MNPD ousts internal affairs director, assigning her to cold case bombing investigations

Nashville police removed the longtime director of its internal affairs division and assigned her to assist in the recently reopened investigations of three Civil Rights era bombings, effective Monday.

Kathy Morante had been director of the Office of Professional Accountability, which investigates complaints against officers, since 2013. Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said he thinks replacing her will improve and strengthen operations at the OPA, MNPD spokesperson Kristin Mumford said.

The news, first reported by the Nashville Banner, comes just more than two months after a former lieutenant in the OPA alleged in an explosive complaint that top MNPD officials lobbied to eliminate the OPA's external, civilian counterpart through a state law passed in 2023.

Commander Jason Starling, who Mumford said is "the ranking sworn member at OPA," is overseeing operations at the office.

Mayor Freddie O'Connell said Friday he was not involved in the decision to remove Morante from her post but hinted at past "issues of concern" when asked to respond.

“I was not involved in that decision. I will say I think there had been multiple reports well before this year that seemed to be issues of concern, but I think this was something Chief Drake decided," O'Connell said.

O'Connell said he planned to talk with Drake about Morante's involvement in the cold case investigations of the three bombings.

"I do want to make sure that that is something that doesn’t interrupt what our goals for that overall investigation are," he said.

Morante is assisting Det. Mike Roland in the investigations of the bombings of the Hattie Cotton Elementary School in 1957, the Jewish Community Center in 1958, and the home of civil rights attorney and council member Z. Alexander Looby in 1960. O'Connell announced the decision to reopen the cases days before a new book reexamining the crimes was published.

Mumford, the police spokesperson, pointed to Morante's legal background — she was an assistant district attorney in Nashville for 14 years before joining the OPA — but did not answer how the department would respond to concerns over Morante's involvement in the cold case investigations.

In late May, retired Lt. Garet Davidson filed a 61-page complaint with the OPA describing alleged corruption within Nashville's police ranks. Davidson alleged that at least two top officials in MNPD worked to help get legislation passed to ban police oversight boards statewide.

Davidson retired earlier in 2024 after 11 years with MNPD, spending the last two years in the OPA.

Fifty-nine percent of Nashville voters approved the creation of the Community Oversight Board in 2018. The group, made up of civilians, did their own investigations of police misconduct. The new law, signed by Gov. Bill Lee in May 2023, took the teeth out of the watchdog groups, stripping their investigatory power and limiting them to reviewing police departments' investigations. The group is now called the Community Review Board.

Metro has hired former U.S. Attorney Edward L. Stanton III of the Butler Snow law firm in Memphis to conduct an independent investigation of Davidson's complaint.

A current MNPD employee filed a complaint describing rampant nepotism, discrimination, retaliation and harassment weeks after Davidson, Community Review Board Executive Director Jill Fitcheard said.

Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him at emealins@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @EvanMealins.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville Metro Police replace OPA internal affairs director