Fletcher, Funk Deny Any Wrongdoing in Chase Case

As Pith reported yesterday, documents from an ongoing civil suit in Williamson County filed by David Chase — the prominent developer at the center of a domestic violence controversy in 2014 — contain allegations of extortion, blackmail and possible bribery. There were several developments in the story late Thursday afternoon, Here's a rundown.

Bill Fletcher:

On Thursday afternoon, Fletcher sent a statement to the Scene rejecting any claims of wrongdoing. For background: The Chase family had hired PR pro and longtime Democratic political operative Fletcher to do crisis communications work amid the controversy surrounding David Chase's 2014 criminal case, in which he was charged with assaulting his ex-girlfriend twice in 24 hours. Those charges would later be dismissed, with the DA's office saying the alleged victim's statements weren't credible.

But in depositions taken in September 2015 — before the criminal case against Chase was dropped — Chase's parents, say they were approached with a request for $2 million. Dean Chase says someone requested $2 million from him that was not for legitimate work and, later in the deposition, says that in his opinion Fletcher tried to extort his family. In her deposition, Sandra Chase says the $2 million request came from Fletcher. And in a text message to his mother, David Chase says "my PR guy went beyond the extortion of me and told my dad he needs $2 million to, quote, 'make this go away.' 

According to the documents, the Chases rejected the request and fired Fletcher. At one point in her deposition, Sandra Chase says she believes her husband inferred that the purpose of the $2 million was for a bribe. For obvious reasons — primarily that he would be the one with the ability to make Chase's charges go away — Funk comes up in the deposition. But after questioning, Sandra Chase says, “I did not get that feeling at all, that Glenn Funk asked for a bribe, no.”

In his statement, Fletcher denies the allegations:

Allegations made in media reports about my business relationship with the Chase family with regard to criminal charges filed and then dropped against David Chase are completely false.

I have never proposed any payments of any kind to anyone regarding the criminal case.

I never had any contact at all with District Attorney Glenn Funk, anyone in the Office of the District Attorney, or anyone representing Mr. Funk or his office in my representation of Mr. David Chase, his family or the D.F. Chase Company.

I will explore all my options to see to it that these false and scurrilous allegations are corrected on the public record.

In an

, David Chase said he had talked to Fletcher — it's not clear when — and that Fletcher told him that "make it go away" was supposed to refer to the negative press attention surrounding the Chases. 

Glenn Funk:

Nashville DA Funk tells the Scene that he rejects any suggestion of improper conduct in the matter. The only direct allegation made against Funk comes from Chase, in a text message to his mother included among the court documents. He says that Funk "blackmailed" him. 

Funk acknowledges that his office conditioned the dismissal of Chase's criminal case upon Chase's dismissal of a federal lawsuit he had filed against Metro and a group of police officers — a case that likely would have involved Funk.

“My impression from reading these limited amounts of transcripts was he felt like it was blackmail for our office to say you have to dismiss your federal lawsuit for us to go ahead and dismiss this case," Funk tells the Scene. "That’s not blackmail.”

In a prepared statement he elaborated: 

Mr. Chase’s dismissal of a federal lawsuit, which included the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department as a defendant, was a condition precedent to having the charges dismissed on that date. This condition was designed to bring closure to the case because the District Attorney’s Office did not want the disposition or the publicity of a high profile domestic violence case to deter victims from reporting domestic violence or having the courage to come to court. In addition, this condition saved the taxpayers and the Metropolitan Government from the time and costs of defending against a federal lawsuit.

The District Attorney is charged to pursue justice. General Miller’s decision, approved by General Funk, was based solely on the facts, the law, support for victims of domestic violence and the best interests of the community. The factual reasons for the dismissal of the criminal charges against Mr. Chase were filed in writing with the court at the time the dismissal was announced and are a matter of public record. Conditioning dismissal of criminal charges on dismissal of a civil lawsuit is referred to as a “release-dismissal agreement.” Such release-dismissal agreements are routinely used by prosecutors throughout the United States, and were approved by the United States Supreme Court nearly thirty years ago. 

