Reporter Reveals Leak in Police Department by Checking on Leaked Story

By Kevin Eck 

andycordan_wkrnWKRN reporter Andy Cordan may have accidentally let Franklin, TN, police know they had an inside leak when he checked up on a story that had been leaked to him.

According to The Tennessean, Franklin deputy chief of police Mike Jordan “had been routinely sharing information” with the Nashville ABC affiliate’s reporter about an investigation into a GPS device found on a car owned by actress Ashley Judd.

Police were tipped off after receiving an e-mail Nov. 11 from Cordan requesting information from police spokesman Sgt. Charlie Warner about the GPS device found on Ashley Judd’s car on Nov. 8. Cordan’s e-mail to Warner used language taken verbatim from police documents.
“It appeared to be a clip and paste from an internal document that Andy Cordan was using in asking for information,” [Franklin Police Chief David] Rahinsky said in during the hearing.

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Records show Jordan had e-mailed Cordan on Nov. 11 telling him about the GPS device as well as three other investigations. Police also found numerous other e-mails going back several months between the two where Jordan shared information with Cordan.

“Jordan’s improper sharing of the information with that reporter, and the reporter’s subsequent news story, allowed the public and key persons of interest to become prematurely aware of investigative information, information that should have been maintained as confidential,” police spokesman Sgt. Charlie Warner told The Tennessean. “Attorneys to people we wanted to question became prematurely involved. We believe, in large part, that this was because of what they saw in the news.”

Jordan has since been demoted, put on probation and suspended for five days without pay.

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