Open-records requirements matter more than the wishes of affected Covenant School families, plaintiffs’ lawyers told Judge I’Ashea Myles in court Tuesday morning. Myles is overseeing two days of hearings as media entities including The Tennessean and The Tennessee Star petition Metro to release writings by the deceased Covenant School shooter, Audrey Hale.
Several lawsuits followed the mass shooting that killed six, including three 9-year-olds, at the Covenant School on March 27, 2023. Three cases pressing Metro to release documents attributed to Hale have since been consolidated into one lawsuit overseen by Myles. Parents of Covenant School students, the school itself and a church associated with the school intervened in the case, asking the court to keep Hale’s writings sealed. In November, popular right-wing podcast host Steven Crowder published three pages attributed to Hale that had leaked from Metro custody. According to the Metro Nashville Police Department, an investigation late last year into who leaked the writings was inconclusive despite all investigative avenues being "exhausted."
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Technical difficulties and loud ambient noise frustrated the courtroom on Tuesday, even forcing a brief pause in arguments. Myles, who sided with defendants and ordered Hale’s writings sealed in the immediate aftermath of the Covenant School shooting, frequently sparred with the plaintiffs' lawyers during opening arguments.
Plaintiff attorney Douglas Pierce opened arguments in Myles’ courtroom. Pierce emphasized that petitioners don’t need specific reasons to compel release. Unless information meets clearly defined exemptions, the Tennessee Public Records Act favors disclosure.
“The only question before the court is whether there are any exemptions that preclude public access to these records," Pierce told the court. "There is a presumption of openness. Those parties have the burden of proof here. The statues should be construed to allow the public access to records.”
Pierce went after Metro’s potential defense that the shooter’s writings are exempted under Rule 16, an element of criminal procedure that protects evidence in ongoing investigations.
“They don’t have a crime, and they don’t have a criminal,” Pierce said near the end of his opening remarks. “The investigation does not mean anything if there’s no pending criminal action.”
Myles frequently pushed back on Pierce’s arguments, saying it would fall to Metro, the case’s defendant, to demonstrate that such documents fell under an ongoing investigation. She also indicated that Metro had notified the court that its ongoing investigation would continue into July.
Responsible redactions could bring the documents into compliance with privacy concerns, plaintiffs argued. The risk of copycat shooters declines dramatically in the weeks following the shooting, Pierce said, attacking an element of Metro’s defense.
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Rick Hollow, another attorney for the plaintiffs, took a slightly different tack. Victims’ rights statutes don’t extend to Covenant families’ requests to keep documents from the public view, he argued. Such protections for aggrieved families may be desirable, but they are not a legal public records exemption.
“We may want it to exist, but that’s a matter of public policy," said Hollow. "The only thing the Victims’ Rights Amendment and statutes deal with are people who are within the criminal justice system: the defendant, the prosecution, the witnesses for the prosecution, the witnesses for the defense. Not beyond that. No matter how badly we may want it to be so, it is not that way.”
“I don’t want to take away from the harm that these children experienced,” Myles responded.
“Nor do I," Hollow said. "And if there is any allegation or inference to the contract, it would be totally unwarranted, improper, and I would find it grossly objectionable."
Metro legal director Wally Dietz will oversee the city’s response, which, Myles indicated, will likely include demonstrating an ongoing investigation related to Hale’s writings.
