FOX17: Metro Nashville's Lawsuit Payouts

June 13, 2025 03:02 PM

Fox17_Nashville

1. How many suits were there, and what were some of the most high profile cases?
A: The $9 million was paid last year and the first quarter of this year — that’s compared to $7 million in the preceding 16 months.
170 cases of Metro being sued or Metro suing others. These cases involve Metro Nashville, the school district, school board, the fire department, police, Davidson County prison
In terms of prominent cases in Metro government, in the last 16 months, Metro spent $307,000 fighting a lawsuit to stop implementation of the transit tax
Metro spent in the last 16 months, $267,000 fighting in court against the state’s plan to cut Metro Council size in half.
Metro spent almost $200,000 to settle a lawsuit by the ACLU over its practice of keeping money posted as bail and using it to pay fines and fees. It paid the money and agreed to end this practice.
2. What were the largest payouts?
The largest payouts include $1.7M to fire captain Tracy Turner who had been demoted to fire fighter for making derogatory comments on social media PLUS another $250,000 in legal fees in that case, totaling about $2M.
Euna McGruder got $1.3 million in a settlement, including attorneys fees, after accusing Metro Nashville schools of race discrimination and retaliation.
A high school student sued MNPS alleging it was deliberately indifferent to student-on-student harassment that she suffered and she was awarded $75,000 in damages PLUS $827,000 was paid in attorneys fees, totaling almost $1 million.
Deputy fire marshal Maggie Lawrence sued Metro alleging discrimination for her gender and age, and was awarded $500,000 in settlement and legal fees.
She also got another $45,000 in back pay from the fire department.
There were another 18 cases where Metro Nashville paid out between $100,000 and $300,000 in settlements and legal fees, including three cases where mothers sued after the death of their child — the Jennnifer Parker case was $269,000 and Kimberly Jones case was $250,000. The Beth York case for her daughter Jacqueline, got $126,000
Another $175,000 went to the estate of a man killed, SaDarion Lenoir
Maya Davila got $240,000 for a personal injury claim, Eric Stout got $183,000 for his personal injury claim, John Dernback got $138,000 for his personal injury claim, Kathryn McSweeney $49,000 personal injury claim, $40,000 for Jaimie Martin personal injury claim, $38,000 for Stephen Pimentel personal injury claim, Melvin Reed $35,000 personal injury claim
The other 150 cases ranged from a few dollars to few hundred dollars, up to $73,000, for car accidents, politically motivated firings, a woman who says police mistakenly arrested her, for an employment discrimination suit, other employment suits.

 

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