TBI: Nude cellphone photos, deleted chats may show evidence of crime in Mayor Megan Barry affair
February 23, 2018 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
Comments Off
CLOSE
TBI says it has obtained nude photos of a woman taken on the phone of former Sgt. Rob Forrest, evidence that investigators believe shows Nashville Mayor Megan Barry engaged in an affair with her former bodyguard on duty.
Michael Schwab / USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says it has obtained nude photos of a woman taken on the phone of former Sgt. Rob Forrest, evidence that investigators believe shows Nashville Mayor Megan Barry engaged in an affair with her former bodyguard while he was on duty.
The photos are referenced in an affidavit in support of a search warrant that Nashville Judge Steve Dozier signed Tuesday seeking access to the contents of Barry’s cellphone. It was filed in the Criminal Court Clerk’s office Thursday.
The TBI obtained a search warrant and took possession of Barry’s phone Friday, the records show. The mayor and her attorney have refused to share the pass code to unlock it, according to the affidavit.
► More: Nashville Mayor Megan Barry’s affair: What we know
► More: Mayor’s office: Barry not resigning despite revelations in TBI investigation
The affidavit cites explicit images of a woman’s body found on Forrest’s phone that appear to be taken while he was on out-of-town trips with the mayor.
Also on Forrest’s phone, subpoenaed by the TBI earlier this month, investigators have uncovered 260 deleted chats between that device and Barry’s phone number as well as 35 deleted call logs, the affidavit states.
Based on the photos and deleted chats they discovered on Forrest’s phone, the TBI says it has probable cause to seek evidence they believe could show a crime was committed.
The affidavit cites state statutes for misconduct of public officials and employees and theft of property.
► More: Mayor Megan Barry’s ex-bodyguard received thousands more in overtime pay than other security
► More: Nashville council committee investigating Mayor Barry picks chair, begins search for law firm
CLOSE
Nashville Mayor Megan Barry addresses the media on news of her affair
Michael Schwab
“A search of Megan Barry’s phone could reveal information that is crucial evidence for this case,” the affidavit reads. “In particular, data and information that has been deleted from Sgt. Forrest’s phone may still exist on Megan Barry’s phone.”
“The deleted chats and messages between Sgt. Forrest and Megan Barry, if recovered, could provide further evidence of their activities while Sgt. Forrest reported to be on duty.”
Barry: Photos taken without mayor’s knowledge
The allegations in the affidavit are the most serious yet since Barry admitted Jan. 31 to an affair with Forrest that began in the spring of 2016. Barry, a Democrat, has said she does not plan to resign, a position that she reiterated Thursday.
In a written statement issued late Thursday, Barry said “the allegations of photos taken of myself are very troubling if true.” She said she’s not seen the photos in question, adding that if they are of me, “they were taken without my knowledge or permission and a complete invasion of privacy.”
“Nothing in the affidavits released today, which should have been sealed until the conclusion of this investigation, indicates that I have committed any actions that violate the law. If any violations of the law occurred, they were in violating my personal rights,” Barry said.
“We will continue to cooperate with the ongoing TBI investigation, but the release of this affidavit to the media in an attempt to politically damage or embarrass me is an example of why I will continue to protect my personal rights in this process.”
The Tennessean obtained the affidavit from the Criminal Court Clerk’s office, where search warrant records are kept.
► More: Who’s leading the push for Nashville Mayor Megan Barry to resign?
► More: ‘Resign now!’ small group at rally tells Nashville Mayor Megan Barry
Davidson County District Attorney General Glenn Funk, who requested the TBI’s investigation on Feb. 1, declined to comment on the search warrant.
“I told the TBI to follow their standard operating procedure and I’m not going to comment until after the investigation is complete,” Funk said.
TBI cites explicit photos taken on two trips
Barry has said that there was no personal engagement in the affair while Forrest was on duty.
But the affidavit cites nude and partially nude photos of a woman on Forrest’s phone taken during two trips, both to Washington, D.C.
