The Tennessee Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear oral arguments Monday afternoon in The Tennessee Star’s lawsuit demanding the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County release the Covenant School killer’s manifesto and related records.
The court is weighing whether to overturn Davidson County Judge I’Ashea Myles’ ruling to allow Covenant Presbyterian School parents, staff, and others to intervene in the lawsuit and argue why the manifesto should remain locked away from the public.
Meanwhile, a similar lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Investigation drags on.
Both open records complaints have been grinding through state and federal courts nearly six months after Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a 28-year-old biological woman who identified as a transgender male, stormed into the Christian elementary school and fatally shot three 9-year-olds and three school staff members. Hale was shot and killed by responding police officers 14 minutes after she began her rampage.
Police said Hale left behind the manifesto and related documents outlining her attack with maps and action plans for her deadly errand.
Several organizations — including Star News Digital Media, parent company of The Star, the Tennessee Firearms Association, and The Tennessean newspaper, filed lawsuits demanding the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) release the records. Failing to do so, they argue, is a violation of the state’s open records law and would compromise future records requests. They also contend that the manifesto and related documents are critical to the public’s understanding of the school shooting.
Covenant Presbyterian School parents said doing so would force them to relive that nightmarish March 27 day over again and give the killer what she sought: immortality through her violent act.
In late May, Myles ruled that Covenant Presbyterian Church, its school and parents of students may intervene in the case as they move to block the documents’ release. The Star and the other plaintiffs then appealed the Davidson County Chancery Court judge’s decision.
A show cause hearing in Myles’ court has been delayed while the Tennessee Court of Appeals-Middle Section weighs the intervention question.
John Harris, executive director of the Tennessee Firearms Association, notes such “open records” lawsuits are typically resolved quickly. In this instance, the lawsuits were filed after the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department claimed that the records were subject to a pending criminal investigation, an odd argument because Gov. Bill Lee had reported — and a Metro press release appears to confirm — that MNPD was going to release some of the “manifesto” records. That is until the city government was sued to get a court order to force it to do at least some of what it had indicated it was going to do, Harris said.
Lee posted on Twitter on April 27, 2023 that “The Covenant shooting was a tragedy beyond comprehension, & Tennesseans need clarity. We’ve been in touch with the Nashville Police Department, & today, Chief Drake assured me that documents & information regarding the shooter will be released to the public very soon.”
The Covenant shooting was a tragedy beyond comprehension, & Tennesseans need clarity.
We’ve been in touch with the Nashville Police Department, & today, Chief Drake assured me that documents & information regarding the shooter will be released to the public very soon.
— Gov. Bill Lee (@GovBillLee) April 28, 2023
“So apparently, Metro was going to release documents and information regarding the shooter at some point soon after April 27, but then when it got sued in an effort to force it to release documents and information regarding the shooter, it decided not to release the information that it told Bill Lee it would be releasing,” Harris wrote in a release on Thursday. “Sounds like everything we should expect as citizens from Metro.”
The next “unusual step” in the legal wrangling, Harris said, was when Myles, a Democrat, allowed the church, school and an “unspecified” number of parents to intervene in the case in an effort to keep the killer’s manifesto sealed. They were represented by about 20 individual attorneys.
Decision Pending in Lawsuit Against the FBI
In a related case, Star News Digital Media in May filed a federal lawsuit demanding the FBI turn over copies of Hale’s manifesto that the bureau obtained in its investigation. Like the MNPD, the FBI claims it does not have to release the documents because the investigation is ongoing. This argument despite the fact that police said Hale acted alone.
“Both the MNPD and FBI investigations are active and ongoing,” Alexander W. Resar, trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice wrote in a response to The Star News Digital Media ‘s motion seeking summary judgment and the immediate release of Hale’s manifesto. The lawsuit is being heard in the U.S. District Court, Middle District of Tennessee-Nashville Division.
Daniel Lennington, attorney for the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, the Milwaukee-based civil rights law firm representing The Star in the lawsuit, said he’s heard nothing from the court in recent months. He said Judge Aleta Trauger, nominated to the bench in 1998 by President Bill Clinton, has been either very deliberative or busy with other cases.
Lennington said the FBI’s resistance to releasing the documents is a “reflection of the mismanagement” that has plagued the troubled agency once known for integrity and neutrality in political matters.
“This is just one more piece of evidence that they have retreated from their political neutrality. This, in addition to all of the other things — from false claims of Russian disinformation to Hunter Biden’s laptop to mismanagement of the Hunter Biden plea deal to the failure to investigate foreign corruption in our own government,” the attorney said. “The FBI is too concerned about grandmas who are concerned about books in school libraries and moms who speak up at public school meetings … It’s shameful.”
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
