s Joever for him and my 4th grade teacher… i.e., his WIFE.”

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Nashville Police Replace Internal Affairs Director Months After Retired Officer’s Complaint Sparked Investigation

Tom Pappert
Kathy Morante, Nashville City Hall

The Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) on Monday reportedly replaced the head of its internal affairs office in a decision that came months after retired Lieutenant Garet Davidson submitted a 61-page complaint naming the former official, prompting an investigation.

It was reported on Monday by Nashville Banner that Kathy Morante, the head of the MNPD Office of Professional Accountability since 2013, was replaced.

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FBI Says It Has No Record of ‘Legacy Token’ Documents After FOIA Request

Peter D'Abrosca

In response the a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says it has no record of any documents containing the terms “legacy token” or “legacy tokens,” despite the fact that The Tennessee Star has such a document from the FBI in its possession. 

“Based on the information you provided, we conducted a main entity record search of the Central Records System (CRS) per our standard search policy,” the FBI said in response to the FOIA request. “However, we were unable to identify records subject to the FOIPA that are responsive to your request. Therefore, your request is being closed. If you have additional information pertaining to the subject of your request, please submit a new request providing the details, and we will conduct an additional search.”

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Group Claiming Copyright to Covenant Killer Documents ‘Not Able to Comment’ on Possible Financial Arrangement with Vanderbilt University Medical Center

Tom Pappert
Ed Yarbrough

An attorney who represents The Covenant Children’s Trust, which claims it owns the copyright to the works of Covenant School attacker Audrey Elizabeth Hale, told The Tennessee Star on Wednesday he could not comment on whether his client received any type of financial compensation from Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), which treated the killer over 22 years.

The Star contacted attorney Ed Yarbrough, who works at the Spencer Fane firm and represented the Covenant Children’s Trust in the Tennessee lawsuit which sought to compel Metro Nashville to release Hale’s documents, to ask whether his client, the Covenant School, or Covenant Presbyterian Church were approached by VUMC to discuss its potential civil liability over its treatment of Hale.

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Tennessee Star to ‘Absolutely Appeal’ Judge’s Decision Not to Release One Single Page of Covenant School Killer Writings

Tom Pappert
Judge I'Ashea Myles, Michael Patrick Leahy

The Thursday ruling by Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles, when she decided not one single page of the writings of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale would be released, will “absolutely” be appealed, stated Michael Patrick Leahy, the editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star and the CEO of Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM), on Friday.

Leahy declared in his Friday statement, “The judge has erroneously accepted a dubious copyright claim made by intervenors who should not have been allowed to intervene in this case in the first place.”

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Tennessee Judge Rules Not One Page of Covenant Killer Writings Shall be Released, Cites Dubious Copyright Claims of Intervenors

Tom Pappert

Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles ruled in a decision released at 11:58 pm on Thursday that none of the writings left by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale shall be released to the multiple parties who sued Metro Nashville to secure their release, citing the copyright claims of the parents she earlier allowed to intervene in the lawsuit.

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FBI Gives Vague Response to The Tennessee Star’s FOIA Request over ‘Legacy Tokens’

Peter D'Abrosca

In response to The Tennessee Star’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on the agency’s policy regarding “legacy tokens” left behind by mass killers, the FBI offered a vague response to an original comment request by The Star.

“While our standard practice is not to comment on specific products, which includes addressing their veracity, the FBI regularly shares information with our law enforcement partners to assist in protecting the communities they serve,” the FBI said by email. “The FBI always encourages members of the public to be vigilant and report anything they consider suspicious to law enforcement.”

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Commentary: Court Threatens First Amendment Rights of Tennessee Star After Release of Covenant School Shooting Documents

RealClearWire
Judge I'Ashea L. Myles

The editor-in-chief and publisher of The Tennessee Star was ordered to appear in court last week and threatened with charges of contempt after his newspaper reported on an anonymously leaked collection of documents authored by Nashville mass shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale. Michael Patrick Leahy was joined by his attorneys in court on Monday for a “show-cause hearing,” where the journalist was asked by Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles to demonstrate why his outlet’s reporting does not subject him to contempt proceedings and sanctions.

