District Attorney General Glenn Funk has asked the TBI to investigate whether Nashville Mayor Megan Barry or others violated any criminal law, according to a statement from the D.A.'s office.
Funk has asked TBI Director Mark Gwyn to investigate whether Barry and/or others, including Sgt. Rob Forrest, violated any criminal law including misappropriation of public funds and official misconduct.
The TBI confirmed it will investigate.
On Thursday afternoon, Barry released a statement regarding the TBI investigation:
"Earlier this morning, I spoke with General Funk and he informed me that he would be requesting a TBI investigation that could answer questions of legality in this matter. I will fully cooperate with this process, but as this is an ongoing investigation, I will have no further comments about this matter." - Mayor Megan Barry
The chair of the Metro Council's Board of Ethical Conduct Chair said there had been no complaints filed against Barry or any former police agent assigned to her security detail.
Correction: Jocques Clemmons was killed in February of 2017. This date was misstated in an earlier version of this story.
An ethics complaint alleging Mayor Megan Barry's affair with a police officer unduly influenced her stance on criminal justice policy has prompted a new city investigation into the mayor.
The complaint, filed Wednesday afternoon, echoes concerns from progressive community groups that say Barry's affair with Sgt. Rob Forrest may have contributed to her lack of support for a community oversight board to monitor police.
"Regardless of whether anyone was aware or actively advocating to influence her decisions regarding any issue of public safety policy which was at odds with the official (police) position, the simple fact is she knew there was at least one officer who could air her dirty laundry at a moment's notice and that fact alone brings into question her ability to be an honest broker in any discussion or consideration of these issues," wrote Theeda Murphy, the Nashville resident and frequent police policy protester who filed the complaint.
On Tuesday, Barry's spokesman Sean Braisted said: "Mayor Barry has taken policy positions she believes are in the best interest of the entire community based on staff and community input."
Braisted referred to the same comment Wednesday when asked about the complaint.
During an extended interview, Metro Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson indicated that he's "not seeing anything that we would change" as far as rules, regulations or policies under which the police department operates despite Mayor Megan Barry's public admission of committing two years of adultery with the head of her security detail, Sgt. Robert Forrest, while he was an employee of Metro's police department.
Police Chief Anderson appointed by then Mayor Karl Dean in 2010, accepts Mayor Barry's characterization that her affair with Sgt. Forrest was strictly a personal matter. But Anderson makes it clear that he does not endorse people who work together having sexual relationships. He points out, however, that even if Sgt. Forrest had not "retired" and was still providing security for the Mayor, no specific rule or policy of the police department would have been violated.
Current police department policy only prohibits personal relationships between supervisors and subordinates and would not extend to the sexual relationship between the Mayor and the security detail assigned to her office by the police department. According to Police Chief Anderson, Sgt. Forrest's chain of command and direct supervisor is the Specialized Investigations Division (SID) but that Forrest's day to day directions were dictated by the Mayor or the Mayor's staff.
Anderson says that "the Mayor is the boss and I would have to do what the Mayor says."
Inconsistencies regarding security for the Mayor may be addressed by either the TBI or Metro Council special committee investigations.
During the Mayor's public statements admitting to her affair, she attempted to justify the extent of time and interaction between herself and Sgt. Forrest based in part on what she said was the Police Chief's perspective that "you are always the mayor and you should be secured appropriately."
And again, the morning after publicly admitting to her affair, Mayor Barry stated:
Detail is with you all the time. I think that you can look at my schedule since the time I've come into office. I've had a very aggressive schedule, I'm out in the community, and that's reflected with the overtime that has been billed to my detail, Barry explained, noting the police department sets the policy for how much and how often the mayor is covered by security.
Anderson's position is that Mayor Barry should have security at all times, preferably 24 hours a day but at the very least when she is traveling on city business including when she is traveling outside of Nashville or internationally.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - In a nearly unprecedented move on Tuesday night, Metro City Council members voted to appoint a special committee which will investigate whether public funds were improperly used during Mayor Megan Barry's nearly two year long affair with her bodyguard, Rob Forrest.
This is the first time since the 1970's that the Metro Council has invoked such a power.
The committee of seven council members will be appointed by Vice Mayor David Briley. Briley said on Wednesday that he wants the committee to be compromised of members from different districts who represent all of Nashville.
The moved needed 30 votes to pass, nine Metro Council members voted against it including councilman Anthony Davis who calls himself a long-time friend of the Mayor but says that did not play into his decision.
"I was a no vote because I thought it was premature, I thought we should let the TBI and the Metro Audit committee do their jobs first. Certainly a month or two months from now I could be a "yes" vote if we need to form the committee," Davis said, referencing a criminal investigation currently being conducted by the TBI.
But Davis was in the minority. Most of his colleagues believed a separate council committee with subpoena power, would insure the public gets answers as to whether taxpayer dollars were misused during the affair
Vice Mayor David Briley says he will decide next week which city council members will be appointed to the special committee charged with investigating whether there was improper use of taxpayer money during Mayor Megan Barry's affair with her bodyguard.
The Metro Council created the committee Tuesday night, narrowly advancing the measure after sharp pushback from Barry loyalists. The proposal needed 30 votes to pass, and the vote was 30-7.
The resolution gives Briley seven days to appoint between three and seven council members to the committee.
"I expect to do something early next week, just because I have until then and I'm a procrastinator," Briley said.
