MEMPHIS, Tenn. — WREG investigator Jessica Gertler uncovered internal documents revealing new details into the investigation that led to the indictments of attorneys, police officers and employees within the Shelby County district attorney’s office.
Thousands of crash reports with confidential information got into the wrong hands.
Nine people are now booked, facing serious criminal charges. They are accused of improperly selling government information for money.
Among them is Roderick Harvery, who TBI said had skipped town and was finally captured by U.S. Marshals this week in Phoenix, Arizona.
Others include a now-former Shelby County prosecutor, an attorney connected to cases that have been in the national spotlight and three, now-former Memphis Police Department employees.
This all started when MPD first started looking into one of its own, launching an internal, then state, investigation.
Because the TBI is now handling the case, we couldn’t access the disciplinary files of the MPD employees. But we did uncover their personnel records.
According to Egypt Berry’s file, in July 2020, MPD started an internal investigation, claiming she used her “log in credentials to access the Watson reporting database.”
An audit shows between May 1, 2019 and April 30, 2020, she reportedly reviewed crash reports that contained confidential information 31,941 times, on-duty and while off-duty, serving no work-related purpose.
She admitted to converting thousands of crash reports to PDF files and then emailed those files to unauthorized individuals — without approval of anyone within the Memphis Police Department, the report states.
Internal investigators wrote: “You used your position as an office support clerk for the city of Memphis to assist others in committing crimes and for your financial gain.”
It’s unclear right now who Berry reportedly emailed the documents to, and the alleged role each person indicted played.
Sources tell us the attorneys were paying a pretty penny to get the crash reports. It likely gave them a leg up in landing the client.
WREG first told you about this case back in October 2020, when Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich told us she fired prosecutor Glenda Adams, who had handled some big murder cases.
We pulled Adams’ employment files, finding a document Adams signed promising she would not give confidential data to people who are not entitled to receive it.
Weirich stated in part that she’s “grateful to those who brought this issue to the attention of law enforcement.” She recused herself from the case.
District Attorney Bryant Dunaway, who covers several counties east of Nashville, is now prosecuting the cases. They will still be litigated in Shelby County.
We reached out to Dunaway for more details. He would only confirmed Adams was being paid for the reports but wouldn’t comment with further details.
All three Memphis police department employees have resigned. The TBI says it is still investigating and expects more indictments.
