NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — The Tennessee Peace Officer Standards & Training Commission voted unanimously Thursday to decertify former La Vergne Police Chief Burrel Davis.
Doing so means Davis cannot serve as a police officer in the state of Tennessee or likely any other state, unless he is re-certified.
Commissioners told Davis that his conduct before and during a sexual harassment investigation involving his officers, did not uphold the professional standards of an officer or police chief.
Davis had argued that he had no knowledge of a sexual relationship between officers until an investigation was launched in December 2022.
That’s when Davis said city officials asked about graphic images of officer Maegan Hall and others, circulating within the department.
Davis said he cooperated with the city’s investigators, and when they allegedly couldn’t find any wrongdoing on his end, he was allowed to return to work.
He said it wasn’t until an outside investigator was involved that blame was now pointed in his direction.
Davis was later fired and sued the city of La Vergne, claiming racial discrimination for his firing. He told commissioners on Thursday that the lawsuit was denied because he filed one day too late.
“All these things they came up with the second time, I don’t know where it came from. I didn’t sexually harass anybody for receiving a picture. If you go back and look at the other transcripts, they will tell you that (Hall) was sending pictures to him and other people saying if you want a booty call, hit her up,” Davis said.
Hall argued that she was manipulated into sexual acts by her colleagues and superiors. She sued the city for creating a hostile and sexual workplace environment. The $500,000 settlement — which includes no admission of guilt on the city's behalf — settled Hall's lawsuit against the city and three of her former superiors.
Davis pointed blame back at Hall several times during the hearing, and at one point suggested that this should have been a criminal investigation with Hall as the suspect with “many victims.”
“First of all, all of this stems from a private party on a houseboat and had nothing to do with the PD other than the fact that an officer was there. If they were concerned about me, well my head of internal affairs had sex with her on the boat, but he’s still working there,” Davis said.
Davis did not deny receiving racy pictures of Hall from former Sgt. Ty McGowan in a text message exchange.
Commissioners pressed Davis on his text responses.
One image allegedly sent by McGowan to Davis appeared to show a Black man's foot in Hall’s mouth. Investigators said McGowan told Davis that the foot belonged to one of their colleagues.
McGowan then allegedly wrote, “she has a tight little a** though” and Davis responded, “yup.”
Davis argued this was a private conversation between two friends who’ve known each other for over 16 years.
“I understand what you’re saying. That looks bad,” Davis said.
“This is how you talk to your friends,” commissioners asked.
“Yes. I’m not denying anything, that’s why I don’t understand why they say I mislead or lied or anything. I don’t deny any of that stuff. I mean it’s right there, why would I try to deny that? What I’m trying to say is the findings they came up with are false,” Davis said.
Davis spent the next several minutes telling commissioners that had they seen all the evidence, they would know that some messages are missing which would prove that he had no idea who was in the photos with Hall.
Meaning that he wouldn’t have known at the time whether Hall was in an inappropriate relationship with her colleagues.
POST investigators responded by saying the only reason why some messages were missing is because Davis at first denied having another phone and deleted many of the messages in question.
“It’s my phone. These text messages get deleted when I get them. It had nothing to do with this investigation. They were gone well before that,” Davis said.
Investigators, having heard enough of Davis’ rebuttals, came back to the podium and laid out in graphic detail several messages from Davis which they said showed he knew which officers were having sex and did nothing to stop them.
“These are text messages between two friends that were not on city phones. So, did I let my hair down and have trust in a friend? Yes. Did they use it against me? Yes. Am I going to be responsible and accountable for my text messages? Yes. Was it a reflection of my job? No, because I did my job,” Davis said.
Commissioners told Davis that it didn’t matter if these were messages with people he trusted as friends, “you’re a police officer 24/7 and you’re a chief 24/7. I think your conduct was very unbecoming.”
Davis was later decertified.
