District Attorney General Glenn Funk will not be required to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the job created to help him boost his pension, Chairman Brian Kelsey announced Monday.
Senators had requested last week that the Nashville DA testify when the committee reconvened Tuesday. Two days later, Funk announced he would pay back the salary from the part-time job and give up the more lucrative pension benefits that came with it.
“Due to the fact that District Attorney General Funk has paid back the funds in question and enrolled properly in the pension system and that other investigations regarding this matter are ongoing, after consultation with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, we will not ask him to testify at tomorrow’s meeting," said the statement from Kelsey, a Germantown Republican.
Our NewsChannel 5 investigation first revealed that Wally Kirby, the longtime executive director of the DA's Conference, created a job as a special prosecutor "as a favor" for Funk -- two months before he took office -- to allow him to qualify for a more lucrative pension.
Funk got paid $2,000 a month and got health insurance for himself and his family, but there's little evidence that he did any real work to earn the money.
After it was exposed by NewsChannel 5 Investigates, Funk's peers in the DA's Conference voted to report the deal to state auditors as a possible "abuse of public money." They also suspended Kirby for a month without pay, prompting him to resign.
A group of Metro Council members has asked the governor and attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the matter. Attorney General Herbert Slatery told the Judiciary Committee last week that his office is reviewing how to proceed.
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NC5 Investigates: The DA's Deals