Late Thursday afternoon,

against NewsChannel 5 and its investigative reporter Phil Williams, who first reported the allegations Wednesday night. You can read

. The station declined to comment beyond saying they stand by their story. 

In his interview Thursday with NewsChannel 5, Chase said the message he got from Funk was that “if you dismiss your federal case in 15 minutes, we’ll dismiss your criminal case in 30, but that’s all the time you have to make up your mind.” 

From NC5: 

"It wasn't an ask. It was 'we are not dismissing your criminal case unless you dismiss your federal case,'" Chase said.

Chase says Funk delayed dropping charges in his criminal case because he was concerned about Chase's civil lawsuit.

Funk could have been forced testify if the lawsuit had moved forward.

"I think the term used by Attorney General Funk was, 'well if he doesn't do it then I may go to jail, but David Chase definitely will got to jail. So that was not just blackmail, it was a threat," Chase claimed.

In a statement to the news station, Funk repeated previous statements that there was "nothing wrong with conditioning the dismissal of criminal charges on the dismissal of a civil lawsuit" and that the suit would have cost taxpayers money. You can read his entire previous statement on the matter toward the

. 

Pith spoke to Funk Friday morning to ask him about Chase's statements. 

“During all of this I’ve never talked to David Chase and I’ve never talked to his lawyers in the presence of David Chase," Funk says. "And so any quotes that he attributes to me, I would dispute — not I would dispute, I’d specifically deny.”

He responded to each of the three statements from Chase quoted above. Here they are, with Funk's response below:

“...if you dismiss your federal case in 15 minutes, we’ll dismiss your criminal case in 30, but that’s all the time you have to make up your mind.”

Funk: “That is not an accurate reflection. Now there was discussion that he needed to dismiss his federal suit prior to us filing the dismissal of the criminal charges, but that language, I never made that statement. Our statements were all along the lines of, if he dismisses his federal suit today then we’re going to dismiss the state charges today. That was the conversation between me, [Assistant District Attorney] Katy Miller and his lawyer.”

"It wasn't an ask. It was 'we are not dismissing your criminal case unless you dismiss your federal case,'" Chase said.

Funk: “While I would deny that that specific quote was made, it was the tenor of the discussions that if they wanted us to dismiss the case that day, we were not going to dismiss the case that day unless and until we’d gotten indication that the civil case was dismissed. That was part of the negotiation.”

"I think the term used by Attorney General Funk was, 'well if he doesn't do it then I may go to jail, but David Chase definitely will got to jail. So that was not just blackmail, it was a threat," Chase claimed.   

Funk: “That last quote is absurd and I’ve got no idea what in the world he’s talking about. Given that I’ve never had a conversation with him, I have absolutely no idea what he was talking about there.”

Pith asked Funk if he had said anything like that to any of Chase's lawyers or anyone else that might have relayed it to Chase.

“No," he said. "Absolutely not. Not the first clause and not the second clause. I don’t know what in the world he’s talking about with the ‘well if he doesn’t then I may go to jail,’ that’s nuts. That’s absurd. And then the second clause, that ‘David Chase will definitely go to jail,’ that’s not the way anybody in this office talks. Not me, not any of the assistants. It’s not ‘hey take this offer or you’ll go to jail.’ It might be a candid discussion of the likelihood of conviction. But nobody said anything like that.”

Beyond responding to Chase's specific statements, Pith asked Funk what would've happened if Chase had said no to the deal — if he had refused to drop his federal suit against Metro. 

“I think at that point, Katy Miller would’ve continued to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the case and she may have come to the same conclusion," Funk said. "I know how she felt by what she put in the filing that she ultimately filed with the court.”

Was the DA's office prepared to go ahead with charges that they thought were bad, Pith asked, just because Chase didn’t agree to drop his lawsuit?

“Our office never goes forward with a case that we do not believe in,” Funk said.