Mother of slain Nashville woman sues over Tennessee law forbidding review of police misconduct

The mother of a woman who was killed by her estranged husband after filing reports with the Metro Nashville Police department and securing a protection order is contesting a provision in new state law interfering with a person's ability to review police misconduct complaints.

The law, passed in May, forbids independent investigations into police misconduct if a person has initiated, threatened or given notice they intend to pursue legal action against local government.

Kimberly Jones-Mbuyi filed a lawsuit against Metro Nashville Government after her daughter Michaela Carter's death in November 2022.

Carter died during a confrontation with her estranged husband James Leggett, the suit says. It also claims that police officers wrongly told the 24-year-old they could not arrest Leggett based on his texts and calls or the fact that he was seen near one of her family member's apartments carrying a gun — all actions that were in direct violation of the 2021 protection order in Carter's possession.

Police left Carter's home that November day. Ten minutes later, investigators said Leggett shot and killed her.

A Nashville police officer later admitted he could have done more to help Carter the day she died, according to an internal investigation.

The Office of Professional Accountability found Officer Jason Hees violated the Metro Nashville Police Department's policy on official obligations and provided "deficient or inefficient performance of duties." The report was finalized seven months after Carter's death, and was made public in the March wrongful death lawsuit Jones-Mbuyi filed against the city.

"Michaela Carter did everything that she was supposed to do and relied on the MNPD to protect her. Instead, they got her killed," Jones-Mbuyi's attorney Daniel Horwitz told The Tennessean in March.

Horwitz said Tuesday that Jones-Mbuyi's misconduct complaint against the Metro Nashville Police Department was closed by "operation of the law," under new laws regulating the Community Oversight Board, which was rebranded in October to the Community Review Board and stripped of its investigative powers and access to certain public records under state law.

In the Tuesday lawsuit, Community Review Board Executive Director Jill Fitcheard is named as a defendant alongside Metro Nashville Government.

A spokesperson for the district attorney's office declined to comment.

Fitcheard did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The review board sent a letter to Jones-Mbuyi after members reached a decision in her case, the lawsuit said. It included an excerpt from the letter that read, "(With) sincere regrets of each and every member of this office to Ms. Carter’s family” — that her request for an investigation is no longer being considered and is 'currently closed by operation of the law.'"

Jones-Mbuyi is seeking an injunction against the Community Review Board, contesting its decision to refuse a misconduct investigation, the lawsuit says.

"Requiring victims of police misconduct to forgo their right to sue in order to have their misconduct complaints investigated is an unconstitutional condition that unlawfully interferes with citizens' fundamental First Amendment right to sue the government," Horwitz said in a statement Tuesday. "This unconstitutional condition also means that the most meritorious misconduct complaints— Ms. Jones-Mbuyi's among them — will never receive an independent investigation. This component of the law is not valid, and we look forward to having it invalidated so the catastrophic MNPD negligence that resulted in Ms. Carter's preventable murder can receive the independent scrutiny it deserves."

In the lawsuit, Horwitz further argues that Jones-Mbuyi requested an independent investigation before and after the law changed the role community oversight boards have in Tennessee.

Horwitz believes Jones-Mbuyi would have a statutory right to investigate all post-January 2023 MNPD misconduct, he said.

Reach reporter Craig Shoup by email at cshoup@gannett.com and on X @Craig_Shoup. To support his work, sign up for a digital subscription to www.tennessean.com.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Lawsuit targets TN law obstructing police review in woman's death