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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Feds Add Charges to Indicted Nashville Judge

U.S. prosecutors brought new embezzlement charges Thursday against a former Nashville judge who was accused last year of bribing a witness to help him cover up that he was trading legal favors for sex.

(CN) – U.S. prosecutors brought new embezzlement charges Thursday against a former Nashville judge who was accused last year of bribing a witness to help him cover up that he was trading legal favors for sex.

The new indictment says Cason “Casey” Moreland embezzled more than $15,000 in funds from Nashville’s Drug Court Foundation, a specialized program designed to provide alternatives to incarceration for certain drug offenders.

Moreland did not have an official post with the Drug Court Foundation, but exercised de facto authority over the court’s operations, and was permitted to make personal charges to the foundation’s account.

Prosecutors say the foundation’s director saw Moreland as her boss, and that he offered to increase her compensation if she brought to his office all the cash that self-pay clients tendered to the foundation for its treatment programs.

After a visit from the FBI, according to the indictment, Moreland tried to cover his tracks, using burner phones and instructing the director to destroy documents that would show the amount of cash received by the foundation, which Moreland diverted into his own pockets.

Moreland was arrested last year on bribery and witness-tampering charges related to claims that he offered help in court in exchange for sexual favors.

The FBI says Moreland offered to pay a woman $6,000 to recant her statement to the FBI about his conduct. The witness told the FBI that she had sex with the judge in his chambers in exchange for the dismissal of her traffic tickets.

Moreland resigned days after his arrest on these charges, which remain pending in the Middle District of Tennessee.

Categories / Courts, Criminal

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