Attorney's name surfaces in suicides, judicial investigations two decades apart

WSMV Channel 4
NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) - The name of well-known Nashville attorney Bryan Lewis has been in the news a lot lately in connection with the May 2016 suicide of Leigh Terry.

Police concluded Terry shot herself in the head with Lewis’ gun in an apartment in the Stahlman building Lewis had rented for her. Lewis told police the two had a sexual relationship.

According to a detective’s report, Terry, Lewis, General Sessions Judge Casey Moreland and several other people had recently taken a trip to Alabama. The trip ended early for Terry after an argument, during which witnesses said Terry threatened to expose something she said she knew about Lewis and the judge.

Lewis’ name also came up after an investigation into the suicide of a Davidson County judge 21 years ago.

Metro police said Probate Court Judge Jim Everett shot himself in the head on land owned by Bryan Lewis’ father, Jimmy Lewis, in October 1995. Jimmy Lewis found the judge’s body, according to Metro police.

Authorities said Judge Everett's suicide came 18 days before a federal grand jury was to meet.

Bryan Lewis was frequently in Judge Everett's court. He was appointed to handle the affairs of people who were in conservatorships.

In a conservatorship, people who can’t care for themselves, such as people with dementia, are appointed someone, often an attorney, to look after them. Their estates pay the legal fees.

After Judge Everett committed suicide, the District Attorney’s office and federal agencies stepped up a probe that was already underway into the judge’s office.

"The FBI, the IRS, and our office at this point are the ones that are looking into any possible violations for anything that occurred in Probate Court. I'm not saying that there are, I'm saying that's what we're involved in looking at," said District Attorney Torry Johnson during an interview the month after the judge’s death.

Everett's suicide accelerated other investigations into possible favoritism by the judge.

A team of reporters from the Tennessean newspaper poured through nearly a decade of Everett's court records. Jim East was on that team.

"We went way back. We sat down there, eight, 10 hours a day for about 10 days," East said.

"We spent about six weeks working on the stories,” East added.

The Tennessean looked at whom Everett was appointing as conservators and how much they earned in fees.

"We kept seeing the same names,” East said.

The lion's share of cases, worth more than $800,000, were assigned to a small circle of the judge's friends, the reporters found.

"Eighty-five percent of those were going to four people, three of them lawyers, including Bryan Lewis," East said. Two of the other lawyers were associates of Lewis, East said.

The Tennessean found Bryan Lewis was paid $172,000 in fees from the cases Everett appointed him to.

“They weren't criminally charged with doing anything illegal," East said.

Published reports said Everett was also under investigation for accepting free cars from a local dealership and for possibly altering the outcomes of sentences in DUI cases.

The Channel 4 I-Team had investigated Judge Everett a year before his death. The I-Team found court records showing Judge Everett was letting repeat drunk drivers out of jail on furloughs, which the law didn't allow.

"Judges are human, I'm going to make mistakes. I'll make mistakes tomorrow. I'll make mistakes next week. But I'll try not to make the same mistakes twice,” Everett told Channel 4’s Nancy Amons during a December 1994 interview.

Former District Attorney Torry Johnson confirmed to the I-Team that his office was investigating allegations of bribery. Everett died before the investigation ran its course.

According to investigators, there was never any indication that Judge Everett's death was anything but a suicide.

Police said he left notes with his family but they didn't reference the investigation.

"Notes the judge left did not give a specific reason. The reason, only the judge knew," said Don Aaron, the police department spokesman, in October 1995.

Jim East has his own opinion of why Everett committed suicide.

"Well, I think he was scared to death he was going to end up a judge in prison," East said.

The I-Team contacted Bryan Lewis for an interview. He declined, saying, “I will never speak to you for the entirety of my career."

Now another Nashville judge is under investigation - Judge Casey Moreland.

The name of Moreland's friend Bryan Lewis coincidentally comes up in connection with two suicides, two decades apart.

