Knox County, County Mayor Glenn Jacobs and the Pension and Retirement Board have asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by sheriff's office employees who claim they were denied their entitled pensions. The lawsuit was filed in June in Knox County Chancery Court after limits were imposed on pensions for patrol officers and jailers. About 300 officers and jailers are affected by the cap, and the plaintiffs argue that it violates the county's charter, Knox News reports. In 2023, the Knox County Commission approved a plan to limit how much of an employee's salary is used to calculate retirees' pension payments, capping the pension calculation at 3% per year. The officers and jailers contend they signed onto a plan that guaranteed pension payments based on their full pay each year, without restrictions, and say the change violates the terms for those who joined the plan between 2007 and 2014. A judge will hear arguments on Dec. 16.

Environmental groups American Riverkeepers and American Whitewater filed a lawsuit in federal court Monday against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Forest Service. The lawsuit alleges the agencies illegally allowed CSX Transportation to dredge the Nolichucky River gorge in East Tennessee for rocks and other materials to rebuild rail lines damaged or washed away by floods from Hurricane Helene. According to the Tennessee Lookout, the dredging poses risks to the river, its aquatic life and the potential for future downstream flooding that could affect communities dependent on the river for tourism revenue. The lawsuit claims the federal approvals violated standard agency procedures and several federal environmental laws designed to protect river ecosystems. CSX said it would continue to work with federal agencies to "ensure rail infrastructure is recovered and restored in the safest and most environmentally responsible way," the newspaper reports.

The Office of the Tennessee Attorney General is urging consumers to be aware of scam websites posing as classic car and heavy equipment dealerships. Even though scammers answer the phones, send videos and present fake business licenses, consumers will be swindled out of their money if they fall for these scams, the office said in a release this week. Among the scams are a fake classic car seller named Leo’s Luxury Motors and a fake website for heavy machinery, which was made using the name of Equipment Express, an authentic forklift dealer in Lebanon, Tennessee. The office recommends viewing any vehicles or machinery in person before purchasing and following five tips to ensure dealings are with reputable sellers. Learn more and get the tips on the office’s website.

Nashville’s Community Review Board voted unanimously this week to approve a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Metro Nashville Police Department, formalizing the procedures both sides will follow as the board reviews internal police investigations. The agreement comes more than a year after the review board was established to take the place of a stronger oversight board that was eliminated by a 2023 state law. Details of the agreement were not released, but recent board discussions had focused on making sure the board had timely access to body camera footage and received entire case files associated with complaints against officers, the Nashville Banner reports.

The federal judiciary’s first annual report detailing the steps it has taken to address allegations of workplace misconduct is out and shows most of the complaints were not lodged against judges but other court staff, Reuters reports. According to the report, only half of the 178 workplace misconduct claims between 2021-2023 involved the courts themselves as opposed to probation offices or federal public defender offices. Of that, 14% of claims concerned law clerks and other staff in a judge's chambers. The Office of Judicial Integrity within the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts published the report, which was one of several reforms adopted amid allegations of sexual harassment by judges during the “Me Too” movement.

A federal judge has ruled that meetings of the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Rules of Practice and Procedure do not have to be open to the public and press, Bloomberg Law reports. The ruling came in a suit filed by Dan McCaleb, executive editor of the online news organization The Center Square, against the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts. U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson previously granted a temporary injunction requested by McCaleb that opened the meetings. The commission has streamed its meetings live on YouTube throughout this year. The judge now has found that the commission can close its meetings because it is a rulemaking body and not part of an adjudicative process. The Center Square said in a news report that the case was quickly appealed to the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Attorneys for the city of Memphis filed court documents this month raising questions that could affect a $550 million civil rights suit being brought by RowVaughn Wells, the mother of Tyre Nichols. Among its claims, the city says that Morgan Jackson, the mother of Nichols’ son, received $400,000 from attorneys for Wells in exchange for relinquishing her right to administer Nichols' estate. The documents also include a claim allegedly made by Jackson during depositions that Nichols was physically abusive of her. Lawyers for Wells are pushing back on the disclosures, saying they are being made to smear the family and “poison the jury pool.” They dispute the source of the payments to Jackson, saying they came from private citizens via a GoFundMe account, and say that the filing violates a previous order that gave attorneys time to designate portions of depositions as confidential. The Daily Memphian has more on the story.

Shelby County Circuit Court Judge Felicia Corbin-Johnson has dismissed the second ouster attempt against Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert, the Commercial Appeal reports. Corbin-Johnson said that the way the motion was structured — filed by private attorney Robert Meyers, who was hired for the job after Shelby County attorney Marlinee Iverson recused herself, but naming Iverson as a relator — meant it was filed with knowledge and information from Iverson. That led the judge to conclude that Iverson was responsible for the investigation that led to the ouster attempt and Meyers had no standing to bring the case. Meyers now has 30 days to decide whether to appeal. The first ouster attempt, filed by Hamilton County District Attorney General Coty Wamp acting as a special attorney, was dismissed because Wamp does not live in the jurisdiction where Halbert was elected.

A Chattanooga attorney has been accused of repeatedly sending pornographic videos that involved child and animal abuse, the Chattanooga Times Press reports. Patrick Bryant Hawley has been charged federally with sexual exploitation of children, animal crushing, coercion, enticement, and the receipt, possession and distribution of child pornography. Hawley is expected to be arraigned Nov. 22 in Chattanooga's federal court according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Tennessee.

The parents of a man who died in the Hamilton County Jail after a suspected drunk driving violation have filed a wrongful death suit against the sheriff's office and its health care team, alleging deliberate indifference and inadequate care. The lawsuit seeks $4.5 million in damages from the county over the death of their son, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports. A jail log allegedly indicates that staff were aware of the man's deteriorating condition long before he was found unresponsive on a shower floor. He was later sent to the hospital and pronounced dead just over an hour later. According to the newspaper, the jail has faced multiple allegations of inadequate medical care, inhumane living conditions and inmate-on-inmate violence, with at least 16 in-custody deaths since the sheriff's office took control of the jail in 2020.