Democrat Megan Barry, Nashville’s first female mayor, pleaded guilty Tuesday morning to felony theft of government property worth more than $10,000 and is expected to resign from office later in the day, according to multiple reports.
It was first reported five weeks ago that Barry had had an extramarital affair with her former bodyguard after a nude photo and partially nude photo of a woman were found on former Sgt. Robert Forrest Jr.’s work phone. The photos were determined to have been taken while he was on duty, though Barry has denied that she was the subject in the pictures.
Barry admitted in late January that she had engaged in an affair with her security detail.
“I know that God will forgive me,” she had said, “but that Nashville doesn’t have to.”
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation opened an investigation to see if Barry, a former corporate ethics and compliance officer, had misspent taxpayer money.
Barry’s legal team struck a deal to avoid having the case go to trial. District Attorney General Glenn Funk said he had prepared witnesses who would have confirmed she spent more than $10,000 and no less than $60,000 of Metro Nashville city funds to be spent unlawfully.
As part of her sentence, the city agreed to expunge her record if she reimburses local government of $11,000 and serves three years of unsupervised probation.
On Monday, Barry made a public appearance at the groundbreaking ceremony for a solar park.
Today we broke ground on Music City Solar, Nashville’s first community solar park. Music City Solar consists of over 17,000 panels and is a great first step towards a more sustainable city. pic.twitter.com/51rJ1eyOaz
— Megan Barry (@MayorMeganBarry) March 5, 2018
