Former Nashville judge convicted of public misconduct about to get out of prison
APR 8, 2021 | REPUBLISHED BY LIT: FEB 19, 2022
Disgraced Nashville judge Casey Moreland gets out of federal prison this weekend.
Moreland spent more than three and a half years in prison for what prosecutors called “one of the most shocking cases of misconduct by a public official this district has ever seen.”
The former Nashville judge will be released from federal custody on Saturday, April 10.
He is already back in Nashville as part of a residential re-entry program.
The 64-year-old plans to get a job outside the legal profession and stay out of the public eye according to one of his attorneys.
Things began to unravel for Judge Moreland in 2016, as Metro Police investigated the death of a 34 year old woman.
Leigh Terry was found with a gunshot wound to her head in her downtown apartment in May of 2016.
Police ruled her death a suicide.
Interviews as part of that investigation revealed that days before Terry died, she had been on a trip to the Alabama Gulf Coast with Judge Moreland and Defense Attorney Bryan Lewis.
Another lawyer and two other women also accompanied them on the trip.
Leigh Terry and the other two woman had all appeared in Moreland’s court as defendants in the past.
A former boyfriend of Terry told police that she discussed sleeping with Judge Moreland to get out of a past DUI.
“She told me right then that she had sex with Casey Moreland in the chambers and that’s what kept her out of jail. And she said ‘I felt nasty.'”
Roy Matlock told police during a recorded interview.
Police also questioned another woman – Natalie Amos.
Amos had gone on the Gulf Coast trip, and admitted to having a relationship with Moreland.
A Metro Detective asked,
“I know you don’t want to mention somebody, but I just need to know who we are talking about.”
“Casey Moreland,”
Natalie Amos said in the interview.
“Okay,”
the detective responded.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates obtained thousands of texts between Moreland and Amos which revealed Moreland was willing to use his influence to get Amos out of trouble.
In 2018, the FBI opened an investigation into whether Moreland traded favors in his courtroom for sex.
That same year an informant working for the FBI went to Moreland’s home with a hidden camera.
The informant told Moreland he’d talked to an officer willing to plant drugs on Natalie Amos to discredit her.
Moreland responded,
“What’s he want?”
The Informant said,
“I don’t know if he wants anything. He just, I think, his thing is as long as it doesn’t come back to him. And I said don’t worry about that.”
Moreland said,
“Is he going to be the one to pull her over?”
The Informant said,
“He’ll be the one to pull her over, but he’s just said the main thing is as long as it don’t come back to me.”
Days after that video the FBI arrested Moreland at his home.
He was charged with obstruction of justice, but later a new undercover recording from a former employee with Moreland, revealed he had stolen cash from the Drug Court Foundation that he founded.
He eventually pleaded guilty to witness tampering, theft and obstruction.
Judge Waverly Crenshaw said he wanted the three and a half year sentence to be an example to others in positions of authority.
Moreland remains on probation for three years.
He is expected to move back into his home with his wife, who testified for him in court asking for a more lenient sentence.
Ex-judge Casey Moreland disbarred following guilty plea on corruption charges
JAN 2, 2019 | REPUBLISHED BY LIT: FEB 19, 2022
Former Nashville judge Casey Moreland was disbarred Wednesday in a response to his guilty plea on a slate of federal corruption charges.
The Tennessee Supreme Court issued the order based on his conduct, which included obstruction, tampering with a witness and conspiracy to commit theft, according to a statement from the state Board of Professional Responsibility.
Moreland was sentenced to 44 months in prison for the crimes in November.
The high court suspended Moreland before he was sentenced. The final decision to disbar him came after a meeting of the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility, which found Moreland had violated multiple ethical rules.
As part of the disbarment, Moreland must pay costs related to the board’s deliberations.
Moreland, 60, resigned from the General Sessions bench in 2017, after federal authorities arrested him on an array of corruption charges.
Investigators launched a probe to determine if he traded preferential treatment for sexual favors. Moreland took steps to thwart that investigation by attempting to bribe and frame a former lover, prosecutors said.
After federal authorities arrested him again in 2018 on charges that he had continued to interfere with investigation, Moreland agreed to plead guilty on several counts.
