Story note: This profile shed light on the career of a trooper at the center of two public scandals at the state patrol. It showed how management at the agency overlooked transgressions of this politically connected officer.
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By BRAD SCHRADE • Staff Writer • August 31, 2008
Long before he was accused of running unauthorized background checks on private citizens, a joke made its way around the Tennessee Highway Patrol about Ronnie Shirley.
He could parachute over the old Soviet Union, the joke went, and if you telephoned the Kremlin an hour later, Shirley would have schmoozed his way so far within the corridors of the communist state, you'd hear his West Tennessee drawl on the other end of the line.
The joke illuminates a truth about Shirley, a 6-foot-4 trooper full of charm and backslapping political skill, but it also reflects a long-held belief about what it takes to get ahead in the THP: Politics and cozying up to the powerful too often determine the course of a trooper's career.
"He makes friends," said former THP Lt. Col. Steve Browder, who is from McNairy County, where Shirley grew up, and helped Shirley get hired as a trooper in the late 1980s.
"He's kind of a self-serving guy. Whoever is in charge, he will find a place at the table."
Browder said he's concerned the latest allegations surrounding Shirley — that he ran unauthorized background checks through a criminal justice database on up to 182 Tennesseans — give a black eye to the state's other troopers.
For years, many have said Shirley, 42, could one day be commander of the patrol because of his skill in courting those in high places in state government.
He has enough political clout to land plum assignments in the patrol: serving on Republican Gov. Don Sundquist's security detail, and later serving as bodyguard for House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston.
It was shortly after the Boston trip that news surfaced that Shirley had fixed a speeding ticket for then-Deputy Gov. Dave Cooley — at the time, the most powerful person in Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen's administration. It later came out that the patrol's leadership had concocted a fake punishment for Shirley to throw off the press and public.
Could be a politician
Ronnie Eugene Shirley was born in April 1966, and graduated in 1984 from McNairy Central High School in Selmer, about 15 miles north of the Mississippi state line.
Before joining the THP 20 years ago, he was a police officer in Selmer, according to his THP personnel file.
Whenever Shirley came into General Sessions Court Judge Paul Simpson's courtroom, he was polite and as straight as an arrow, the former judge recalled.
"It really surprises me he's in a controversy," said Simpson, contacted by phone in Denver, where he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. "I think I know him, I don't think he'd ever do anything criminal. I think he's a law-abiding officer; he's been ever since I've known him."
A longtime Democrat and Selmer's current vice mayor, Simpson was one of the people Shirley listed as a reference on his job application with the Highway Patrol. Simpson said Shirley is still a friend, and he would have recommended him without any hesitation.
"He wants to help everybody," said Bryan Farmer, a former trooper from East Tennessee. "In my 25 years in the Highway Patrol, sometimes you have to say, 'No, I can't help someone.' I don't know that Ronnie has the ability to do that."
Farmer said he got to know Shirley a little when they worked together at University of Tennessee football games. Farmer, who recently reached a settlement in his federal lawsuit that said the department retaliated against him because he is a Republican, had only good things to say about Shirley.
The two shared a passion for Volunteers football, and Farmer, who outranked Shirley at the time, found him to be a very likable guy and a dependable trooper.
Farmer said he's surprised by the scandals Shirley has been connected with. If Shirley hadn't been in a THP uniform, Farmer said, with his personality, he'd easily be running for political office — with success.
His willingness to help may include a deputy governor with a speeding ticket or a trooper who needs help moving furniture on the weekend, Farmer said.
"There's consistently temptations to do things around the general orders" — the THP's internal rulebook —"or around the law because you are in a higher rank," Farmer said. "You just have to be able to say no."
However, Farmer said he didn't know Shirley as well as someone who has been around him day to day on the road, a key element of a trooper's life.
"You never know a man until you work with him," Farmer said. "That's just something I've always lived by and come to realize. If you work with someone on a day-to-day basis you get to know the ins and outs and how he operates."
The ticket fix
Before the current scandal hit the headlines, Shirley was best known to the public as the trooper who fixed Cooley's speeding ticket in Rutherford County in 2004.
A great many details about the ticket fix remain unknown. It was investigated by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, but no criminal charges were ever pressed. The investigative file has never been made public, and TBI files are exempt from the state's public records laws.
Shirley received a written reprimand and a transfer out of Rutherford County.
But it wasn't until a year after the ticket-fix controversy broke that the truth came out: Shirley was never supposed to be punished. The patrol's leadership at the time had concocted a fake punishment for him to placate the press and public.
In fact, two months after he fixed the ticket, then-patrol commander Col. Lynn Pitts recommended to Cooley that Shirley be promoted to captain and assigned to an administrative research job.
The promotion never went through, though, and Cooley later told The Tennessean that it wasn't the right fit for Shirley, whom he described as a "salty guy" whom he'd met a few times, more of a street cop than a researcher.
