August 27, 2008

THP Refuses to Release List

The Tennessee Highway Patrol now says it won't release the list of 182 targets of the unauthorized criminal background checks run by Lt Ronnie Shirley, the trooper with ties to the Bredesen administration. The THP's rationale: it claims the list is "evidence" in a possible criminal case.

That's absurd. The list of names isn't evidence, it is a list of the victims of Lt. Shirley's unauthorized and probably illegal searches. The THP is determined to keep the list secret - and the Bredesen administration won't challenge them on it.

Why? Are there names on the list the revelation of which would undermine the governor's claim that Lt. Shirley's activities were not political? Well, yes, actually, there are.

We know that because despite the efforts by the THP, the administration and now a Democrat district attorney to conceal the list, the public haslearned of the identities of two people on the list. The first - a Republican state trooper who is currently suing the THP alleging that the THP hampered his career because he is a Republican. This is the same THP, after all, in which scores of officers received promotions as a reward for their donations to the gubernatorial campaign of Democrat Bredesen, a "pay-for-promotions" scheme masterminded by then-Deputy Gov. Dave Cooley. And when Cooley needed a speeding ticket fixed, who fixed it?

Lt. Ronnie Shirley.

The second name on the list that has been revealed: Tennessean reporter Brad Schrade, who has written many of the paper's stories exposing various facets of the political corruption involving the THP and the Bredesen administration.

Two names. Two connections to politics and the Bredesen administration.

But I'm sure that has nothing to do with why they don't want to release the rest of the names on the list.

If you are one of the 80 people on the list that the THP says it has already interrogated intimidated interviewed, please contact me at bill-at-billhobbs.com or by phone at my office.