Davidson County Clerk’s office admits mistake in releasing accused murderer

DAVIDSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — The Davidson County Court Clerk’s office admitted to News 2 that they made a mistake. That mistake allowed an alleged killer to fly under the radar and hunt down his victim across state lines.

The victim’s father said that it was like letting an animal out of a cage.

Bricen Rivers was able to get out of jail without his probation terms in place.

“It’s like a sinking feeling in your stomach when you see what happened to the victim and realize that we had a mistake,” Court Clerk Chief Deputy Julius Sloss said.

Sloss said that the employee in charge of Rivers’ bond paperwork didn’t relay the judge’s conditions for his release.

One of them was a GPS monitor to keep Rivers in Nashville and away from 22-year-old Lauren Johansen. News 2 previously reported that Rivers was supposed to be placed under GPS monitoring with a specific company. That company was not available and Rivers was ultimately fitted through a different company.

That violation was not brought to the attention of the DA’s office until four days after the fact.

“We obviously feel for her family and the things that they’re going through right now,” Sloss said. “I can’t imagine.”

Rivers’ history with Nashville’s justice system began in December 2023 when Metro Police said that they arrested Rivers. At the time, he was charged with especially aggravated kidnapping and interference with an emergency call. He and Lauren were here on vacation.

She returned to Mississippi and he went to jail for seven months. Then, he got out. Sloss told News 2 that his office is working to ensure that mistakes like these won’t happen again.

“We have already talked to our IT people about adding a red flag or something that can be put into the system so that, when that employee goes in to print the jail release, it won’t let them print it until questions are asked,” Sloss said.

He added that the employee who made the mistake still works there.

“The person that supervises that area — I mean — tears. Literal tears flowing,” Sloss said. “And of course, the person who made the mistake, they’re a bit distraught right now and wondering whether or not they were going to still have a job. There will be some kind of disciplinary action. We haven’t determined what that is yet.”

As of publication, Rivers has a $1 million bond in Mississippi. A medical examiner is expected to weigh in on Lauren’s cause of death.

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