Pitts and other top leaders of the patrol at that time were swept out of office — through retirements, resignations and demotions — in late 2005 after a Tennessean investigation showed widespread cronyism, political favoritism and other problems in the patrol.
Today, even Shirley's faked punishment doesn't exist in the official record of the Highway Patrol.
The letter of reprimand is no longer in his personnel file at THP headquarters in South Nashville. It has been stricken from Shirley's record, according to department officials, as is required under state personnel regulations.
If Shirley had received even one day of suspension for the ticket-fixing, it would have been on his personnel record for the rest of his career, and could have been considered if he were disciplined later.
But state personnel rules limit how long a reprimand letter can be taken into account for future discipline or possible promotion.
"It's like, as if it doesn't exist," THP spokesman Mike Browning said. "Under personnel rules and regulations, a reprimand is removed after two years."
'Exceptional' marks
Shirley has declined to be interviewed for this story and other Tennessean stories dating to 2005. However, his attorney, Worrick Robinson, said his client broke no laws and expects to be exonerated in the criminal investigation into the background checks.
The THP leadership has given Shirley good marks on his performance evaluations, including one that was completed more than a month after the unauthorized background checks were reported to the THP.
On July 30 — almost a month into the criminal investigation into allegations against Shirley — his direct supervisor, Maj. J.R. Perry, signed Shirley's annual performance review, giving him "exceptional" ratings across the board, the highest possible marks.
State Safety Commissioner Dave Mitchell and THP Col. Mike Walker signed the review the same day, approving the evaluation.
Walker on Friday said he didn't conduct the evaluation, which is based on the entire year's performance.
"We don't base it on what's happening right at that time," he said. "You look at the year as a whole. I didn't sign his evaluation. I was the reviewer on it. I was not the evaluator. I simply read it and sign off on it."
Shirley's full-time posting is another plum assignment — serving as the Safety Department's liaison to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, a position he's held for about two years.
Shirley, who was paid $69,408 in fiscal year 2006-07, is on administrative leave pending the outcome of the criminal investigation.
Walker, who was appointed colonel after the THP housecleaning, said he doesn't know whether Shirley has political connections outside the agency, which troopers refer to as "politics."
"I could care less what kind of politics he's got," Walker said. "I'm not personally familiar with any political pull that he has. Politics doesn't mean anything to Mike Walker and Dave Mitchell. I assure you."
Brad Schrade can be reached at bschrade@tennessean.com or 615-259-8086.
Story link
By BRAD SCHRADE • Staff Writer • August 31, 2008
Long before he was accused of running unauthorized background checks on private citizens, a joke made its way around the Tennessee Highway Patrol about Ronnie Shirley.
He could parachute over the old Soviet Union, the joke went, and if you telephoned the Kremlin an hour later, Shirley would have schmoozed his way so far within the corridors of the communist state, you'd hear his West Tennessee drawl on the other end of the line.
The joke illuminates a truth about Shirley, a 6-foot-4 trooper full of charm and backslapping political skill, but it also reflects a long-held belief about what it takes to get ahead in the THP: Politics and cozying up to the powerful too often determine the course of a trooper's career.
"He makes friends," said former THP Lt. Col. Steve Browder, who is from McNairy County, where Shirley grew up, and helped Shirley get hired as a trooper in the late 1980s.
"He's kind of a self-serving guy. Whoever is in charge, he will find a place at the table."
Browder said he's concerned the latest allegations surrounding Shirley — that he ran unauthorized background checks through a criminal justice database on up to 182 Tennesseans — give a black eye to the state's other troopers.
For years, many have said Shirley, 42, could one day be commander of the patrol because of his skill in courting those in high places in state government.
He has enough political clout to land plum assignments in the patrol: serving on Republican Gov. Don Sundquist's security detail, and later serving as bodyguard for House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston.
It was shortly after the Boston trip that news surfaced that Shirley had fixed a speeding ticket for then-Deputy Gov. Dave Cooley — at the time, the most powerful person in Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen's administration. It later came out that the patrol's leadership had concocted a fake punishment for Shirley to throw off the press and public.
Could be a politician
Ronnie Eugene Shirley was born in April 1966, and graduated in 1984 from McNairy Central High School in Selmer, about 15 miles north of the Mississippi state line.
Before joining the THP 20 years ago, he was a police officer in Selmer, according to his THP personnel file.
Whenever Shirley came into General Sessions Court Judge Paul Simpson's courtroom, he was polite and as straight as an arrow, the former judge recalled.
"It really surprises me he's in a controversy," said Simpson, contacted by phone in Denver, where he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. "I think I know him, I don't think he'd ever do anything criminal. I think he's a law-abiding officer; he's been ever since I've known him."
