NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A new filing alleges a connection between the MNPD whistleblower and the recent Covenant school records leak.
This happened after the Tennessee Star, a conservative website, has been publishing pieces of the Covenant school shooting case file online for a week. The documents are still held in court for a judge's review and only in the possession Metro legal.
As this has gotten more complex, I explain in the player above.
"I am appalled that this open investigative case file has been leaked to the media," Lt. Alfredo Arevalo said in his sworn statement. "I am saddened by the impact that this leak must have on the victims and families of the Covenant school shooting."
Using Arevalo's sworn native, here's a timeline of events.
November 2023: Metro's Office of Professional Accountability, MNPD's Internal Affairs division, launches an investigation into a few pages of the shooter's writing being leaked to a conservative podcaster. The investigation was under Arevalo's supervision. As a part of that investigation, OPA requested all of the shooter's writings.
Arevalo alleges Davidson was the only person at the time who had access to the locked safe, where the case file on an external hard drive was stored. Arevalo says on November 20, 2023, he watched Davidson open the safe and Lt. Arevalo retrieved the drive and returned it to the criminal homicide detectives.
December 2023: Lieutenant Garet Davidson resigns from MNPD.
May 2024: Davidson releases his 61-page written complaint, making various misconduct allegations against Metro Police.
June 3, 2024: Davidson grants NewsChannel 5 an interview to highlight a few of his claims.
"Basically a good ole boy system, with rank bias and people protecting each other," said Davidson. "Oftentimes rank and file will be pressured into resignations, whereas command staff are given more of a greased exit from the department."
One allegation made by Davidson in his 61-page complaint was that two department leaders worked with state lawmakers to pass a law to eliminate the Community Oversight Board.
That allegation in particular caused community activists to list demands for MNPD reform.
June 4, 2024: Davidson appears on the Michael Patrick Leahy Show. But they talked more about the Covenant shooting investigation than Davidson's misconduct claims. "We say manifesto, it’s not one document, it’s multiple documents?" asked Leahy.
"Over 20," replied Davidson.
Later in the conversation, Davidson confirmed he had seen portions of the shooter's writings. "Officially you’ve not seen these journals, but you have unofficially seen -- how many of these have you seen?" asked Leahy.
"Excerpts -- so probably a few dozen pages," said Davidson.
June 5, 2024: The Tennessee Star, a conservative news outlet owned by Leahy, published approximately 30 articles discussing the Covenant investigation, images and recordings according to various sources close to the investigation. Leahy makes it clear on his show that his outlet has not directly published pages from the Covenant shooter, but those pages have informed their reporting.
However, later that same day, WZTV-TV in Nashville directly published two pages they obtained from the Tennessee Star. Leahy confirmed on his radio show that the reporter on the story directly requested pages and he decided to grant that reporter's request.
June 10, 2024: Chancellor I'Ashea Myles receives a call from a reporter with WSMV-TV in Nashville, requesting a comment or statement regarding the Tennessee Star's stories. Myles orders Leahy to appear in court June 17th to determine why his publication "does not violate the Orders of this Court subjecting them to contempt proceedings and sanctions."
June 12, 2024: The Tennessee Star also requested an emergency hearing, questioning the constitutionality of Judge I'Aesha Myles' recent order regarding a leak of Covenant school documents.
June 14, 2024: MNPD Lt. Alfredo Arevalo files his declaration through the court system. To be clear, Arevalo stops short of outright claiming that Davidson is the leaker but certainly implicates it's him.
Also, the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government wrote a lengthy article criticizing Chancellor Myles for overstepping the bounds of the court case to determine if the Covenant shooter's writings should be released to the public. The articlealso has a lengthy summary of all the court proceedings since the start of the case.
Reaching out for comment
NewsChannel 5 reached out to Metro Police who said they have nothing to add at this time. NewsChannel 5 also reached out to Garet Davidson for his response, but he hasn't responded yet.
Tennessee lawmakers weigh in
Tennessee House Caucus Chairman Jeremy Faison, R-Cosby, went on X threatening Chancellor Myles with retribution if she goes after The Tennessee Star.
"The Tennessee legislature will not stand for an activist judge who weaponizes their courtroom. Michael Patrick Leahy is the press and does not have to prove to any courtroom that he is innocent," wrote Faison. "I will file the proper resolutions to remove judges engaging in abuse like this."
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
