Amid Covenant lawsuits, new bill would block outside intervention in public records cases

In the wake of an ongoing lawsuit over law enforcement records related to last year's Covenant School shooting, a Tennessee senator wants to change state law to limit who can intervene in public records lawsuits.

Several groups, including The Tennessean, sued Metro Nashville last year after police refused to release records related to the case, including some of the shooter's writings. A three-judge panel in October allowed a group of Covenant parents, who oppose the records' release, to intervene in the case after the group argued their rights as crime victims constitute an exception to the Tennessee Public Records Act.

Sen. Todd Gardenhire's proposed legislation, Senate Bill 2105, would change state law to only allow the requester of public records to appeal a decision to deny the records.

Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, sued for access to the records alongside The Tennessean last year. Rep. Jody Barrett, R-Dickson, is sponsoring the House version.

The lawmaker said this week he filed the bill in direct response to the Covenant shooting records case, though the legislation woud not be retroactive and therefor have no bearing on the ongoing case.

Under the bill, governmental entities could intervene in a public records lawsuit, but outside third parties could not.

Gardenhire said he has long been a public records advocate before his election and thinks a strong public records law is necessary beyond the Covenant case.

"Let's let that sunshine shine a little bit," Gardenhire said. "My experience for the last 11 years, while I've been in the legislature, is people in bureaucratic and elected positions tend to bow up when somebody asks for records. On the other hand, there are people who abuse greatly the open records request. I don't like the abuse on either side of this issue. If open records can be responsibly done, I want to be the champion of that."

Parties in the Covenant records lawsuit met in Davidson County Chancery Court this week for the first time since June. A judge has schedule a full evidentiary hearing in the case for April 16.

The Tennessean has cited an interest in bringing to light "additional facts regarding this incident, societal and mental health issues, and issues regarding firearms more broadly, which have not yet been revealed through other means," per the newspaper's complaint.

The records requested by The Tennessean are the documents in the shooter's possession prior to death, including those in the shooter's car and home; all police reports of the shooter in the Metro Nashville Police Department's possession; all calls for service to The Covenant School and the shooter's home from the past five years; and incident reports from MNPD's responses to the shooter's home on March 27.

The Tennessean has no plans to publish the writings verbatim and has sought to center coverage on public policy, the victims and the community.

Gardenhire said Tuesday he's not interested in security drawings or to intrude in autopsy reports or private medical records of the victims.

"We want to find out what makes somebody do what they did so that the state of Tennessee can allocate resources if we need to, or pass policy if we need to, to help prevent something like this from happening, if we can," Gardenhire said.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TN Sen. Gardenhire open records bill to block outside interventions