As he is actively seeking to oust Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy for being “soft on crime,” state Sen. Brent Taylor (R-Eads) is being accused of breaking the law himself and posting sensitive personal information on social media.
Meanwhile, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is offering a $50,000 reward for information that could lead to finding a missing teenager.
And Wednesday evening, small local business leaders met to discuss crime prevention tactics with the Memphis mayor and interim police chief.
Here’s what was on the docket for the week of Aug. 26.
West Tennessee DA calls for investigation into state senator
District Attorney Frederick Agee, a Republican whose district encompasses Crockett, Gibson and Haywood counties, has reported Taylor — a Republican who represents Eads and parts of Shelby County — to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and Tennessee Comptroller’s office for allegedly violating state law.
The state law Agee claims was violated requires people, businesses and nonprofits who come into possession of someone’s social security number “for a legitimate business or governmental purpose shall make reasonable efforts to protect that social security number from disclosure to the public.”
The first example of what is prohibited, according to the law, is posting a social security number to social media — which is what Agee has alleged Taylor did.
“I reported Sen. Taylor and the Gibson County Sheriff’s Department’s alleged violation of TCA 47-18-2110 to the TBI and comptroller’s office on Friday, August 16, 2024,” Agee wrote in an email statement. “Mr. Cole, whose information was compromised, is from our judicial district, and I have a professional duty to report the alleged crime. Releasing someone’s personal identifiable information presently has serious repercussions given how many cases of identify theft we have in our Country and State each year. Because Sen. Taylor directed the social media post towards me, and it appears the information posted may have been released by the Gibson County Sheriff’s Department, I also requested a Pro Tem prosecutor review whether the GCSD released this unredacted information in violation of the law.”
Agee said his request for a pro tem prosecutor was denied, but another request may be filed later with additional details.
Gibson County Sheriff Paul Thomas was criminally indicted in June this year for illegally profiting off inmate labor.
First reported by The Tennessee Lookout Wednesday, Taylor quickly took to X — formerly Twitter — and said he “quickly replaced” the document with a redacted version once he realized it “may have possibly contained personal information.” The document, according to The Tennessee Lookout’s reporting, was posted for about 10 hours.
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Taylor has, in recent months, taken aim at Shelby County’s legal system, attributing high crime rates to the courts and Murloy’s performance. Taylor’s bevy of allegations against Mulroy, a Democrat, culminated with him announcing plans to oust Mulroy from office during the upcoming legislative session.
Agee, in an early August opinion piece for The Daily Memphian, defended Mulroy’s decisions since being elected in September 2022. He also compared the move to oust Mulroy from state Republicans to actions taken by dictators as opposed to “George Washington and Thomas Jefferson’s democracy.”
This immediately placed Agee in Taylor’s crosshairs, who has launched a number of attacks online since the opinion was published. Taylor has also alleged Agee is “soft on crime,” which he had seemingly meant to prove by publishing a number of documents from Agee’s district. This included the document with the defendant’s social security number.
In comments to The Commercial Appeal, and those posted to social media, Taylor has said he is not responsible for publishing the social security number, but rather Agee’s office is responsible since the number was not redacted on a public document.
When requesting public documents that contain sensitive information, it is common practice to redact that information before releasing the documents. Sentencing reports are records maintained by a local district attorney’s office. Taylor did not respond to a question asking whether he obtained the document through a public records request.
Taylor also said the law Agee cited, which is a Class B misdemeanor and could be accompanied by a nearly six-month sentence, “only applies to businesses which obtain personal information through business transactions.”
The law reads, in part, that, “On and after January 1, 2008, any person, nonprofit or for profit business entity in this state, including, but not limited to, any sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company, or corporation, engaged in any business, including, but not limited to, health care, that has obtained a federal social security number for a legitimate business or governmental purpose shall make reasonable efforts to protect that social security number from disclosure to the public.”
FBI offering $50,000 reward for information on missing 15-year-old
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Memphis Field Office is offering a $50,000 reward for information that could lead to finding a missing 15-year-old, or the arrest of the people responsible for his disappearance.
Sebastian Wayne Drake Rogers, 15, was last seen Feb. 26 this year near Stafford Court in Hendersonville, the FBI said in a press release.
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The teen was wearing a black sweatshirt, black sweatpants and black, square-framed glasses. Rogers, the FBI said, has medical conditions that include autism.
Information about Rogers can be shared with the Sumner County Sheriff’s Office by calling (615) 451-3838, calling the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-824-3463, emailing TBI at TipsToTBI@TBI.tn.gov, or by reaching out to the local FBI office, American embassy or consulate.
Tips can also be submitted online at tips.fbi.gov.
Local business owners meet with mayor, police chief to talk crime solutions
Bank of America, Wednesday evening, hosted dozens of local small business owners at its Poplar Avenue location to talk about crime prevention.
The forum, which featured Memphis Mayor Paul Young and MPD interim Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis, focused on the city’s Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design program, commonly called CPTED. The program has been online for several months but has not seen much use.
The program allows small business owners who have been victims of crime reach out to Memphis police for a consultation to find ways that owners can prevent crime at their locations. Some, Young said, are also eligible for city funds that can be used to pay for additional lighting and landscaping work.
Businesses can receive up to $25,000 through the program and are eligible if they have been a victim of a business robbery, a robbery or assault of staff or customers on business property where a weapon was used, vandalism during a robbery or burglary, vehicle thefts or car break-ins with on-site security and business burglaries.
Eligible businesses must be located within Memphis city limits, have less than $750,000 in annual revenue and be current on Memphis and Shelby County taxes.
Davis also encouraged business owners to join the department’s Connect2Memphis camera program. The program allows businesses and residents with a camera to either integrate the camera with the department — allowing direct access — or register with the department. Registering does not give MPD direct access, but lets investigators know who has cameras in the area of a reported crime.
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Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert’s battle against a new ouster proceeding is continuing to unfold, and her attorney has now filed a second motion to dismiss the new case against her. This motion points to similar arguments made in her last motion to dismiss, which was granted, but now also cites a Florida ruling that favored former President Donald Trump.
A response to her motion has not yet been filed, and a court date has not been set for arguments on the motion. It does, however, begin to move the ball forward in the new case. It is unclear whether Halbert’s motion will be granted in the new case since she has not yet responded to the allegations in the ouster petition.
Halbert ultimately filed two motions to dismiss in her previous ouster case. The first was denied without prejudice, with the judge saying a motion to dismiss does not qualify as a response to an ouster petition. Denying the motion without prejudice allowed Halbert to file another motion in that first ouster proceeding, which was ultimately granted.
The trial date for the three remaining officers charged with violating Tyre Nichols’ civil rights is rapidly approaching. Just over a week remains before the trial will begin on Sept. 9, and a flurry of motions remain undecided. A pretrial conference is scheduled for the Friday before the trial, but it is not clear whether certain issues will be ruled upon before the trial.
Emmitt Martin III entered into a guilty plea on Aug. 23, and part of that deal included a promise that he would testify if called upon. Judge Mark S. Norris is yet to rule on a motion over whether aspects of Martin and Desmond Mills’ plea deals will be admissible during trial.
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Publish date : 2024-08-29 23:05:00
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