Conservative Journalist Ordered To Appear At Hearing That May Violate Tennessee Law Protecting Reporters

Image Credit: MNPD / @michaelpleahy – X & canva

The Tennessee Conservative Staff –

A Conservative journalist has been ordered to appear at a show cause hearing on June 17th, 2024 that may violate a state law protecting reporters.

On Thursday, Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles denied an emergency motion on behalf of Michael Leahy, owner of the The Tennessee Star, to set aside her order that requires Leahy and parent company Star New Digital Media to appear in court at a hearing that will allow no witnesses and at which Leahy’s counsel has advised him not to testify as he risks being a witness against himself.

Myles wants the media company, and Leahy – editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star – to explain how the recent publication of pages from trans school shooter Audrey Hale’s journal is not a violation of her court order from February in which she forbid Hale’s writings from being quoted or reproduced.

Because of Myles’ decision not to have live testimony on Monday, the show cause hearing may end up being conducted only through attorneys for all parties involved.

Leahy is seeking emergency relief from the Tennessee Court of Appeals. In a Thursday appeal, Leahy’s attorney Daniel Horwitz argues that Monday’s show cause order is “legally and constitutionally infirm on numerous grounds” of which the first is that “Mr. Leahy will be required to disclose information—or the source of the information—that he received for publication” despite Tennessee’s Shield Law which forbids a court from compelling him to do so.

Tennessee Code Annotated § 24-1-208(a) states that “a person engaged in gathering information for publication or broadcast connected with or employed by the news media or press, or who is independently engaged in gathering information for publication or broadcast, shall not be required by a court, a grand jury, the general assembly, or any administrative body, to disclose before the general assembly or any Tennessee court, grand jury, agency, department, or commission any information or the source of any information procured for publication or broadcast.”

Horwitz also claims that Myles’ court order does not give Leahy enough time to prepare a defense or tell him specifically what he is accused of doing.

On Friday, a declaration from a Lieutenant from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department pointed to a former MNPD lieutenant as the source of the documents leak. In the sworn statement, Lt. Alfredo Arevolo claims that former Lt. Garet Davidson was the only person who had the key and knew the combination to the safe where a hard drive containing the complete criminal investigative case file was kept.

Davidson resigned from the Office of Professional Accountability within MNPD at the end of last year and was later interviewed by Leahy and 99.7 FM’s Brian Wilson. 

Upon his exit from the department, Davidson published a 61-page complaint with regard to several issues he witnessed with the command staff – Chief John Drake included – that he said needed investigation.