Glenda Adams, a member of the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office in Memphis, accepted money from a local attorney to provide him with information restricted only to law enforcement.
That information concerned traffic accident reports.
The local attorney then used that information to solicit accident victims for business.
This week, Adams pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the federal statute known as the Travel Act. This, according to a statement that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee published Thursday.
“Automobile accidents occurring in the Memphis city limits were typically investigated by the Memphis Police Department (MPD). The Crash Reports generated by the MPD investigations were uploaded into a law enforcement database known as ‘Watson.’ Access to Watson was limited to law enforcement officials. Subsequently, the Crash Reports were available for purchase from the City of Memphis. Through her employment as an Assistant District Attorney, Adams had access to Watson and the Crash Reports,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“In exchange for payments from the attorney, Adams would access MPD Crash Reports from the Watson system, then provide those reports to the attorney in exchange for cash payment. The local attorney would use the Crash Reports to solicit accident victims identified in the Reports and offer them legal representation.”
Court officials have scheduled sentencing for May 27 before U.S. District Judge Jon P. McCalla.
Adams faces up to five years in federal prison along with three years’ supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.
Members of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated the case, according to the U.S. Attorney’s statement.
Adams was an assistant district attorney (ADA) for the Shelby County District Attorney’s Office between February 2017 and October 2020, according to the U.S. attorney’s statement.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star and The Georgia Star News. Follow Chris on Facebook, Twitter, Parler, and GETTR. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Shelby County Courhouse” by Jugarum CC BY-SA 3.0.
