In August of 2012, just as the November election for Crossville city council was getting underway, a large number of residents began to receive unsolicited “robo” phone calls that appeared to come from the phone number of the Crossville City Hall.
Jesse Kerley after being sworn in as
a city councilman on 11-19-12
following an election in which
robocalls were used to attack one
of his opponents, Boyd Wyatt.
The call was instead, a political robocall and an attack on then council member Boyd Wyatt who was running for reelection. That incident created a lot of concern and complaints at the time leading the city and city council to ask for an investigation into the origination of the calls. After a lengthy investigation, then 13th Judicial District Attorney General Randy York wrote a letter outlining the evidence against another candidate for city council in that race as the person behind the calls and the use of the city hall number. That person was Jesse Kerley who was elected to council in that race.
At the time the calls were first reported, then candidate Jesse Kerley ironically said he had not received one of the calls so he didn't know the exact content of the call, adding "It is unfortunate they used city hall's number."
As DA York reported in his letter to the city at the end of the investigation, it was Kerley who had ordered and paid for the calls with his personal credit card and who had also directed the company he hired to make the calls to use the phone number for city hall. The evidence was contained in emails that Kerley had deleted from his computer. The TBI forensics lab was able to retrieve the emails after Kerley's computer was seized in the search of his home during an investigation into the calls.
A search warrant was authorized by 13th Judicial District criminal court Judge David Patterson based on affidavits of DA investigator Terry Hembree and information provided to Hembree by then Major Mark Rosser of the Crossville Police Department, who investigated the incident.
Information provided by Rosser's investigation shows a political group identified as “Citizens for a better Crossville” was conducting robocalls to Crossville voters. Subpoenas were sent to Microsoft for details on an email address in the name of “Citizens for a better Crossville” as well as Internet service providers, phone companies and other service providers.
Documents associated with the subpoena show on Aug. 15, 2012, an IP address assigned to then-candidate Jesse Kerley was used to sign up for and establish the email address citizensforabettercrossville@hotmail.com. Rosser also said that Wyatt received an email from that same email address that threatened to “expose” him during the political campaign. The email was received by Wyatt on Aug. 15, 2012.
Wyatt received several additional emails from that email address including a photo of a political sign showing paid for by Citizens for a Better Crossville and the results of the “survey” from the first robocall. The series of robocalls continued through much of the 2012 campaign though other numbers beside the spoofed number of city hall were used for the later calls.
The additional subpoenas secured by Rosser showed that the Citizens for a better Crossville Hotmail email account was accessed from several devices, all assigned to then-candidate Jesse Kerley. Kerley's laptop computer was sent to the TBI laboratory and forensic technicians cloned the hard drive then examined the duplicated hard drive for information, retrieving a number of emails described as being in the “unallocated/deleted space” on the hard drive.
The deleted then recovered emails from Kerley's computer showed a series of communications between Kerley's personal email and a Texas company that provides phone polling services, Voice Broadcasting, Corp. The emails between Kerley and the company's representative, Amber Valdez, discuss the wording of the push poll calls to be made as well as the need for a contract to be returned before those calls could be made.
A copy of Jesse Kerley's financial disclosure statement for the 2012 election from the Cumberland County Election Commission shows expenditures for printing of cards, decals, newspaper ads and the purchase of a copy of a voters list from the election commission. The report shows a total expenditure of $1,234.53. Nowhere on the report was there an expense for polling calls.
As the City of Crossville had formally requested the DA's office to investigate the robocalls, when the investigation was concluded, then DA Randy York sent a lengthy letter back to the city with the results of the investigation. According to York's letter, “direct evidence leading to the robocalls” was found on Kerley’s computer. That evidence led to a Texas firm, Voice Broadcasting Corporation, and information from that company evidenced the fact that “an individual identifying himself Jesse Kerley paid for the robocall services with his credit card.”
York said that the crime is a class “A” misdemeanor, punishable by fine only. He continues, “We would have to have an individual testify that could authenticate or testify to the above facts.” York’s letter says that would involve paying for travel, lodging and meals for possibly two individuals from Voice Broadcasting in Arlington, TX. In addition, they would have to arrange for the TBI analysts to testify.
“In light of the great amount of expenditures and costs associated with further prosecution of the case, it is my decision not to proceed with prosecution," York wrote. "In my estimation, this would be an unwise use of taxpayer dollars to proceed.”
The total cost of the investigation to taxpayers into robocalls is unknown but would include substantial time of Crossville Police, the TBI and the DA's office.
