TBI expands investigation of Millersville Police Department

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has expanded its probe of the embattled Millersville Police Department, now looking into allegations that officials may have used sensitive law enforcement data to investigate their political enemies.

Sources told NewsChannel 5 Investigates that TBI agents began conducting interviews last week with potential victims, and District Attorney General Ray Whitley of Gallatin confirmed Monday that he authorized the investigation into the possible misuse of data.

Whitley declined to comment on the specifics of the TBI probe.

"There is information that the TBI brought to me, and as a result of that, I asked for the investigation," Whitley said. "It's an ongoing investigation, and I really don't want to comment on it until we find out what's going on."

This latest investigation follows the revelations by NewsChannel 5 Investigates about how Millersville's conspiracy-minded assistant police chief Shawn Taylor has talked about investigating political figures who he has long imagined, without evidence, may be involved in child sex trafficking and other nefarious activities.

In addition, as NewsChannel 5 has previously reported, District Attorney General Robert Nash of Clarksville authorized a TBI investigation into Millersville's handling of a child predator sting back in May.

An exclusive NewsChannel 5 investigation revealed that members of a nonprofit group, Veterans for Child Rescue, posed online as a 12-year-old girl for the sting — despite a state law that requires sworn law enforcement officers to do the posing.

Then, in a preliminary hearing in Robertson County for one man arrested in the sting, Millersville detective Todd Dorris testified under oath that he and another detective were the ones doing the online work.

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Millersville straddles Robertson and Sumner counties. Robertson County is in the 19th Judicial District, for which Nash serves as the district attorney. Sumner County is in the 18th Judicial District, where Whitley is the elected DA.

Millersville police officials have refused to respond to any of NewsChannel 5's inquiries.

This is a developing story. Stay with NewsChannel 5 for additional developments.

WTVF

Part One: Meet Millersville's conspiracy cop. He believes the completely bogus QAnon conspiracy theory that falsely claimed Democrats had kept child sex slaves locked up in the basement of a pizza parlor in Washington, D.C.

He imagines sinister plots involving some of the country's most prominent political figures, including his theory — with no evidence whatsoever — that former Vice President Al Gore was involved in the disappearance and murder of 20-year-old Holly Bobo in 2011.

Taylor recently landed in Millersville as assistant police chief, promising to root out the corruption he sees there.

You can continue reading at this hyperlink.

Bob Stinnett/WTVF

Part Two: The controversy over Millersville's conspiracy cop, first uncovered by NewsChannel 5 Investigates, has now become the latest scandal rocking the tiny town just north of Nashville.

Now, two city commissioners want a special meeting to figure out how Shawn Taylor landed his job as the city's assistant police chief.

At the center of the controversy: Do Millersville residents want a high-ranking police official — with a gun, badge and the power to arrest people — who believes in bizarre conspiracy theories with no real evidence to back them up?

You can continue reading Part Two at this link.

Ismail, Levi

Part Three: An attorney for Millersville conspiracy cop Shawn Taylor has told Millersville's city commission, whom he also represents, that they should not question the assistant police chief's bizarre theories or psychological fitness because his client Shawn Taylor could sue his other client, the city.

The attorney's advice, delivered in an email sent Thursday, responded to a request from two city commissioners for a special meeting to review Taylor's hiring following NewsChannel 5's investigation of the self-described "gypsy cop."

"Interrogating Assistant Chief Taylor about his political viewpoints or political speech will violate his First Amendment rights and thereby expose the City to significant legal liability...," wrote Bryant Kroll.

You can read more of this installment at this link.

Phil Williams/WTVF

Part Four: Anna Caudill agreed to watch the video of Shawn Taylor knowing there might be only so much she could handle.

"So we'll start this," I reassured her, "and then, when you've had enough, you just stop it."

In the podcast video uncovered by NewsChannel 5 Investigates, Taylor shared bogus conspiracy theories about Nashville's Covenant School shooting. Now the assistant police chief in Millersville, Taylor was between police jobs at the time he recorded the podcast with two other conspiracy theorists.

For Anna, the mass shooting was personal.

Among the three children and three adults killed that day was her friend, Katherine Koonce, the school's beloved headmaster who was gunned down as she tried to stop the shooter.

You can read more of Anna's story by tapping on this link.

Bryan Staples/WTVF

Part Five: First, he went after Millersville’s former mayor.

Now, the town’s assistant police chief says his two critics on the city commission could be next.

Shawn Taylor, who has become known as Millersville’s conspiracy cop, made those comments as he turned to a group of far-right podcasters to defend himself against questions raised by NewsChannel 5 Investigates.

Tap this link to read from those Taylor's accused.

Bryan Staples/WTVF

Part Six: Millersville officials are standing with their assistant police chief and his bizarre conspiracy theories regarding Nashville's Covenant School shooting.

City Commissioner David Gregory urged his fellow commissioners to demand that Shawn Taylor apologize for a 2023 podcast in which he had questioned the official story. Taylor falsely claimed that video released by police was actually staged.

But the three-member majority ignored Gregory's plea, just as they have refused a recent request by Gregory and Commissioner Cristina Templet for a special meeting of the city commission to discuss Taylor's hiring.

Read how this meeting played out at this link.

Bryan Staples/WTVF

Part Seven: Bryant Kroll wears a lot of hats.

He's the attorney representing the embattled City of Millersville. He also represents Mayor Tommy Long, who faces accusations of misconduct in an ouster suit. Plus, he's the personal attorney for Police Chief Bryan Morris and Assistant Police Chief Shawn Taylor, representing them in a lawsuit against the City of Ridgetop.

To understand the role he plays, you can read that here.

Screencapture

Part Eight: In Shawn Taylor's world — in the immortal words of Taylor Swift — "I'm the problem, it's me."

Not his bizarre conspiracy theories — with no evidence — imagining some of the most prominent people in the country are engaged in child sex trafficking.

I explain how we got here in this piece, which you can click on here.

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Part Nine: What happens when you give people with bizarre conspiracy theories a gun and a badge?

Secret recordings from inside the troubled Millersville Police Department provide a sobering answer to that question.

Those recordings — obtained from what was supposed to be a sting operation to nab sexual predators who prey on innocent children — show that, in their zeal to make some big cases, Millersville's conspiracy-minded cops may have crossed the line of what's legal.

Read more on this investigation by tapping here.

File

Part Ten: In an explosive new development that could bring new trouble for the already-troubled Millersville Police Department, a key player in a child-predator sting says the lead detective on that operation lied under oath.

These latest questions follow the revelation of secret recordings obtained by NewsChannel 5 Investigates from that child-predator sting back in May that, our investigation discovered, do not match the detective's sworn testimony in the case.

You can read more about that by tapping here.

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