Stacey Barchenger

sbarchenger@tennessean.com

Nashville's police chief on Monday publicly rebuked a spokesman in the prosecutors office, saying the spokesman released the name and personal information of a rape victim to media last week.

Police Chief Steve Anderson said in a three-page memo that his office would never have released an incident report that included the names of a possible rape victim and the suspect in her attack.

By sending that identifying information to a local television station, Anderson said, Nashville District Attorney's Office spokesman Ken Whitehouse committed an “unconscionable” act that was a “violation of trust and human dignity.”

The memo says Whitehouse logged in to the department's internal records system and accessed the report just as detectives were investigating a woman's report that she was raped at Bridgestone Arena by a cleaning crew worker.

The rebuke is a rare public call out between the two independent departments, with Anderson suggesting Whitehouse's employment status should change as a result of the breach. The prosecutors office said Monday the information was mistakenly released.

"The information referenced in Chief Anderson’s memo was regrettably released in error," Dorinda Carter, another office spokesperson, said in an email. "It is the policy of this office to not comment on pending cases or personnel matters."

Read the full memo at the end of this story.

Carter formerly was the chief spokeswoman for the Nashville District Attorney's Office. In May, District Attorney General Glenn Funk hired Whitehouse to join the staff and shifted Carter's role to work primarily with community groups, though she has occasionally fielded media inquiries.

Anderson's memo says Whitehouse released that report to WSMV Channel 4 news, revealing personal information of the victim and the name of the suspect, whom police were still looking for at the time.

Sent to department staff and victims advocacy organizations, and later posted on the police department's webpage, the memo says Whitehouse will remain an employee of the prosecutors office but suggests he should not have access to sensitive information.

"No one in the criminal justice system should do anything that may tend to dissuade victims from promptly coming forward to report an attack," Anderson's letter says.

Channel 4 on Friday aired a story that, according to versions posted online, featured at least partially redacted copies of the incident report, as well as an interview with the victim of the rape.

Though victim information is public record, law enforcement agencies often withhold it from public release, citing, as Anderson does, a concern to protect victims of the humiliating crime.

The Tennessean generally does not identify victims of sexual assault without that individual's permission.

Anderson says Whitehouse's access to the department's electronic files was blocked as a result of the incident and "will NOT be restored — ever."

Reach Stacey Barchenger at 615-726-8968 and on Twitter @sbarchenger.