NASHVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – Cason “Casey” Moreland, 59, of Nashville, Tenn., was charged Tuesday in a federal criminal complaint with attempting to obstruct justice through bribery and witness tampering. Moreland is a General Sessions Court Judge in Davidson County, Tennessee.
Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the FBI, Matthew Espenshade, joined acting U.S. Attorney Smith in announcing the charges at a news conference.
According to the complaint, on January 25, 2017, the FBI opened a criminal investigation into whether Moreland and others violated federal anti-corruption statutes, by soliciting, accepting and extorting things of value, including sexual favors and other things, from persons with whom he had close personal relationships, in return for performing official acts that benefited those persons and their associates.
The criminal complaint alleges that Moreland in fact became aware of the FBI’s investigation on February 1, 2017, when agents attempted to interview him. By that time, local media outlets had reported alleged misconduct by Moreland, including having sexual relationships with individuals, in exchange for judicial favors.
The complaint further alleges that beginning on or about March 1, 2017, Moreland took steps to obstruct and interfere with the federal investigation by attempting to pay Person 1 to sign an affidavit recanting prior statements about Moreland.
This scheme to obstruct the investigation continued and the complaint outlines actions Moreland took to conceal his involvement, including having CS-1 purchase a burner phone in a fictitious name, to be used by Moreland when contacting CS-1. The complaint also alleges that Moreland instructed CS-1 to use another person as an intermediary when dealing with Person 1.
The complaint also alleges that on March 11, 2017, Moreland gave CS-1 an affidavit, written as though Person 1 authored it. Moreland provided CS-1 with $5,100 cash and took steps to insure that his fingerprints would not be on the affidavit. Moreland also told CS-1 to get Person 1 “liquored up real good” before mentioning the affidavit. During subsequent conversations with Moreland later in the evening, CS-1 told Moreland that he had met with Person 1 and that she had flagged various portions of the affidavit that were inaccurate, but that she would agree to sign it “as-is” for an additional $1,000. Moreland agreed, and provided CS-1 with an extra $1,000 in cash later that evening.
Finally, the complaint alleges subsequent meetings and conversations between Moreland and CS-1, where further discussion of the affidavit and planning of the scheme to plant drugs on Person 1 occurred.
Moreland was arrested Tuesday morning by FBI agents and is currently in custody. He is expected to make an initial appearance before a U.S. Magistrate later Tuesday.
If convicted, Moreland faces up to 20 years’ in prison.