On June 17th, attorneys vying for access to information related to a school massacre in Nashville in 2023 became more impatient as their request took on a more urgent tone in light of the recent revelation of leaked records pertaining to the shooter.
The release of the investigation file and other data pertaining to the Covenant School massacre, which resulted in the deaths of six individuals, including three children, has been the subject of a protracted legal dispute. This hearing marked the most recent installment in this ongoing legal struggle. Parents from Covenant School have joined the legal action, claiming that the records should never be made public since doing so might retraumatize their children and encourage others to replicate the scandal.
An anonymous source reportedly gave The Tennessee Star 80 pages containing the shooter’s writings, and the articles were reprinted hundreds of times. The newspaper is one of the parties seeking access to the documents in the lawsuit.
In response, Nashville Chancellor I’Ashea Myles issued a warrant for Star News Digital Media, the parent company of The Tennessee Star, and Editor-in-Chief Michael Leahy to appear before the court and justify their decision to violate the court’s protection of records. If found guilty, they could face contempt proceedings and sanctions.
According to Myles, she will consider the parties’ input before deciding her next steps.
Attorney Doug Pierce, who is representing the parties seeking the release of the information, urged the court to swiftly decide on the underlying matter, stating that their stance is that this prospective contempt prosecution is unrelated to the release of the materials.
Following the hearing, Horwitz spoke to the media and expressed his optimism about the fact that the country had avoided the dangerous path of intimidating journalists for doing their jobs legally.
According to a recent court statement by Lt. Alfredo Arevalo of the Nashville Police Department, a former lieutenant named Garet Davidson was given a copy of the file, according to Arevalo. After that, Davidson departed from the force.
Court documents reveal that the murderer, Audrey Hale, left twenty diaries, a suicide note, and an autobiography.
Steven Crowder, a conservative analyst, published three photos of Audrey Hale’s handwritten notes from the shooting on March 27. Police said the shooter had desires to undergo genital mutilation to become ‘male.’
Hale reportedly stated that her penis existed in her mind in over forty pages of handwritten notes that were given to the Star in June. She believed she was a man.