Nashville Mayor Resigns Due to Sex Scandal
Naughty in Nashville could be the name of former Nashville Mayor Megan Barry’s book detailing her fall from grace. Megan Barry who was widely considered a rising star in the democratic party resigned from the Mayor’s office after accepting 3 years probation and paying $11,000 in restitution for her role in an affair with a police officer on her security detail.
The affair included expensive trips over seas, extra overtime pay for her police officer lover, and even a special job for his daughter that recently graduated law school.
This is a text book corruption case and Barry is fortunate that she is not going to jail for a while all things considered. Having an affair is one thing, blowing through a few hundred thousand dollars of tax payer cash pisses people off. No more politics after dark Miss Barry!
Megan Barry resigned as Nashville’s mayor Tuesday morning, weeks after admitting an affair with the police officer who ran her security detail.
Barry announced her resignation at a news conference, shortly after she pleaded guilty to a felony theft charge related to the affair, the Tennessean reported.
She kept her remarks brief and smiled throughout the announcement.
The 54-year-old Democrat, who was elected mayor of Tennessee’s bustling capital in 2015, disclosed the affair to the media in late January.
“Today I acknowledged publicly that I have engaged in an extramarital affair with the former head of my security detail,” Barry said in a Jan. 31 statement. “I accept full responsibility for the pain I have caused my family and his. I am so sorry to my husband Bruce, who has stood by me in my darkest moments and remains committed to our marriage, just as I am committed to repairing the damage I have done.”
The Tennessean identified the officer as Sgt. Robert Forrest Jr. of Metropolitan Nashville Police Department. Their affair began in mid-2016, the newspaper reported, but Barry said it ended before her public admission. Forrest has resigned from the department.
In the weeks since, Barry had faced growing calls to resign and became the subject of multiple investigations, including a criminal inquiry by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Tennessean reported.
On Tuesday, she pleaded guilty to theft of property over $10,000; Barry agreed to reimburse the city $11,000 and serve three years’ probation, according to the newspaper.
The affair has also drawn scrutiny to the overtime the officer accrued while managing her detail. According to the newspaper, Forrest accompanied Barry on trips to Paris, Athens, Washington, New York, Denver, Oakland and other cities in the past year.
Forrest racked up around $33,000 in expenses for the trips and more than $50,000 in overtime in 2017 on top of an $84,500 salary, the Tennessean reported. Barry traveled alone with Forrest on nine of the trips, including one to Greece in September, according to the newspaper.
Steve
Steve is an affordable multifamily housing professional that is also the co-founder of Whiskey Congress. Steve has written for national publications such as The National Marijuana News and other outlets as a guest blogger on topics covering sports, politics, and cannabis. Steve loves whiskey, cigars, and uses powerlifting as an outlet to deal with the fact that no one listens to his brilliant ideas.
