Judge referred to ‘demon’ when confronted over tape

Circuit Judge John B. Hagler of Cleveland, Tenn., resigned last month after District Attorney Steve Bebb and an investigator asked him about the tape he had recorded years earlier.

Hagler has refused to say what is on the tape other than to acknowledge it contains ‘graphic fantasies.’

The case is before a Chattanooga court because Hagler is trying to stop the Chattanooga Times Free Press and other news media, including The Associated Press, from obtaining a copy of the tape.

The open records law hearing ended Thursday with Chancery Court Judge Frank Brown III saying he would make a decision ‘in due course’ on whether it should be released to the media.

Hagler contends the tape is his private property and that the original was stolen from his office by a former secretary.

Hagler’s attorney, Roger Jenne, said afterward that the hearing was fair, although Brown did not return the original recording to Hagler immediately, as requested.

Tom Griscom, publisher and executive editor of the Chattanooga newspaper, said he was satisfied with the two days of arguments for release of the tapes.

‘I believe we made a strong case that the tape by Judge Hagler is a public record,’ Griscom said.

Chattanooga police who investigated the recording in late 2005 said it ‘sounded like someone being tortured’ but they concluded it wasn’t connected to a crime.

Two years later, with changes in the top echelons of the Chattanooga Police Department, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the FBI office in Chattanooga, the tape made its way to Bebb in Hagler’s district.

‘John said this had been a demon … that bothered him for 20 years,’ Bebb testified. An objection stopped him from elaborating on Hagler’s comment.

Last month, the Chattanooga Times Free Press learned about the recording from an unidentified source. Hagler confirmed its existence and resigned.

The tape was given to Chattanooga police in 2005 by Nona Rogers, a former Hagler secretary. She testified Thursday that she talked to police a couple of weeks after the judge fired her, saying it was a conflict of interest for her to be on his office staff while her husband was running for circuit court clerk.

She told the court that she found the tape on her desk and listened to only a little of it.

“I just was numb. I didn’t know what to do. I wrestled and wrestled with it,” Roger testified, her voice sometimes breaking with emotion.

She said she didn’t tell anyone about it immediately and stored it in a safe at her home. She said she couldn’t recall how long she had the tape before talking to police, but an investigative report indicates it might have been as long as two years.

“I was really having a difficult time, I wasn’t sleeping, my nerves were shot. I got to where I couldn’t stop crying,” Rogers testified.

Police said they thought Hagler’s tape might be linked to the unsolved 1997 shooting death of an Episcopal priest, the Rev. Charles Martin “Marty” Davis, 35.

Police say Hagler, who served three terms as president of the Tennessee Trial Judges Association and heard family court cases such as divorces and child custody disputes, is not a suspect in any investigation.