Moreland pleaded guilty to funneling thousands of dollars away from a nonprofit he started to help recovering drug addicts working their way through the General Sessions drug court.
Moreland also pleaded guilty to attempting to bribe and intimidate a witness and to conspiring to hamper federal investigations into his behavior.
Former Nashville Judge Indicted on Additional Federal Obstruction and Theft Charges
MAR 15, 2018 | REPUBLISHED BY LIT: FEB 19, 2022
A federal grand jury returned a superseding indictment against a former Nashville, Tennessee judge on obstruction and other charges stemming from a scheme in which he abused his official position for personal gain.
Acting Assistant Attorney General John P. Cronan of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Don Cochran for the Middle District of Tennessee made the announcement.
Cason “Casey” Moreland, 60, of Nashville, Tennessee, was originally indicted in April 2017 on five counts of obstruction of justice.
The superseding indictment returned yesterday adds five additional counts:
two counts related to theft from a program receiving federal funds;
two additional obstruction of justice counts relating to witness tampering and destruction of documents;
and one count of committing an offense while on pretrial release.
Moreland was arrested again on March 1, 2018, pursuant to a criminal complaint charging him with obstruction charges.
According to the superseding indictment, Moreland was a General Sessions Judge in Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee and heard civil, criminal and traffic cases. Moreland also presided over the General Sessions Drug Treatment Court, which was a specialized court program designed to provide alternatives to incarceration for certain defendants.
The work of the Drug Treatment Court was supported by a nonprofit entity called the Davidson County Drug Court Foundation (the “Drug Court Foundation”).
Although Moreland did not have an official position with the Drug Court Foundation, he exercised de facto authority over the Drug Court Foundation’s operations.
Beginning in Spring 2016, Moreland is alleged to have begun embezzling cash from the Drug Court Foundation.
According to the indictment, Moreland directed the Drug Court Foundation’s director to deliver envelopes of the Drug Court Foundation’s cash to his office in exchange for allowing the director to increase the compensation that she received from the Drug Court Foundation.
According to the superseding indictment, Moreland became aware that he was a target of an investigation being conducted by the FBI and a federal grand jury in February 2017.
The superseding indictment alleges that after learning of the investigation, Moreland took steps to obstruct and interfere with the investigation by directing the Drug Court Foundation’s director to destroy documents that would show the amount of cash that had been paid to the Foundation and ultimately stolen by Moreland.
In February 2018, Moreland is alleged to have attempted to tamper with a witness by suggesting that she lie to the grand jury investigating his conduct.
An indictment is merely an accusation. The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
This case was investigated by the FBI and is being prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Lauren Bell and Andrew Laing of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Cecil VanDevender of the Middle District of Tennessee.
Attachment(s):
Download Indictment
Topic(s):
Public Corruption
Component(s):
Criminal Division
Criminal – Public Integrity Section
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
USAO – Tennessee, Middle
Press Release Number:
18-313
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Don Bowins
May 7, 2022 at 11:57 pm
Judge Casey Moreland was actually falling apart long before the 2016 incident. His behavior had started rapidly declining as far back as 2001 when it was reported he stalked a Nashville commuter all the way to the local police station, in a fit of road rage.
It was reported he burst into the police lobby and started yelling profanities at a 22 year old black male after he felt the young man cut him off on Ellington Pkwy. Some how, the judge saw fit to ride the bumber of the gentleman all the way downtown to coincidentally, the police station which is right across the road from the court house where Judge Moreland worked.
“DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?” That with other profanities was all the young man was able to recall about the run in with the Judge. “I was just confused. I had an appointment for a job opportunity that morning, but it was ruined after the hiring superviser saw Judge Moreland yelling at me. All of this was over a white gentleman trying not to let me merge on to Ellington Pkwy. You know how the road ragers do, speed up to hit their breaks and make it appear as though you inconvenienced them.. I always said to myself, that guy should not be a judge of anyone’s character. For he has none himself. I didn’t see it playing out the way it has, but I am glad that Nashville has finally gotten that guy out of their courthouse.” Spoken by local Nashvillian, Don Bowins.
He and his family now live in the Spring Hill, TN community.