(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Nashville Judge I’Ashea Myles continues to pressure The Tennessee Star to reveal the source who apparently leaked excerpts of Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale’s “manifesto,” where Hale describes violent fantasies and discusses being transgender.
Earlier this week, Judge Myles ordered The Star’s editor-in-chief to appear before her this Monday to consider whether she’ll hold him in contempt for publishing excerpts of Hale’s writings.
The Star filed a motion to stay the impending hearing, but Judge Myles denied that motion Thursday. The judge signaled her intent to get to the bottom of who leaked Hale’s writings—even if it means trampling on the free press.
“Should this Court determine that an alleged leak did in fact occur by any party to this case and that such action was in violation of the Orders of this Court … this Court may then … initiate and prosecute a contempt citation,” she said.
The Star has appealed Myles’s ruling, but Monday’s hearing is still a go as of the publication of this article.
However, Republican state lawmaker Jeremy Faison has promised sanctions against Myles if she moves forward with holding The Star in contempt.
The TN legislature will not stand for an activist judge who weaponizes their courtroom. @michaelpleahy is the press and does not have to prove to any courtroom that he is innocent.
I will file the proper resolutions to remove judges engaging in abuse like this.…
— Jeremy Faison (@JeremyFaison4TN) June 14, 2024
“The TN legislature will not stand for an activist judge who weaponizes their courtroom [The Star’s editor] is the press and does not have to prove to any courtroom that he is innocent. I will file the proper resolutions to remove judges engaging in abuse like this,” Faison said.
Judge Myles’s threats against The Star comes after the newspaper reported last week that it obtained 80 pages of Hale’s writings from a journal discovered by the Metro Nashville Police Department. Since then, the newspaper has been dropping bombshell articles on a near-daily basis, as Headline USA has covered.
The newspaper is also a party to a lawsuit seeking Judge Myles to compel the MNPD to release Hale’s writings. As part of that lawsuit, Judge Myles ordered in February that if any of the parties in the lawsuit obtain Hale’s writings, they should submit them to her for review—and it’s that order that The Star may have violated.
Police have said the writings that they collected as part of their investigation into the March 27, 2023, shooting at the Covenant School that killed three 9-year-old children and three adult staff members are public records. However, they have said they cannot be released until their investigation is concluded.
Despite law enforcement’s attempts to keep the manifesto secret, the first three pages the purported manifesto were leaked to conservative broadcaster Steven Crowder last November. The Nashville Police Department reportedly suspended seven detectives over the leak.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
