Michael Patrick Leahy, editor-in-chief and CEO of The Tennessee Star, said as a plaintiff in the case seeking to compel the Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) to release the manifesto left behind by the Covenant School shooter he believes the the full manifesto should be released – not just the “documents in the car” found on the day of the shooting which Metro Legal suggests would satisfy the plaintiffs in the case.
On March 27, 2023 28-year-old Audrey Elizabeth Hale, a woman who identified as a transgender male, murdered three young students and three staff members at the Covenant School before she herself was killed by MNPD officers.
Leahy’s comments, made on Wednesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, were in response to a soundbite played during the show of a moment between Metro Nashville attorney Lora Fox and Davidson County Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles on Tuesday when Fox claimed she believes plaintiffs seeking the release of the shooter’s manifesto would be satisfied if only the “writings that were in the car” were released.
The conversation between the judge and the attorney unfolded as follows:
JUDGE MYLES: “So at this point, then, can a redacted version of, and I think it is safe to say that there is one document that most of the petitioners can agree that they want, and once that document becomes released – if this court deems that it should be released – much of this litigation will go away. So is it Metro’s position and specifically the police, because the court does not do police criminal investigation, can those documents come out?”
ATTORNEY FOX: “If you’re referring to the writings that were in the car, yes. Metro believes that those materials that were redacted and given to your honor could be released pursuant to Chief Hager’s affidavit and that, in fact, some of those redactions could be removed because now the names that the folks have been interviewed. But I would defer to the police on who they’ve interviewed and the status of all that.”
“So yesterday at court, the Metro Nashville government said that the writings found in the vehicle of the killer on the day of the murder, according to them, can be released with proper redactions because it will not harm their quote, ‘ongoing investigation,’” Leahy said.
The judge then “said that much of the litigation will go away if the writings in the car are released…I don’t think that’s correct,” Leahy added.
Leahy, as a plaintiff in the case – along with other media entities and individuals seeking the manifesto’s release – said he does not believes the litigation “will go away” should the judge release to the public only the documents found in the killer’s car on the day of the shooting and not the other documents–the killer’s journals–obtained by the Metro Nashville Police Department officers during their investigation from the killer’s residence after search warrants for those documents and related evidence were obtained.
Leahy said it is unclear what percentage of the “Manifesto” documents are comprised by the writings found in the killer’s car, but his guess is it may be as little as 20 percent.
“I’m a plaintiff and I will not go away. If we only get 20 percent…No. We want it all,” Leahy said, adding that he believes those intervening in the case – Covenant parents, the school, and the church – would likely still object to the documents found in the vehicle from being released.
Leahy added that he believed the intervenors had no standing to participate in the case, even though the judge made an unprecedented ruling allowing them to intervene.
Leahy said that as a media outlet, Star News Digital Media, the owner of The Tennessee Star has a right to be a plaintiff in the case and to access the killer’s full manifesto.
“I am a plaintiff. I have the right to be a plaintiff because we’re a media company and this is a public record which should be released. I’ve followed the law. We’ve requested its release, and they’ve denied it. Under the law, I have the right to sue them, and I have the right to get that document released,” Leahy said.
Leahy and Star News Digital Media Inc. are represented in the state case by America First Legal.
Leahy went on to give an update on a federal case in which The Star’s parent company, The Star News Digital Media Inc., is also suing to compel the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to consent to release the killer’s manifesto.
In that case, Leahy said the attorney for Covenant parents who have intervened in the Chancery Court case said they will also seek to intervene in the federal case “if the federal judge rules to release all or part of the manifesto.”
Noting how federal courts have “much stricter rules of civil procedure,” Leahy said, “I think it’s probably even a bit of a long shot for them [to be successful] in intervening in that case.”
Leahy and Star News Digital Media Inc. are represented in the federal case by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