Barry traveled to Washington on May 15-17, 2017, for an infrastructure conference, and Forrest was the only other city employee who went with her.
► Opinion: Mayor Megan Barry to Nashville: I want to earn back your trust
According to timecard records referenced in the TBI affidavit, Forrest clocked in to work at 7:30 a.m. on May 15 and clocked out at 3:30 p.m. He then clocked in for overtime until 9:30 p.m.
On Forrest’s phone, there were nude images of a woman the TBI believes to be Barry that were taken during the time that Forrest reported receiving overtime, according to the affidavit.
“This image is of a nude female lying on a bed with a black purse beside her,” the TBI affidavit states.
Images taken during a radio interview in Washington show Barry with an identical purse prior to when the nude photo was taken, according to the affidavit.
David Raybin, Forrest’s attorney, said he has not seen the affidavit or search warrant and could not comment. He also declined to comment in response to questions raised by Barry’s attorney.
Deleted messages on officer’s cellphone
Posted!
- 1 of 36
- 2 of 36
- 3 of 36
- 4 of 36
- 5 of 36
- 6 of 36
- 7 of 36
- 8 of 36
- 9 of 36
- 10 of 36
- 11 of 36
- 12 of 36
- 13 of 36
- 14 of 36
- 15 of 36
- 16 of 36
- 17 of 36
- 18 of 36
- 19 of 36
- 20 of 36
- 21 of 36
- 22 of 36
- 23 of 36
- 24 of 36
- 25 of 36
- 26 of 36
- 27 of 36
- 28 of 36
- 29 of 36
- 30 of 36
- 31 of 36
- 32 of 36
- 33 of 36
- 34 of 36
- 35 of 36
- 36 of 36
Mayor Megan Barry affair: TBI takes bodyguard’s phone, other evidence
City: Mayor’s phone not a public record
Forrest, a security officer for Barry and Nashville’s two previous mayors, was a regular presence with Barry during out-of-town city trips, a departure from the practice of past mayors who were not accompanied by security.
Barry and Forrest attended 10 city-funded trips by themselves without other mayor’s office staff present, including to conferences overseas in Paris and Greece and the two to Washington cited in the affidavit. Barry and Forrest are both married.
The city denied a Tennessean request on Feb. 2 for all photographs on the mayor’s phone.
Metro Clerk Elizabeth Waites pointed to state statute, which defines public records as records that are “made or received pursuant to law or ordinance,” or connected to the transaction of city business, and “does not include the device or equipment.”
► Opinion: On Megan Barry: Disappointed? Yes. Betrayed? Hardly
► Opinion: Mayor Megan Barry should resign
Forrest earned $173,843.13 in overtime from July 2015 through Jan. 15 of this year, according to city data, more than the amount earned by the four other police officers in Barry’s detail combined.
Barry has called the affair a personal matter and said she committed no legal wrongdoing.
Although it was not immediately clear if the city owned or paid for Barry’s phone, city policy on use of “technology assets” is clear: Electronic devices must be used in a “professional, ethical and legal manner.”
In order to access city information on a mobile device, the policy states the device would need to be connected to a city-approved server.
The policy says users of city phones have no expectation of privacy regarding “any information they create, store, send or receive” on their devices. Users who know of an investigation or legal action that may require a review of their devices must also not delete any “potentially relevant information” from the devices, according to the policy.
Any violation of the policy could result in punishment up to and including firing.
In addition to the TBI investigation, Barry is the subject of an investigation from a special committee of the Metro Council that is reviewing whether she misused public money during the affair.
Separately, Barry has been hit with an ethics complaint from social activists who have alleged that, because of her affair with Forrest, the mayor was conflicted when she made decisions related to police.
Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236, jgarrison@tennessean.com and on Twitter @joeygarrison. Reach Nate Rau at 615-258-8094, nrau@tennessean.com and on Twitter @tnnaterau.
Share and Enjoy
Texas governor accepts recommendation, spares inmate
February 23, 2018 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
Comments Off
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday spared the life of a convicted killer shortly before the man’s scheduled execution for masterminding the fatal shootings of his mother and brother.
