Once Upon a Time in Nashville Podcast
Journalist Cornelia Rowe mentions Keel’s 2014 piece on the Judge Moreland scandal on her podcast Once Upon a Time in Nashville.
Read Keel’s piece from The Tennessean below. Then scroll further to hear Ms. Rowe highlight Keel’s take on the affair in her podcast episode, “There’s Nothing Left but Smoke.”
Two ways to solve the Judge Moreland problem
Originally published in The Tennessean on June 22, 2014
The public outrage about Judge Casey Moreland is palpable across the city this weekend. You can smell it in the air.
I have not seen this level of uproar over a government scandal since the Ray Blanton ouster or the public corruption cases called "Rocky Top" and "Tennessee Waltz" — all of them more complicated but never centering on a local courtroom like this.
You and I may not be legal scholars, but we don't need a law degree to see what happened in this case. We are fully qualified to smell a rat in the woodpile, and this one stinks to high heaven.
We are smart enough to feel deeply for the woman who bore the beating at the hands of the man Judge Moreland let loose when he shouldn't have. We understand it is not enough for him to promise he will do better next time.
We know the score when we see those vacation photos of this judge and the defendant's lawyer frolicking in Costa Rica.
We can see through his desperate retorts to an interviewer on Wednesday: He called Police Chief Steve Anderson a "bully" (for speaking the truth) and impugned the motives of Councilwoman Megan Barry (who said he ought to resign).
Most Nashvillians have never heard of Casey Moreland or been in his court. His dodges this week did nothing but bring him into sharp focus as a vindictive, small-gauge politico.
There are two ways now to solve this problem:
• Option 1: Casey Moreland should call a news conference on the courthouse steps tomorrow morning, and there he should resign. He could say why, but no matter what he says he should leave.
• Option 2: If he does not do that, the Nashville community should give him an opponent for re-election. Currently, his name will be the only one on the Aug. 7 ballot. This could be one write-in campaign that wins.
It is not too late for a qualified candidate to step forward, but the outrage in the air across the city now must be shaped into focused action. This could be a great opportunity for a bright young attorney who has justice and the city's best interests at heart.
The Moreland scandal exploded from a case of domestic abuse. For the woman who was beaten, when the judge let her attacker go free, there was no cooling-off period and there was no justice. It was smothered by the buddy system.
Combatting domestic violence is hard enough in our city. We don't need a sitting judge making it even harder.
There is little enough public understanding of courts in the first place, and any time a judge acts badly, it impacts the stature of all judges.
This case is strictly not about one judge being friendly with one lawyer. Just 10 days ago, when the news of this judicial outrage was first breaking in Nashville, I was in East Tennessee speaking to some 300 judges and lawyers at their annual "Bench & Bar" conference. It is proper to gather like that, developing mutual understanding of roles, then return to their jobs with respect for the rule of law and procedure.
No, the Moreland scandal is about a miscarriage and the absence of justice, for which one woman in our city paid a savage price.
Five hundred years ago, Niccolo Machiavelli wrote, "It is not titles that honor men but men that honor titles."
Judge Moreland has held his title for 19 years. The time has come to give it up, so the rest of us can honor it once again.
There’s Nothing Left but Smoke
A 2014 scandal involving [Bryan] Lewis and [Judge] Moreland is revisited, shocking revelations come to light about their vacations with other judges and attorneys, and a surprise witness emerges with a BOMBSHELL story about something else Leigh Terry was up to ... something he alleges could have connections to her death.
Keel is mentioned at 14:55. Episode 9, July 11, 2024