2022 Tennessee Judicial Candidate Sues Public Officials After Fake Felony Conviction Is Reversed
Image Credit: Shara Michelle
The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
A 2022 Judicial candidate is suing state and city officials after her “fake felony” conviction was reversed earlier this year.
The lawsuit filed in the Tennessee Middle District Court on May 1, 2024, is an “I told you so” from pro-family attorney Connie Reguli after her felony convictions from April 20, 2022 were reversed in the Court of Appeals on March 4, 2024.
Reguli who ran against incumbent Juvenile Court Judge Sharon Guffee in the Republican Primary said that the charges levied against her were an attempt to interfere with the Williamson County election and effectively silence her.
The Brentwood attorney has defended parents across the state against Tennessee Department of Children’s Services (DCS) – described by Reguli as an overgressive government agency – for nearly three decades.
Reguli and client Wendy Hancock are suing the City of Brentwood, Estate of Kimberly Helper (former Williamson County District Attorney), Assistant District Attorney Mary Katherine Evins, DCS Staff Attorney Tracy Hetzel, Brentwood Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division Captain David O’Neill, and Brentwood Police Detective Lori Russ to expose “the coordinated efforts of judges, district attorneys, police officials, and children’s services to shut down their biggest challenger.”
In the spring of 2022, as public interest in the Williamson County primary elections was gaining traction, news that Reguli had been convicted of accessory after the fact of felony custodial interference derailed her bid in the judicial race.
Allegedly, Reguli had interfered with the efforts of DCS to take her client’s child in Dekalb County in 2018.
The reason Reguli called it a “fake felony” was because at the time of the incident, the crime she was accused of did not yet exist. Reguli says that Judge Joseph A. Woodruff and then D.A. Kimberly Helper manipulated language in Tennessee law to remove an essential element in the statute to create a bogus crime.
An outspoken critic of the county’s plans to spend $281 million dollars on a juvenile detention center, Reguli maintains that public officials worked together to stop her from speaking out and interfered with her campaign. The news about her conviction conveniently broke at the same time as early voting, just two weeks before the county primary.
Tennessee lawmakers later amended the custodial interference statute during the 2023 legislative session to criminalize the alleged conduct at issue in both Reguli’s and her client’s cases. The judgment in her client’s case was also reversed in May 2023.
As part of her campaign, Reguli brought attention to incumbent juvenile court Judge Sharon Guffee who was responsible for putting children in solitary confinement and may have had video evidence of a crime in one juvenile detention center concealed. Of the new “kiddie jail” – to be funded in part by private equity and in which forty-eight mental health beds were planned – Reguli said, “I guarantee you this, if private equity is involved, the county must make a profit on the heads of children.”
As an activist and lawyer for years, seeking reform of the Tennessee judicial system and DCS, Reguli appeared in public forums, lobbied legislators, and engaged others in telling their stories about abuses in the court system. Her criticism of DCS and the local district attorney’s office may have struck a nerve.
Reguli and Hancock’s complaint alleges that government employees colluded to have her and her client arrested and charged with what they knew to be a fake crime.
Hetzel obtained an ex-parte order to remove Hancock’s then 12-year-old daughter from her custody in 2018. These “secret” orders are written up by DCS and include a signed oath from a DCS worker that a child is at immediate risk of harm. Taken to a judge, they are signed without parents getting a hearing or due process before children are stripped from their custody.
In Hancock’s case, the order was taken to a neighboring county without going through necessary recusal and assignment procedures making the order invalid. Russ, who had met with Hetzel, O’Neill and Evins in October used this fake investigation to obtain a secret search warrant which was used to scour Reguli’s social media, and private messages, IP addresses, emails and deleted content.
The civil suit asks for a jury trial and $520 million in damages.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
Whatever she gets from them monetarily is not compensation enough after what they put her through. Nothing less than their Jobs and jail time would suffice, in my opinion.
Agreed!
They attacked my family like a pack of dogs. I never knew an organization that was set up to help families controlled the courts and police agencies to get what they wanted. It was the money and power.
Same thing happened to mine! Keep fighting on yiur knees and in the courts.
Pensions are key if you want elected officials to act like the public servants they are supposed to be. Violations of oath, of Constitution and criminal acts must cost them directly out of the pensions that their Cash for Kids schemes are designed to stock pile.
I agree with part of Paof7’s comment. In my mind all involved should at the very least lose all of their pensions. Insurance covers the lawsuits but not the pensions. See how the miscreant’s families like going through the rest of their lives living without those bloated pension. Jail and pension loss will make the next bunch of political crooks think twice.
Perhaps TN DCS should be investigated for child trafficking and abuse. In most states, these government run “child protective agencies” are in fact abusive, leftist arms to destroy the family unit through strong-arm unlawful interpretation and misuse of local and state statutes. They get funding for their corruption. Always follow the money trail when it comes to government agencies, particularly state and local as the smoke screen of other crises (created) allows them to cover up such things as money laundering, and worse. It is time to take a good hard look at all state and local government agencies and bureaus that at being paid for with our tax dollars yet victimizing the residents of this state.
Connie, You have my 100% support. I was there to witness the arrest. Let me know if you need me. You represented me as well in the past. You are one hell of an attorney at LAW AND BY THE LAW.
The wheels of justice turn slowly, and families and children like mine will be forever altered by the corruption of “Judge” Sharon Guffee and her Kangaroo juvenile court of child trafficking. May she burn in hell. I hope Connie gets every red cent!!
PACER is filled with tons of dead lawsuits filed by Connie. She simply doesn’t win. I read the 93 page manifesto filed by her attorney – it’s not a hot mess, but it strikes me as one written for the sole purpose of grandstanding. Lawyers make terrible clients (go figure), and I have to wonder if they wrote this 5-act melodrama to make Connie believe she was getting her monies worth. They unrealistically ask for hundreds of millions in damages, which to me is another red flag that the authors might not be expecting this to go far. It strikes me as a desperate attempt by Connie to get back into the spotlight. The defendants will file a motion to dismiss in a couple months, and by October or so we’ll know if I’m right (again) about how this plays out.
Connie never left the spotlight. She is amazing, the light surrounds her~
Justice is a Queen, Miss Connie Reguli and well deserved❣️
Over a quarter billion dollars awarded in the Maya case.
Over half a billion dollars requested in Connie’s case.
I wonder how much our case is worth?