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Chancery Court Judge hints at complaint against East Tennessee lawmaker before denying release of records

Tennessee Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton said in a statement his office has not received any complaints against GOP Rep. Jeremy Faison.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Chancery Court in Davidson County claimed it received documents over an April 2023 complaint naming Rep. Jeremy Faison (R-Cosby), according to an order issued by Judge Russell T. Perkins.

On Tuesday, Perkins ruled against publicly releasing records involving a sexual harassment complaint against former state representative Scotty Campbell, who represented East Tennessee's Third District in Johnson and Sullivan counties. Campbell resigned on April 20 after a state subcommittee launched an internal investigation and found he had violated discrimination and harassment policy. 

Perkins' ruling mentioned documents that were submitted to the court on June 22 by the Tennessee Legislature's Office of Legislative Administration for in-camera inspection. Among the documents Perkins listed: a "file folder dated April 5, 2023, with an alleged victim's first name containing two pages of notes pertaining to a complaint against Representative Faison" and "the redacted and non-redacted personnel files of Representative Faison."

The court's final order did not elaborate any further about the complaint and said the documents submitted to the court for in-camera review would be placed under seal "as part of the technical record" in the case. 

Faison is the Republican Caucus Chair for the House of Representatives. He represents District 11, which includes parts of Cocke, Jefferson and Hamblen counties in the Tennessee General Assembly.

"Contrary to the serious inference included in the order, no complaint has been filed against Chairman Faison," House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) said in a statement to 10News. 

In a text message, Faison echoed the speaker's statement. 

"The speaker and the director have both said there is no complaint filed against me. I have nothing to add to that," Faison said. 

In his ruling, Perkins said he denied the release of these records because state law allows records involving sexual harassment complaints to be exempted from the Public Records Act.

"The Court concludes that the Policy rises to the level of the state law. The House has spoken on this sensitive public policy issue by adopting rules which provide that these records are outside the purview of public access. The requested records, accordingly, are exempt under the catch-all exception of the Public Records Act," the ruling said. 

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