In sparing the life of Thomas “Bart” Whitaker about an hour before he was scheduled for lethal injection, Abbott accepted the state parole board’s rare clemency recommendation. Whitaker’s father, Kent, also was shot in the 2003 plot at the family’s suburban Houston home but survived and led the effort to save his son from execution. Abbott commuted the sentence to life without parole.
“I’m thankful not for me but for my dad,” Bart Whitaker told prison officials after getting the word in a tiny holding cell a few feet from the death chamber. “Any punishment that I would have or will receive is just, but my dad did nothing wrong. The system worked for him today. And I will do my best to uphold my role in the system.”
The seven-member Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, whose members are appointed by the governor, recommended unanimously Tuesday that Abbott commute the sentence. Abbott, a Republican had the option of accepting the recommendation, rejecting it or doing nothing.
“Mr. Whitaker’s father, who survived the attempt on his life, passionately opposes the execution of his son. Mr. Whitaker’s father insists that he would be victimized again if the state put to death his last remaining immediate family member,” Abbott said in a proclamation issued Thursday evening, adding that Whitaker had also agreed to waive all further rights to parole.
Abbott, also citing the parole board’s recommendation, added: “The totality of these factors warrants a commutation of Mr. Whitaker’s death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.”
It was only the fourth time since the state resumed executions in 1982 that the parole board has recommended clemency within days of an inmate’s scheduled execution. In the previous cases, then-Gov. Rick Perry, also a Republican, accepted the board’s decision in one case and rejected the other two, who subsequently were put to death in the nation’s most active capital punishment state.
Kent Whitaker said he was “humbled” and looked forward to hugging and touching his son.
“It was overpowering,” he said of the governor’s decision, which he learned in a phone call from Keith Hampton, one of his son’s lawyers. He and supporters were nearby the prison in a home used by inmate visitors and were standing and praying, Whitaker said. He put Hampton’s call on his speakerphone.
“The room erupted,” he said.
Hampton said he was “very relieved (Abbott) did the right thing.”
Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark said Bart Whitaker placed his arm through the bars of the holding cell after he was finished speaking with prison officials and asked to shake his hand.
“I haven’t touched another person in 13 years,” Whitaker told Clark, who said he accepted the prisoner’s request. Death row inmates in Texas are kept alone in their cells for 23 hours a day and their one hour of recreation also is alone in a concrete wall enclosure.
Agency spokesman Jeremy Desel said Whitaker would not be returned to death row but would be taken to a prison processing facility where he’d be treated as a new incoming inmate and eventually assigned to a unit in general population, a process that likely would take a couple of weeks.
Kent and Patricia Whitaker and their two boys had returned home the night of Dec. 10, 2003, following a restaurant dinner to celebrate Bart Whitaker’s college graduation when they were confronted by a gunman wearing dark clothes and a ski mask. Patricia Whitaker and her 19-year-old son, Kevin, were killed. Kent Whitaker and Bart were wounded.
Nearly two years later, Bart Whitaker was arrested in Mexico after investigators determined he arranged the plot in hopes of collecting a family estate he believed was worth more than $1 million.
“I’m 100 percent guilty,” Whitaker testified at his trial in 2007. “I put the plan in motion.”
He hated his parents and brother at the time, he said.
Whitaker’s father said he loves and has forgiven his son, calling him a changed person.
“As the greatest victim in this case, you don’t have to convince me how awful this crime was,” Kent Whitaker said.
Evidence showed the plot included two of Bart Whitaker’s friends and was at least his third attempt to kill his family. Whitaker’s wound to his arm was meant to draw attention away from his involvement. Unknown to his parents, the dinner celebration marking his graduation was a fraud. He’d dropped out of school months earlier.
The gunman, Chris Brashear, pleaded guilty in 2007 to a murder charge and is serving life in prison. Steve Champagne, who drove Brashear from the Whitaker house the night of the shootings, took a 15-year prison term in exchange for testifying at Whitaker’s trial.