A female former police officer who sued the department she worked for after being fired for her involvement in a departmental sex scandal has settled the lawsuit for a half million dollars.
Megan Hall, who was terminated along with four other officers after she had sex with them on the job and then all lied about it, agreed to the settlement in February, according to the signed released.
The chief of police was also fired after news of the scandal broke in January of 2023.
The mayor of the City of La Vergne, Tennessee, where she had been employed, signed the release Wednesday.
“The La Vergne Board of Mayor and Aldermen voted tonight to authorize the mayor to sign a settlement agreement between the City of La Vergne and former police officer Maegan Hall,” the city said in a statement cited by WTVF. “The agreement was negotiated between the attorney’s representing the City and Hall.
“The City’s insurance provider will pay the sum of $500,000 to Hall as a gross settlement, which includes court costs, attorneys fees, and expenses,” the statement added. “The City denies any admission of liability, and no taxpayer funds will be spent to settle this lawsuit.”
City leaders voted 3-to-1 in favor of signing the release at a special meeting Wednesday, with the lone dissenter questioning what other La Vergne city employees what do in response to news of Hall’s windfall.
“What message does that send to all the other employees?” Alderman Dennis Waldron asked. “It’s sending a message out to everybody in the world [that says] come to La Vergne, sue La Vergne because they’re going to settle.”
Is this payout fair?
“Reports detail sex between officers on duty and on city property, intimate photos and videos shared among officers, and silence from the Police Chief, who was clued into what was happening,” WTVF reported.
The lawsuit was filed in February 2023, about a month after Hall was fired.
“While I was aspiring to protect my community, the La Vergne police department was not protecting me,” Hall told the station in an interview last year.
The release appears in its entirety below.
Hall v City Release by The Western Journal on Scribd
“Maegan Hall was a vulnerable and optimistic 24-year-old woman who had applied to be a police officer in the City of La Vergne,” the lawsuit said, according to WSMV. “Where Ms. Hall sought role models at her new job, she instead found predators.”
“Maegan Hall felt trapped in the role assigned to her at the City of La Vergne Police Department and, in an attempt to escape, she nearly killed herself,” the lawsuit said. “Then, the City blamed her for everything. This lawsuit seeks justice for Maegan Hall.”
Police Chief Burrel “Chip” Davis was fired after an independent third-party investigation found that many of the lawsuit’s claims about him were accurate.
“The third-party investigator concluded Davis was aware of the sexual misconduct within his department and never reported or disciplined any of the officers involved,” a news release said at the time of his firing, acccording to an earlier report from WSMV. “The conclusion also states that Davis impeded the initial investigation into sexual misconduct, ‘contrary to City policy and permitted — if not encouraged –conduct potentially contrary to state and federal law.’”
Davis was the sixth department employee to be fired over the scandal. Hall, Officer Juan Lugo‐Perez, Sgt. Henry “Ty” McGowan, Sgt. Lewis Powell and Detective Seneca Shields had been let go the previous month.
Three other officers had been suspended but had been reinstated by early February, according to the outlet.