On March 27, 2023, Hale (born Audrey Elizabeth Hale) entered the Covenant School armed with three semiautomatic guns and murdered six people, including three 9-year-old children. Hale, who was eventually shot and killed by police in the school, was a transgender man and former student at Covenant who harbored extremist sentiments on race, gender, and politics. The massacre remains the deadliest mass shooting in Tennessee history.

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Vanderbilt University Medical Center Started Center to Assist with Mental Health ‘Intervention’ One Day After Covenant School Attack

Tom Pappert
Therapist

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital announced the creation of its Behavioral Health Clinical Services Center (CSC) on March 28, 2023, just one day after Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale committed her attack that claimed the lives of six, including three children.

The Tennessee Star confirmed it obtained a portion of police documents from the Covenant case earlier this month, including documents that show Hale was a 22-year mental health patient at VUMC who began receiving treatment in 2001 when she was just six years old.

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Vanderbilt University Medical Center Announces New Vice President of Psychiatric Hospital amid Covenant Killer Revelations

Tom Pappert
Tanmay Mathur

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) announced on Monday a new vice president to lead the Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital, where The Tennessee Star reported earlier this month that Covenant School shooter was a 22-year mental health patient, having begun receiving treatment as a six-year-old in 2001.

A March 14 news release by VUMC announced current Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital president Mary Pawlikowski planned to “retire at the end of the fiscal year,” placing her retirement date on September 30.

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More Trans Patients Join Lawsuit Against Vanderbilt University Medical Center over Data Given to Tennessee Attorney General

Tom Pappert
Tricia Herzfeld

More transgender patients have reportedly joined the class action suit against Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) after it alerted patients their medical records were given to Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti as part of an investigation into inflated billing practices.

According to attorney Tricia Herzfeld, who revealed new details about the legal action to WKRN on Thursday, there are now two class action lawsuits against VUMC.

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ACLU Tennessee Silent on Judge’s Contempt of Court Threat Over Covenant Shooter Reporting

Peter D'Abrosca
MPL Courtroom

The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee (ACLU-TN) has remained silent during the past week as The Tennessee Star Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy was ordered to appear before a judge for a show cause hearing called on the heels of a false allegation by WSMV reporter Stacey Cameron that Leahy violated a court order by publishing journals left behind Covenant School shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale.

Leahy could face a contempt of court charge, which comes with a possible jail sentence of 10 days.

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Police Arrest Trans Person in Utah for Allegedly Killing Parents

Peter D'Abrosca
Collin Troy Bailey

In another instance of transgender violence, a biological male who was “transitioning” to become a female was arrested Wednesday for allegedly killing his parents.

According to the Washington City, Utah police, Collin Troy Bailey, 28, who goes by the name Mia, is the suspect in the slaying of his parents, Gail Bailey and Joseph Bailey, who were found dead in their home after police responded to a shots fired call.

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Blaze Reporter Steve Baker on Monday’s Show Cause Hearing in Covenant Killer Writings Case: ‘The Nonsense’ Coming from Judge Myles Was ‘Remarkable’

Kaitlin Housler
Steve Baker on The Michael Patrick Leahy Show

Michael Patrick Leahy, Editor-in-Chief and CEO of The Tennessee Star, and Steve Baker, investigative journalist and opinion contributor for Blaze News, agreed that Monday’s show cause hearing in front of Tennessee Chancery Court Judge l’Ashea Myles was “nonsense.”

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Judge Switches Show Cause Hearing to ‘Landscaping’ Exercise as Lawyers Plead for Release of Ruling, Leahy Still in Legal Jeopardy

Tom Pappert
Judge I'Ashea Myles

The Show Cause Hearing scheduled Monday by Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles concluded after the judge repeatedly referenced her prior order in which she explained the possibility of appointing an outside attorney to investigate and prosecute possible contempt charges against Michael Patrick Leahy, the editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star and the CEO of Star News Digital Media, Inc. (SNDM).

