Nude Photos May Show Mayor's Affair Was a Crime

TBI says they were taken when bodyguard was on duty
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 23, 2018 3:40 AM CST
Updated Feb 23, 2018 6:42 AM CST
Nude Photos May Show Mayor's Affair Was A Crime
Nashville Mayor Megan Barry speaks at the Fraternal Order of Police convention in Nashville, Tenn.   (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

Investigators in Tennessee say nude photos recovered from a former police officer's phone could be evidence of two crimes—or possibly three, since Nashville Mayor Megan Barry says if the photos are of her, they were taken without her consent. In an affidavit, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says photos from former Sgt. Rob Forrest's phone show that an extramarital affair he had with the mayor happened while he was on duty as her bodyguard, the Tennessean reports. The photos were allegedly taken during times Forrest claimed overtime pay on two trips to Washington, DC, with Barry. The affidavit cites possible misconduct of public officials and "theft of property," which legal experts believe refers to the overtime pay Forrest claimed. Barry, who is married, admitted the affair last month but said she wouldn't step down.

The TBI says Forrest's phone has also yielded evidence of 260 deleted chats between him and the mayor. Records show the TBI has seized the mayor's phone, but she has refused to unlock it. Barry tells WSMV that she was "furious" when she learned about the photos. "If they exist, they were taken without my knowledge and without my consent. It didn’t show that I have done anything wrong or criminal and, in fact, if anything was wrongly done, it was done to me personally," she says. The mayor says she told the TBI they could look at anything from her phone that related to the investigation, but they wanted everything between "me and my mom and my husband and my son and my attorney and that just didn't feel right." (The governor of Missouri was indicted Thursday over an alleged compromising photo.)

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