MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Shelby County District Attorney General Steve Mulroy's office said their attorneys filed an emergency writ in the case of a shooting suspect released on his own recognizance before receiving letters sent Wednesday morning by Tennessee State Senator Brent Taylor (R-Memphis) to Mulroy and the Board of Judicial Conduct.
Taylor’s letters were in regards to why a local judge released the suspect in a shooting outside Railgarten in Midtown Memphis.
This all comes after Taylor said the District Attorney for District 28 in West Tennessee requested an investigation into a social media post Taylor made which reportedly included some personal information on the suspect.
Taylor posted the letters he sent Wednesday morning to social media. Taylor said he was asking Mulroy’s office to request an emergency writ in criminal court for the Railgarten shooting suspect, who had been released on his own recognizance (ROR) on Aug. 26, according to court records.
In response, Mulroy’s office told ABC24, “We made clear yesterday how disappointed our office was in the decision to release the defendant in the Railgarten shooting on his own recognizance. We immediately began working on a Writ of Certiorari to appeal the decision.
Today, at 8:30 this morning we circulated a draft of the writ among our team. Sometime late morning, we received a letter from Senator Taylor requesting we file a writ, which was already in progress.
Despite some reporting to the contrary, the Senator's letter did not prompt this action. The wisdom and experience of our licensed and seasoned attorneys made this rare filing possible.
It is our sincere hope that Judge Anderson's decision is overturned on appeal and bond is set that fully considers the safety of the public."
A second letter by Taylor to the Tennessee Board of Judicial Conduct asked for it to take disciplinary action against Shelby County General Sessions Judge Bill Anderson, who is the judge listed in court records who released the suspect ROR.
In the letter, Taylor accuses Anderson of “failing to adequately assess the safety of the community if the defendant were released without bond,” citing what he calls Anderson’s “public animus toward Tennessee’s bail system,” which led to reprimands from the Judicial Board.
ABC24 reached out to Judge Anderson, and received the following response, "Judge Anderson cannot respond to and will not discuss matters related to cases that are pending in his courtroom."
Reports of an investigation into Taylor post
In a social media post earlier Wednesday, Taylor reposted a report from Tennessee Lookout which said the District Attorney for District 28, which covers Crockett, Gibson, and Haywood counties, has asked the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) and Comptroller’s Office to investigate another now-deleted X post by Taylor.
The report said D.A. Frederick Agee claimed Taylor broke the law by posting documents which included personal information for the suspect, including a social security number and birthdate – a Class B misdemeanor.
In response to the investigation report, Taylor posted, in part, “When I discovered one of the dozens of documents, which have been passed around more than a joint at a Willie Nelson concert, may have possibly contained personal information, I quickly replaced it with a newly redacted document out of an abundance of caution despite the document being widely shared by others.”
Taylor went on to call Agee and Mulroy soft on crime and said they should concentrate on their own issues.
ABC24 has reached out to Agee regarding that report and is awaiting a response.
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to clarify the Shelby County D.A.'s office said their attorneys filed the writ in the Railgarten case before receiving Sen. Taylors letters Wednesday morning.
RELATED: Court records show man charged in Railgarten shooting has been released on his own recognizance