District Attorney Neal Pinkston said he will ask the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to investigate the release of expunged records by a Chattanooga attorney.
He told Criminal Court Judge Don Poole the TBI will be asked to look into how expunged records of the mother of a child killed in the Woodmore bus crash ended up in a motion filed by Attorney Amanda Dunn. She represents bus driver Jonthony Walker.
Releasing expunged records is a Class A misdemeanor.
The records were attached to a motion filed by attorney Dunn for a shorter sentence for Walker, who got four years in the 2016 crash in Brainerd in which six children were killed and many others injured.
Walker remains free on bond pending appeals.
Judge Poole denied the motion for a shortened sentence, saying four years was not enough time for the damage Walker caused but that was all he felt the law allows.
Attorney Dunn indicated she is appealing the sentence to the state Court of Criminal Appeals.
Regarding bond, Judge Poole said he cannot make any decisions to change or revoke bond because the appeals court now has jurisdiction of the case.
DA Pinkston said the motion for reduction of sentence was apparently given to a Chattanooga Times reporter and not to the DA. He said, "It's as if the motion was leaked to the media putting the District Attorney's Office in a bad light without having an opportunity to review the motion."
Attorney Dunn is claiming that the DA office withheld evidence involving the criminal record of the mother that was pertinent to the sentencing.