A Nashville murder case scheduled to go to trial next week has been placed on hold amid concerns that District Attorney General Glenn Funk’s office illegally eavesdropped on the defense team as they reviewed evidence in the case.
Criminal Court Judge Cynthia Chappell agreed Wednesday to delay the trial of Calvin Atchison after the defense filed a motion to disqualify Funk’s team following the recent revelation of the eavesdropping scheme inside the DA’s offices. Atchison’s attorney and investigator are the individuals shown reviewing evidence in a photo included in an investigative report just released by the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office, the motion said.
Atchison is charged with the first-degree murder of Velma Tharpe in a North Nashville alley in June 2000 — a case that attracted national attention after a wrongfully convicted man was exonerated. That innocent man, Paul Garrett, later received a $1.2 million settlement.
“It is a somewhat awkward position that the conduct of the DA’s Office has placed me in,” defense attorney Ben Powers wrote in a motion filed Monday.