Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, pointed out that McKenzie McClure, the biological female and former Christ Presbyterian Academy (CPA) student arrested by federal authorities on cyberstalking charges, may have been subject to a 30-day mental hold as she awaits a detention hearing scheduled for June 3.
McClure, who identifies as a transgender man and prefers the name “Kalvin,” was arrested on cyberstalking charges on April 29 after making a public threat against Governor Bill Lee and leaving a concerning voicemail to CPA in March, which caused two schools to shut down the following day.
In a media request, The Star posed the following five questions to the Middle District of Tennessee U.S. Attorney’s Office regarding McClure’s arrest on April 29:
1. Can you confirm that McKenzie McClure is currently in federal custody?
2. Has bail been set, and if so in what amount?
3. Where is Ms. McClure being held in custody?
4. Is she in a local jail or a federal incarceration center?
5. Is she in a male facility or a female facility?
On Monday, Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark H. Wildasin confirmed that McClure (pictured above) will remain in custody leading up to a June 3 detention hearing.
Wildasin provided the following statement in response to The Star’s inquiry:
McClure is in federal custody until at least June 3, at which time the court will resume the detention hearing. As McClure is in custody, no terms of release have been set. If the Court denies our motion for detention after the June 3 hearing, the Court will enter an order setting the conditions. For security reasons in every case, we do not provide information on where a pre-trial detainee is being held.
Upon learning of the attorney’s response, Pappert pointed out the time from McClure’s arrest until the June 3 detention hearing, noting that the defendant may have been subject to a 30-day mental hold.
“It makes you wonder. If she was arrested on the 29 and they’re saying June 3rd, it makes you wonder if they’ve managed to get some sort of 30-day mental hold against Ms. McClure and that is why they are planning on returning to court at that date,” Pappert said on Monday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
“I would just point out that while this is federal, so it’s a little bit different, you can go to The Tennessee Star and read hundreds of stories of judges assigning bail very quickly and very low, so this doesn’t necessarily track with what we’re seeing elsewhere,” Pappert added.
To the attorney’s nonanswer regarding providing information relating to the facility McClure is currently in, Pappert said, “They don’t want us to know where she is.”
“Perhaps they think that if they tell us male or female, then we’ll instantly know the facility. I don’t think so. I think that is a very sly ability to protect the narrative there,” Pappert added.
Leahy and Pappert also pointed out that the attorney, in his response to The Star’s inquiry, did not use specific pronouns when discussing McClure’s case and instead referred to the defendant repeatedly by her last name.
“They will not even acknowledge what gender McClure is or is not,” Pappert said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “McKenzie McClure” by McKenzie McClure.