By creating the committee, the council is exercising a power that has been unused since 1974. The committee may issue subpoenas and compel witnesses to testify under oath.
Barry admitted last week to an affair with Sgt. Rob Forrest, who led her security detail until last week. Barry said the affair began in the spring of 2016, but she has not said when it ended.
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Mayor Megan Barry says tax dollars did not support affair, but city paid for officer's hotel on extra days
The TennesseanPublished 4:07 p.m. CT Feb. 5, 2018
Mayor Megan Barry said she did not use taxpayer money to support an affair with the head of her security detail.
But she acknowledged staying an additional four nights beyond scheduled visits in three cities. The city paid for Sgt. Robert Forrest's separate hotel on those nights, according to a new statement released Monday afternoon.
"We believe that at no time did Mayor Barry or Sgt. Forrest ever attempt to use taxpayer dollars to support their extramarital affair," Barry spokesman Sean Braisted said in a lengthy statement issued after days of inquiries about Barry's travel from The Tennessean and other media.
Barry, a Democrat, and Forrest began their affair some time in the spring of 2016, several months after Barry was elected mayor, Barry has said. She would not say when the affair ended, but said last week it is now over.
In the last year, Barry and Forrest went together, without any other city employees, on nine trips around the country and the globe, according to travel, expenditure and scheduling records obtained by The Tennessean. That included trips to San Francisco, Kansas City and Athens, Greece
On at least two of these trips, Barry and Forrest stayed beyond the time needed to attend the conferences upon which their travel was based.
"On those four nights without business, Sgt. Forrest had a hotel room paid for by Metro because he needed to be available on a following day for travel," Braisted said in the statement.
Forrest's police-issued phone now in TBI's possession after his retirement
WKRN web staffPublished: Updated:
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) - The police-issued cell phone that belonged to Nashville Mayor Megan Barry's former head of security is now in the possession of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
Sgt. Rob Forrest's retirement from his position went into effect last Wednesday, the same day Mayor Barry admitted the two had an extramarital affair.
Also on that day, News 2 learned an attorney asked Metro police to preserve the data on Sgt. Forrest's phone after he was expected to turn it in upon his retirement. Details on why weren't clear.
District Attorney Glenn Funk asked the TBI to look into whether the mayor violated any criminal laws the day after the affair was made public.
Mayor Barry has been adamant that nothing illegal took place during the pair's affair, which she said began a few months after she took office in late September 2015.
Mayor Megan Barry makes rounds at African-American churches amid affair fallout
Nashville Mayor Megan Barry spent Sunday morning worshiping at two influential African-American churches, four days after admitting to an affair with her top security officer and as she now tries to rehabilitate her political career.
Making appearances during an otherwise bare public schedule over the weekend, Barry attended services at both Mt. Zion Baptist Church in North Nashville and The Temple Church in Bordeaux.
She sat on the front row at Mt. Zion Baptist Church. A photo posted from the Instagram account of Bishop Joseph Walker III shows Barry joining Walker on stage at some point during the service.
Walker and another pastor wrapped their arms around the mayor's shoulders. The three are seen looking down, eyes closed in prayer, as much of the congregation has their arms raised in the air.
"I'm so thankful that I Pastor one of the most loving, non-judgmental and compassionate congregations on the planet," Walker wrote on his Instragram page. "It was my honor to lead thousands in worship @mtzionnashville to pray for our Mayor @mayormeganbarry and all those who are hurting. Nashville is an amazing city filled with flawed people serving a forgiving God!"
Barry spokesman Sean Braisted said Walker invited the mayor to attend service at Mt. Zion Baptist Church. He said Barry asked her friends, Davidson County Clerk Brenda Wynn and Juvenile Court Judge Sheila Calloway, if she could attend church with them at The Temple Church. Both Wynn and Calloway are prominent black leaders in Nashville.
Long-Time Pastor and Community Activist Enoch Fuzz Calls on Mayor Megan Barry to Resign
In another devastating blow from her left-leaning base, long time pastor and community activist Reverend Enoch Fuzz called on embattled Mayor Megan Barry to resign from office after a series of revelations involving a years-long extramarital affair came to light.
"If the mayor stays in office, those important issues are put at risk. Even the big thing about the possibility that the great Amazon company would come here, those kinds of things are put at risk," Rev. Enoch Fuzz told WKRN News:
The billions of dollars in investments that are being lost right now because we are distracted by this kind of thing. R-e-s-i-g-n. Not to insult, not to hurt, not to condemn, but for the good of all the people who are citizens of the city, including Megan.
Let's move aside so that the world can see that our city is moving ahead.
Ethical Violations Continue to Mount for Nashville Mayor Megan Barry: City Hired Daughter of Security Chief Lover She Recommended
Shortly after taking office in 2015, Mayor Megan Barry recommended Macy Amos - the adult daughter of her security detail Rob Forrest, with whom she would later admit to having an extensive affair - for a lucrative job withing the Nashville's legal department.
The City's legal department had not added any positions for a period of two years nor did they budget for such and expansion, The Tennesseanreports. But after a new, entry-level job was created, Barry swiftly approved the move and recommended Amos.
No other applicant was considered, and she was hired in January 2016.
The Tennessean reports that Metro Law Department Director Jon Cooper insists the the decision to hire Amos was his and no one else's, and notes that Amos was a highly qualified candidate with a law degree from Belmont University and previous interning experience with Mayors Bill Purcell and Karl Dean.