Myles ordered on June 10 for Leahy to appear in court for the Show Cause Hearing after a source familiar with the Covenant investigation provided The Star with a journal written by Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale, as well as police documents related to the Covenant investigation, and The Star began reporting Hale’s own words and the contents of investigative documents.

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Commentary: Nashville Shooter’s Manifesto Released Despite FBI Resistance

RealClearWire

The 2023 Nashville Covenant School murders understandably received massive news coverage when they occurred. The fight over obtaining the murderer’s diary also received news attention. But when “nearly four dozen pages” of the murderer’s diary were finally released last week, the mainstream media completely ignored it. It turns out that behind the scenes, the FBI had fought hard against the diary’s release. Some Covenant School parents also opposed releasing the diary because it would force families to re-live the nightmare. The Tennessee Star’s parent company, Star News Digital Media, successfully filed two lawsuits to obtain the diary.

Five days after the release of the diary, with the exception of the New York Post, which is a national news outlet, the news coverage was limited to seven other conservative outlets such as The Daily Wire and Newsbusters.

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Reporter Tom Pappert: Weaponized Justice Department Targets Conservatives Down the Chain as President Trump Predicted

Kaitlin Housler
MPL Tom Pappert

Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said the “weaponized” Department of Justice is going after everyday Americans just as former President Donald Trump predicted, pointing to the case of The Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy who is ordered to appear in court on Monday, June 17 after his publication reported on the journal entries of Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale.

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Tennessee Lawmakers Defend Tennessee Star Editor-in-Chief in Legal Case over Covenant Documents

Peter D'Abrosca
Jeremy Faison and Jason Zachary

Members of the Tennessee General Assembly took to X Friday to defend Tennessee Star Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy, who was ordered to appear before Tennessee Chancery Court Judge l’Ashea Myles for a show cause hearing on Monday.

Myles issued the order after The Star published dozens of articles reporting on writings from a journal recovered from Covenant School mass shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale.

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Star News CEO Michael Patrick Leahy Files Emergency Motion to Set Aside Show Cause Hearing Order in Covenant Killer Documents Case

Tom Pappert
MPL Courtroom

An emergency motion filed on Wednesday requests Tennessee Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles set aside her June 10 court order which established a show cause hearing on Monday after dozens of articles including writings from a journal recovered from Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale were published by The Tennessee Star.

Michael Patrick Leahy, who is the CEO of Star News Digital Media, Inc. and the editor-in-chief of The Star, was ordered by Myles to appear in court on Monday after WSMV 4 reporter Stacey Cameron claimed he called the court to ask Myles “if she was considering holding the Star or anyone else in contempt” due to its reporting.

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FBI Declines to Confirm ‘Legacy Tokens’ Memo Sent to Nashville Police Which Raised Precedent for Destruction of Covenant Killer Writings

Tom Pappert

The FBI declined on Monday to confirm to The Tennessee Star the authenticity of a memo it sent to the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) that “strongly discourages” the release of “legacy tokens” left by those who commit devastating attacks like the Covenant School attack orchestrated by Audrey Elizabeth Hale.

The Star published the memo last week, revealing it was addressed to MNPD Chief John Drake and sent on May 11, 2023.

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Tennessee State Rep. Jason Zachary Details Importance of Bill that Tightened Duty to Report Law

Kaitlin Housler
Jason Zachary

Tennessee State Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville) suggested his bill that strengthened the state’s duty to report law may have prevented the Covenant School shooting on March 27, 2023 in Nashville if implemented before the shooting took place.

Over the weekend, The Tennessee Star reported it was provided the name of the psychologist who was reportedly part of the care team for Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale.

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Report: Covenant School Shooter Fantasized About School Shootings as Middle Schooler

Matthew Giffin

Covenant School shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale had been having fantasies of carrying out school shootings ever since she was a middle schooler, 99.7 WTN afternoon radio host Brian Wilson reported Wednesday.

Wilson revealed a number of other previously unknown details about Hale referencing a “lengthy” document he obtained regarding her and the shooting. He said he had more details he would reveal Thursday.

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