LA VERGNE, Tenn. (WKRN) — It's a scandal that shook the quiet community of La Vergne. In 2023, five police officers were fired after a wide-ranging sex scandal.
The officers were accused of having sex on duty, sending nude photos to each other, and lying about all of it. However, perhaps more shocking are the accusations leveled against the former Police Chief.
Investigators said former La Vergne Police Chief Burrel "Chip" Davis knew exactly what was going on and covered it up.
On Thursday, the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission (POST) recommended Davis be decertified after reading back explicit text messages between Davis and another officer at the time of the scandal.
Davis left the room shortly after the unanimous vote. However, prior to the vote, Davis testified on his own behalf. He asserted he did nothing wrong after a third-party investigation revealed Davis was "aware of the sexual misconduct" within his own department.
"Chief Davis was aware of sexual relationships between employees and did not notify HR or interact in anyway to stop those relationships from happening," an investigator said during the POST hearing.
In January 2023, the city of LaVergne fired five officers after accusing them of having sex with each other one and off duty. However, during Thursday's POST hearing, Davis claimed he was not involved and therefor shouldn't be decertified.
"So somebody who's okay with sending pictures — how does the Chief who started looking into this get fired for sexual harassment for receiving a picture?" Davis said Thursday.
The hearing revealed much more about the scandal. For the first time, the public heard the explicit details of text messages between the former Chief and another officer.
"[The investigative report] talks about an exchange, a text exchange, between you and Sergeant McGowan, where there was a photo of a black male foot inside Officer Hall's mouth," a POST commissioner said.
Davis acknowledged the exchange.
"Sgt. McGowan responded she has a tight little *** though, and you replied 'yep'," the commissioner continued. "Is that true?"
Davis said, "Yeah."
"But you have to understand that that wasn't official," Davis added. "Me and McGowen had been friends for over 16 years."
Davis continued, claiming the text's weren't completely correct and many of the messages were deleted. He also claimed throughout the investigation he has maintained the same story.
"I did not know anybody was in a sexual relationship until this investigation started," Davis said.
POST commissioners explained the reason for the vote, arguing that Davis was an officer 24/7.
Davis is set to go before the full POST Commission for a final decision on Friday morning. If decertified, he will never be able to work as a law enforcement officer again.