This story is a partnership between the Nashville Banner and the Nashville Scene. The Nashville Banner is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization focused on civic news. Visit nashvillebanner.com for more information.
A former Metro Nashville Police Department lieutenant, who made headlines after accusing department leadership of lobbying to eliminate oversight, has been connected to leaked documents related to the Covenant School shooting, according to a Friday morning court filing.
Extensive complaint says officials ignored department policy, manipulated investigations, lied about reforms and helped pass a law gutting the Community Oversight Board
The Tennessee Star published multiple stories over the past two weeks based on leaked information from the MNPD’s case file on last year's Covenant School shooting. Simultaneously, a 61-page complaint by Garet Davidson, who retired as an MNPD lieutenant in the Office of Professional Accountability in January, surfaced at the end of May, accusing MNPD’s top brass of successfully working with state Republicans to eliminate the Community Oversight Board, among other things.
Now a sworn declaration filed in the Davidson County Chancery Court case over the release of the Covenant documents claims these two stories could be connected.
“In attempting to identify the source of this leaked information, I have learned from Covenant school investigative supervisors assigned to the Criminal Investigation Division that the information in the Tennessee Star stories is the same information that was in the case file in November 2023 when I gave it to Mr. Davidson to store in his office at OPA,” reads a declaration by MNPD Lt. Alfredo Arevalo, who was a sergeant in the OPA at the time Davidson was there.
Judge I’Ashea Myles orders website to explain why they are not in contempt of court
Arevalo’s declaration claims the Covenant shooting criminal investigative case file was given to him on Nov. 7, and that he immediately delivered it to Davidson, who kept it stored in a locked safe in his office, which only Davidson had access to. Arevalo goes on to claim that the file remained in Davidson’s possession for 13 days before being returned to the MNPD homicide unit.
Arevalo does not say whether homicide unit officers could have leaked the information. To be clear, three pages of the shooter’s journal were leaked to a conservative talk-show host prior to Davidson receiving the file on Nov. 7. This leak spawned an OPA investigation. After that initial leak, not only did more leaked information get published in the Tennessee Star earlier this month, but Davidson appeared for multiple interviews discussing the contents of the Covenant shooting case file.
“On June 4, 2024, Michael Patrick Leahy interviewed Garet Davidson, as Tennessee Star reported,” reads the declaration. “The interview included Mr. Davidson acknowledging having access to and having seen the Covenant School criminal investigative case file, and Mr. Davidson discussed his perceptions regarding the contents.”
This, along with a broadcast interview with conservative radio host Brian Wilson, kicked off a string of leaks that included various pieces that came from the Covenant shooting case file Davidson had access to, Arevalo says.
Those leaks have caused a battle this week between Chancellor I’Ashea Myles and Tennessee Star reporter Patrick Leahy.
On March 27, 2023, three children and three adults were killed by a lone shooter at the Covenant School. Since then, there has been a yearlong legal fight over the release of the shooter’s journal, with Metro police and families of the Covenant victims on one side trying to prevent it, and The Tennessean, the Tennessee Firearms Association, Tennessee Star and others petitioning to have the journal released to the public.
Following the stories the Star published based on leaked information, Myles ordered Leahy to appear in court on June 17 and show cause why they are not in contempt of court. In response, Leahy requested her order be set aside over questions about its constitutionality. Myles denied his request, and just hours later on Thursday afternoon, Leahy appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.
Late Thursday night, Myles filed an additional order clarifying: “The Court will not hear live from any witness on Monday, June 17, 2024.”
On Friday morning, state House Rep. Jeremy Faison (R-Cosby) posted on X, formerly Twitter, that he would file “proper resolutions to remove judges engaging in abuse like this.”
“The TN legislature will not stand for an activist judge who weaponizes their courtroom,” Faison wrote. “@michaelpleahy is the press and does not have to prove to any courtroom that he is innocent.”