A longtime Democrat and Selmer's current vice mayor, Simpson was one of the people Shirley listed as a reference on his job application with the Highway Patrol. Simpson said Shirley is still a friend, and he would have recommended him without any hesitation.
"He wants to help everybody," said Bryan Farmer, a former trooper from East Tennessee. "In my 25 years in the Highway Patrol, sometimes you have to say, 'No, I can't help someone.' I don't know that Ronnie has the ability to do that."
Farmer said he got to know Shirley a little when they worked together at University of Tennessee football games. Farmer, who recently reached a settlement in his federal lawsuit that said the department retaliated against him because he is a Republican, had only good things to say about Shirley.
The two shared a passion for Volunteers football, and Farmer, who outranked Shirley at the time, found him to be a very likable guy and a dependable trooper.
Farmer said he's surprised by the scandals Shirley has been connected with. If Shirley hadn't been in a THP uniform, Farmer said, with his personality, he'd easily be running for political office — with success.
His willingness to help may include a deputy governor with a speeding ticket or a trooper who needs help moving furniture on the weekend, Farmer said.
"There's consistently temptations to do things around the general orders" — the THP's internal rulebook —"or around the law because you are in a higher rank," Farmer said. "You just have to be able to say no."
However, Farmer said he didn't know Shirley as well as someone who has been around him day to day on the road, a key element of a trooper's life.
"You never know a man until you work with him," Farmer said. "That's just something I've always lived by and come to realize. If you work with someone on a day-to-day basis you get to know the ins and outs and how he operates."
The ticket fix
Before the current scandal hit the headlines, Shirley was best known to the public as the trooper who fixed Cooley's speeding ticket in Rutherford County in 2004.
A great many details about the ticket fix remain unknown. It was investigated by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, but no criminal charges were ever pressed. The investigative file has never been made public, and TBI files are exempt from the state's public records laws.
Shirley received a written reprimand and a transfer out of Rutherford County.
But it wasn't until a year after the ticket-fix controversy broke that the truth came out: Shirley was never supposed to be punished. The patrol's leadership at the time had concocted a fake punishment for him to placate the press and public.
In fact, two months after he fixed the ticket, then-patrol commander Col. Lynn Pitts recommended to Cooley that Shirley be promoted to captain and assigned to an administrative research job.
The promotion never went through, though, and Cooley later told The Tennessean that it wasn't the right fit for Shirley, whom he described as a "salty guy" whom he'd met a few times, more of a street cop than a researcher.
Pitts and other top leaders of the patrol at that time were swept out of office — through retirements, resignations and demotions — in late 2005 after a Tennessean investigation showed widespread cronyism, political favoritism and other problems in the patrol.
Today, even Shirley's faked punishment doesn't exist in the official record of the Highway Patrol.
The letter of reprimand is no longer in his personnel file at THP headquarters in South Nashville. It has been stricken from Shirley's record, according to department officials, as is required under state personnel regulations.
If Shirley had received even one day of suspension for the ticket-fixing, it would have been on his personnel record for the rest of his career, and could have been considered if he were disciplined later.
But state personnel rules limit how long a reprimand letter can be taken into account for future discipline or possible promotion.
"It's like, as if it doesn't exist," THP spokesman Mike Browning said. "Under personnel rules and regulations, a reprimand is removed after two years."
'Exceptional' marks
Shirley has declined to be interviewed for this story and other Tennessean stories dating to 2005. However, his attorney, Worrick Robinson, said his client broke no laws and expects to be exonerated in the criminal investigation into the background checks.
The THP leadership has given Shirley good marks on his performance evaluations, including one that was completed more than a month after the unauthorized background checks were reported to the THP.
On July 30 — almost a month into the criminal investigation into allegations against Shirley — his direct supervisor, Maj. J.R. Perry, signed Shirley's annual performance review, giving him "exceptional" ratings across the board, the highest possible marks.
State Safety Commissioner Dave Mitchell and THP Col. Mike Walker signed the review the same day, approving the evaluation.
Walker on Friday said he didn't conduct the evaluation, which is based on the entire year's performance.
"We don't base it on what's happening right at that time," he said. "You look at the year as a whole. I didn't sign his evaluation. I was the reviewer on it. I was not the evaluator. I simply read it and sign off on it."
Shirley's full-time posting is another plum assignment — serving as the Safety Department's liaison to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, a position he's held for about two years.
Shirley, who was paid $69,408 in fiscal year 2006-07, is on administrative leave pending the outcome of the criminal investigation.
Walker, who was appointed colonel after the THP housecleaning, said he doesn't know whether Shirley has political connections outside the agency, which troopers refer to as "politics."
"I could care less what kind of politics he's got," Walker said. "I'm not personally familiar with any political pull that he has. Politics doesn't mean anything to Mike Walker and Dave Mitchell. I assure you."
Brad Schrade can be reached at bschrade@tennessean.com or 615-259-8086.
