FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — Reporter demands DA Wamp suspension
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — Reporter demands DA Wamp suspension
Bids to close courthouse to public, block right of remonstrance, oppress religious ministry among grievances filed against her license
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024 — Radio investigative reporter David Tulis has filed a complaint against district attorney Coty Wamp over her effort to close the courts building and censor coverage of the Ray Rzeplinsky trial.
Miss Wamp filed a motion July 25 as part of that case to bar Tulis, with Copperhead Radio Network and TNtrafficket.us, from entering the downtown courts building during the case that ended in a conviction Aug. 2 in Hamilton County criminal court, Judge Amanda Dunn presiding.
In her motion she argues Tulis’ coverage had been “obstructive and disruptive” because he argues for jury nullification, Tulis describing the Rzeplinski case as one of vindictive prosecution.
The complaint to the Board of Professional Responsibility is in the hands of a disciplinary counsel who prosecutes serious violations in hearings before the board. Many complaints are litigated in chancery court and heard ultimately by the supreme court, in charge of law licenses.
“DA Wamp is unfit for public office in attempting to close the court and to squelch the press, both of which are forbidden in the Tennessee bill of rights,” says Tulis. “She’s also willing to abrogate two other constitutional rights of members of the public without blinking. Freedom of religion and freedom of the people to assemble for purpose of petition, remonstrance and demand for redress of grievances.”
Tulis in his 42-page filing demands suspension. “I’m not arguing for disbarment, which would be ruinous to Miss Wamp— don’t want to do that,” he says. “But suspension between 40 and 180 days seems reasonable. Her oppressive acts — intense, scattergun, stinking of bad faith — more stunts like these and she’s going to get impeached. The courts need to get her attention so she can keep her legal career and have a great and prosperous life.”
What Tulis calls “religious oppression” arises from Miss Wamp’s objection to his “next friend” aid of a woman in a misdemeanor case. Tamila Grace Massengale asked Tulis to help her defeat two criminal charges and to challenge Hamilton County magistrate Lorrie Miller’s hearsay-only arrest warrant protocol. The Miller policy enabled the Massengale arrest warrant to issue without a sworn statement from the purported theft victim. Miss Wamp dismissed the case.
Tulis filed on April 25 a petition to the criminal court to remove the case from general sessions judge Larry Ables, dismiss the charges as void, and order reform of what Tulis calls “doggie-door” arrest warrants. At an April 29 hearing, Judge Ables ridiculed Tulis as engaging in a criminal act to aid Mrs. Massengale, not being a lawyer. On May 6 DA Wamp sent Tulis a threatening letter about the unlicensed practice of law, which conduct Tulis denies as he received no valuable consideration, as required by the law. The filing details how law regulates only for-profit callings via privilege.
“My helping yet another victim of the police-judicial industrial complex as ‘next friend’ is not an offense of any sort,” Tulis says, “but a Christian mercy under conscience, which I exercise through my Tennessee constitutional right of ‘address or remonstrance’ pursuant to article 1, section 23.”
