A federal judge has ruled that a class action lawsuit against Johnson City and its police force can move forward, Tennessee Lookout reports. The suit alleges police took bribes and looked the other way while a serial rapist assaulted scores of women and at least two children. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Travis McDonough opens the door to not only the initial 10 Jane Doe plaintiffs, but potentially hundreds of Johnson City victims who were sexually assaulted over a more than five-year period — from Jan. 1, 2018, to April 25, 2023 — regardless of the perpetrator or whether assaults were reported.

After almost two decades of working with the Tennessee Bar Association, initially as a contractor and currently as an employee, Technical Systems Administrator Dave Bevis is retiring from the organization. "I have enjoyed working at TBA and wish the organization, and especially the staff, much success going forward," he said. Bevis plans to stay busy building furniture and other items (and keeping all his fingers) as well as working on some technology projects centered around accessibility for people with disabilities. Executive Director Sheree Wright said of his departure, “We are grateful to Dave for all he has done for the TBA, from developing the online CLE system to his patient way of solving our IT problems. We wish him well in this next chapter!” Applications are now being accepted for the position of technical systems administrator. Visit www.tba.org/careers to view the job description and apply.

The Tennessee Court of Appeals has set aside a lower court’s decision that would have kept records related to a Shelby County child’s death from being released to the public, reports the Tennessee Lookout. The Department of Children’s Services (DCS) denied Memphis reporter Stacy Jacobson with WREG-TV access to complete case files as she sought to report on what the agency did or not do to protect a 14-year-old boy before he died from starvation in 2020. The public records lawsuit returns to Davidson County Chancery Court.

State Rep. Robert Stevens, R-Smyrna, has requested a campaign finance audit and investigation into Murfreesboro Mayor Shane McFarland and Smyrna Mayor Mary Esther Reed. According to the Daily News Journal, Stevens wrote the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance a Jan. 25 letter pertaining to a $7,500 donation from McFarland on Nov. 23, 2022, to Tennesseans For Greater Accountability, a political action committee (PAC). The PAC then "on the exact same day" donated $7,500 to the campaign account of Reed. The Registry is scheduled to review the audit request on March 26.

The Tennessee General Assembly on Monday confirmed Shelby County Circuit Judge Mary Wagner to the Tennessee Supreme Court. Wagner will take her seat on the court after Justice Roger A. Page's retirement on Aug. 31. Wagner's confirmation passed the Tennessee House of Representatives 94-3 and the Senate 32-0 during a brief joint session. The Tennessean reports that members of the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved her selection last week, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle hailing her as an excellent choice for the court. During the hearing, Wagner described herself to committee members as “both an originalist and a textualist" and said overturning precedents should be done "sparingly and cautiously." Read more from the Administrative Office of the Courts.

Save the date for the TBA's Annual Dispute Resolution Forum, taking place May 9 in Nashville at the Tennessee Bankers Association in Nashville. An annual staple for Tennessee attorneys, this event provides insight from top professionals in the alternative dispute resolution (ADR) vocation while allowing attendees to meet with other mediators from across the state. More details coming soon!

Three opinions in today's issue of TBA Today are corrected versions of opinions that ran earlier this week and last week. A correction in the case of Jimmiko Driskell v. State of Tennessee, issued by the Court of Criminal Appeals on Feb. 29, included the wrong case summary in that day's issue of TBA Today. An opinion from the Court of Criminal Appeals in the case of State of Tennessee v. Matthew Smith ran in the wrong section of the Feb. 29 issue of TBA Today. And, an opinion from the Tennessee Supreme Court on March 7 in the case of State of Tennessee v. Tony Thomas and Laronda Turner omitted an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part by Justice Sharon Lee. The court also today issued a corrected version of an opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part to that case by Justice Sarah Campbell.

The U.S. Supreme Court is seeking $19.4 million in federal funds to increase security for the nine justices and assign protection of their homes to its own police force rather than the U.S. Marshals Service, citing "evolving" risks faced by the nation's top judicial body, reports Reuters. That funding would include $5.8 million to expand the security activities of the Supreme Court Police, its in-house security force, and $13.6 million to let the court's police take over the duties currently served by the Marshals Service of protecting the justices' homes. Serious threats against federal judges rose to 457 in fiscal year 2023, from 224 in fiscal 2021, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.

Isaiah 117 House, a northeast Tennessee-based nonprofit ministry, broke ground on a new facility in Memphis on Monday. The organization allows children to go to a comfortable environment where trained volunteers can care for them during the period between removal and placement with a foster family. The Daily Memphian reports that in Shelby County, 1,200 children are in state custody. Teenagers make up the largest group, followed by small children from infancy through age 4. The Department of Children's Services (DCS) and Isaiah 117 House leaders began collaborating after they met at a monthly meeting of the Memphis Interfaith Foster and Adoption Ministries, an alliance of churches, agencies, ministries and community advocates who serve foster, adoptive and kinship children and families.

On March 4, Davidson County attorney Wesley Jesse Ladner III received a public censure from the Supreme Court of Tennessee and was ordered to pay the costs and fees of the Board of Professional Responsibility. The censure was conditioned on Ladner engaging a practice monitor for two years, contacting the Tennessee Lawyers Assistance Program and complying with any of its recommendations. Ladner represented a client in a contentious divorce matter. During the course of the domestic litigation, Ladner engaged in abuses of the discovery process, failed to diligently and timely respond to discovery requests, and made factual misstatements to the court and opposing counsel. Ladner executed a conditional guilty plea acknowledging his conduct violated Rules of Professional Conduct 1.3, 3.1, 3.3, 3.4, 8.4(c) and (d).