By Travis Loller and Jonathan Mattise
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A former Nashville police lieutenant was arrested Tuesday on fees of theft, housebreaking and official misconduct after he was accused of taking case information, together with data from a school shooting the place three 9-year-olds and three grownup workers have been killed.
In saying the arrest of Garet Davidson, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation mentioned he used his place with the Workplace of Skilled Accountability on the Metro Nashville Police Division to achieve entry to restricted areas. “He then took a number of legal case information, inner investigation case information, authentic case information, and different paperwork he was not licensed to retain,” in keeping with a TBI information launch. Davidson was booked into the Nashville jail on a $150,000 bond.
Davidson’s lawyer, Alex Little, offered a press release saying the costs “symbolize a clear try and discredit and silence a whistleblower who uncovered severe misconduct throughout the Metro Nashville Police Division.
“The paperwork in query are public data documenting MNPD management’s alleged efforts to undermine civilian oversight, shield high-ranking officers from accountability, and keep a tradition that tolerates harassment and discrimination. The extra fees associated to the Covenant School Shooting supplies additional reveal the division’s want to make use of legal fees to maintain the general public at midnight,” the assertion reads.
Davidson retired from the Metro Nashville Police Division in January 2024 after working for 2 years within the Workplace of Skilled Accountability, which is the division’s inner affairs unit.
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He filed a complaint final Could outlining a protracted listing of claims towards the police division. It included accusations that rating personnel obtained higher outcomes in investigations; command workers have been overly concerned in inner investigations; officers purposefully did not hold data to keep away from incriminating paper trails; coaching for brand new recruits was improperly lowered; and the division did not enact a “zero-tolerance” coverage on sexual harassment and discrimination. He additionally alleged the police division actively lobbied to intestine town’s community oversight board.
Shortly after the criticism was filed, Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell introduced an unbiased investigation of the allegations, which is ongoing.
In a press release launched final yr, Police Chief John Drake solely addressed the accusation involving coaching for brand new officers, saying they obtain far more coaching than what’s required by the state.
A number of the fees Davidson is dealing with are associated to the March 2023 capturing at a non-public Christian elementary faculty. Davidson was beforehand implicated within the leak of the shooter’s journals to conservative media shops. The Tennessee Star printed dozens of tales primarily based on what they mentioned have been 80 pages of the shooter’s writings.
That outlet was certainly one of a number of events that had filed open data requests with Nashville police for data associated to the capturing, together with the journals. When town refused to right away launch the data in 2023, they sued. The plaintiffs included a gun rights group, a regulation enforcement nonprofit and Tennessee state Sen. Todd Gardenhire. On the opposite aspect was town together with mother and father of most of the Covenant college students who wished to maintain the data secret.
The state of affairs shortly ballooned right into a messy mixture of conspiracy theories, leaked documents, probate battles and accusations of ethical misconduct. In July, a choose ruled for the parents, who claimed they personal the copyright to the writings, transferred to them from the shooter’s mother and father as subsequent of kin. That call is at the moment underneath enchantment.
In the meantime, the Federal Bureau of Investigation final month offered Tennessee Star proprietor, Star Information Digital, with a redacted model of its Covenant capturing information in response to a separate lawsuit. In a federal court docket submitting, the FBI mentioned it withheld names and figuring out data of third events and detailed descriptions of the shooter’s plans. Additionally final month, Nashville police launched a ultimate report on the capturing that included particulars in regards to the shooter’s writings, psychological well being and motivations.
These killed in the shooting have been Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all 9 years previous, and adults Cynthia Peak, 61; Katherine Koonce, 60; and Mike Hill, 61. Shooter Audrey Hale was shot and killed by police on the scene.