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Attorney's name surfaces in suicides, judicial investigations two decades apart

Casey Moreland to take leave from bench

Judge Casey Moreland

A Nashville judge facing allegations that an improper relationship influenced a case in his courtroom will be off the bench for a period of time, court officials said Friday.

Judge Casey Moreland, one of Nashville’s 11 General Sessions judges handling mostly misdemeanor cases, is on leave for medical reasons, according to General Sessions Court Administrator Warner Hassell.

"I know Judge Moreland may be out for a little bit for medical reasons," he said. "And how long that may be I don't know. But his docket will be covered by a qualified judge."

Hassell said the General Sessions judges, who each earn $170,000 annually, held a special meeting Friday and unanimously selected Judge Gale Robinson to replace Moreland as presiding judge. 

Robinson, who called the meeting, did not return a call Friday.

Moreland had served as presiding judge since last fall, and has been a judge since 1998. The presiding judge earns the same as other judges but takes on administrative duties such as setting schedules.

Earlier this week, Moreland's health was a concern. About 9 a.m. Thursday, a court staffer and a police officer went to his home to conduct a welfare check, police spokeswoman Kris Mumford said. She said the officer talked to the judge and left.

The allegations of misconduct against Moreland are documented in a Metro Nashville Police Department investigation of a woman’s suicide, and were the subject of several stories in the Nashville Scene and on WSMV Channel 4 news.

The Tennessean has been working for weeks to verify the allegations in the reports.

Nashville resident Leigh Terry, 34, committed suicide in May. Before she died, Terry told two friends she had sex with Moreland, according to a police report based on interviews with the friends. She told one friend she had sex with the judge to get out of a driving under the influence charge, the report said. The interviews documented in the police report are not done under oath.

Terry had at least one DUI and implied consent violation — meaning she refused to take a breath or blood test — case assigned to Moreland, but the trial in the case was handled by another Nashville judge, court records show.

The case happened in 2013, years before Terry, Moreland, lawyer Bryan Lewis and others went on a tumultuous trip to Alabama together.

In late April 2016, Lewis flew Terry and others in his private plane to the beach. Moreland met them there. On the trip and at dinner, Terry was picking fights with people, Lewis told police, so he booked her a hotel room and gave her money for a flight home. A week later, police reports say, the woman killed herself in her apartment with a gun Lewis had given her.

In interviews with police investigating Terry’s death, Lewis admitted he and Terry had been in a sexual relationship and he paid for the downtown apartment where the woman lived.

Moreland told the Nashville Scene he had met Terry a few times and recused himself from her DUI case. In comments to the Scene, the judge denied having a sexual relationship with Terry and said his stamp on case dispositions was merely an administrative measure.

But a judicial conduct expert consulted by The Tennessean for this story said the recusal raises questions.

“If he’s just saying he ran into the woman once or twice, I’m not sure why he recused himself,” said David Cook, a Memphis lawyer and former member of the state judicial oversight body now known as the Board of Judicial Conduct.

Terry was represented by Lewis in the DUI case. Cook said the judge’s relationship with Lewis, as well as Terry, could violate rules for judges in Tennessee.

Moreland did not respond to text messages, phone calls or an email seeking comment this week. Lewis said he could not comment for this story.

Lewis and the longtime General Sessions judge have a history, one that has led to controversy before.

Later this month, Lewis will go before the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility, which disciplines lawyers, for a hearing on a complaint that involves Moreland.

A complaint was filed because of a call Lewis made to Moreland, which led to a prominent developer getting out of jail early after his arrest on domestic violence charges. The developer, David Chase, was charged with assaulting his former girlfriend a second time, after he was released. Those charges were later dropped in a controversial deal made by District Attorney General Glenn Funk.

Lewis’ disciplinary hearing is set to begin Feb. 13, after which members of the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility will decide what if any penalties he should face.

Full Article & Source:
Casey Moreland to take leave from bench

Moreland, Lewis made headlines in David Chase case

Judge Casey Moreland and his longtime friend, attorney Bryan Lewis, made headlines in a case that dominated Nashville news for months. (1-31-17)

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Moreland, Lewis made headlines in David Chase case