Steven Hale

Nashville

Reporting on criminal justice and public safety for @NashvilleBanner. Previously: @NashvilleScene. Author of DEATH ROW WELCOMES YOU (2024)

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Articles

Families face challenges getting answers to prison deaths

1 week ago | nashvillebanner.com | Steven Hale

Just after midnight on Feb. 9, Connie Debriel received a call from the chaplain at Trousdale Turner Correctional Center, the CoreCivic prison where her 25-year-old son Matthew Woodyard was incarcerated. “I regret to inform you but your son passed away,” the man said. Shocked, she asked what had happened. Debriel had spoken to her son on the phone just several hours earlier. The chaplain said he didn’t have details. She asked if he was sure he had the right person. He said yes or he wouldn’t be calling.
Grand Jury Report on MNPD Whistleblower Complaint

2 weeks ago | nashvillebanner.com | Steven Hale

The Davidson County Grand Jury in recent months conducted its own inquiry into the whistleblower complaint brought last year against the Metro Nashville Police Department and concluded that “there is evidence of criminal and civil violations which should be meticulously investigated” by a special prosecutor, according to a forthcoming report obtained by the Banner. The jury reviewed previous whistleblower complaints and heard testimony from current officers.
Covenant School Shooter Motivated by Desire for Fame

3 weeks ago | nashvillebanner.com | Steven Hale

Editor’s note: It is the Banner’s policy to refer to transgender people by their chosen names and with their preferred pronouns. In recent years, the Covenant shooter had started using male pronouns and the name Aiden Williams. Throughout their report on the shooting, the MNPD refers to the shooter as Audrey Hale and uses female pronouns.
Nashville police increase traffic stops, sparking debate

3 weeks ago | nashvillebanner.com | Steven Hale

Nashville police officers are pulling over more drivers than they did last year, continuing a trend of rising traffic stops that began in 2023. Metro Council members and safety advocates have been calling for increased traffic enforcement, which had plummeted in the city in the wake of reports that exposed significant racial disparities. As the first quarter of 2025 ends, Metro Nashville Police Department data shows officers have stopped 11,496 drivers as of March 29.
Who is ICE detaining from Nashville?

1 month ago | timesfreepress.com | Steven Hale

In South Nashville earlier this month, a 36-year-old man was making his way home in the same manner he had many other times. The man, who works in construction, rode a bus to a stop on Nolensville Road and started walking back home to his wife, a restaurant worker, and their 13-year-old daughter, a Metro Nashville Public School student. They came to the United States from Nicaragua three years ago and live without legal documentation.
Immigration detentions surge in Nashville under Trump

1 month ago | nashvillebanner.com | Steven Hale

In South Nashville last week, a 36-year-old man was making his way home in the same manner he had many other times. The man, who works in construction, rode a bus to a stop on Nolensville Road and started walking back home to his wife, a restaurant worker, and their 13-year-old daughter, a Metro Nashville Public School student. They came to the United States from Nicaragua three years ago and live without legal documentation.
State bill would allow use of lethal force to protect property

1 month ago | tullahomanews.com | Steven Hale

On Feb. 14, the Metro Nashville Police Department announced the arrest of a 19-year-old for allegedly shooting into a Whites Creek-area home, wounding a resident inside. The gunfire came, police said, after the resident yelled through the window at people “who were lurking around his pickup truck parked in the driveway.”The incident was a frightening example of a scenario the department had warned about just days earlier. On Feb.
Nashville judge Cheryl Blackburn to retire after 29 years

1 month ago | nashvillebanner.com | Steven Hale |Connor Daryani

Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Cheryl Blackburn announced Wednesday that she will retire on May 31 after 29 years on the bench. Her decision to step down comes nearly a year after questions from attorneys and court observers about her competency were brought into public view. She is currently the longest serving criminal court judge in Nashville. The Banner first reported in April 2024 that multiple defense attorneys had filed motions questioning her mental acuity.
Discord over felony camping arrests in Nashville

1 month ago | nashvillebanner.com | Steven Hale |Stephen Elliott

Around 10:30 p.m. on Nov. 15, Tennessee Highway Patrol Trooper Dajuan Clark was patrolling near Lower Broadway when he came across a woman under the pedestrian bridge. According to an affidavit filed in court the next day, Clark observed that the woman was “camping with bedding, pillows and blankets and all her belongings in various bags.” Because she’d been previously warned, Clark wrote in the affidavit, he arrested her for unauthorized camping on state property, a felony.
MNPD to implement new sexual misconduct policy

1 month ago | nashvillebanner.com | Steven Hale

The Metro Nashville Police Department has agreed to implement the sexual misconduct policy proposed by the Community Review Board in August, following a months-long review by Metro lawyers and human resources officials. Although MNPD leadership continually pointed to existing policies that expressed zero tolerance for sexual harassment, the CRB said its policy is meant to define misconduct more thoroughly, provide more ways for people to report it and offer more protection for those who do.