Adam Tamburin and Tony Gonzalez

atamburin@tennessean.com tgonzalez@tennessean.com

A Nashville woman who reported an attack by her boyfriend Sunday morning thought she would have 12 hours to gather her belongings and get to a safe place before he was released from jail.

Instead, she again came face to face with Nashville contractor David A. Chase that morning and suffered a second beating, according to police and court records.

Now, a longtime Davidson County general sessions judge who intervened in the case says he regrets his role in helping free Chase after the first arrest.

Chase, 37, initially was arrested Sunday morning on charges of domestic assault.

Tennessee law allows domestic assault suspects to be held in jail for a 12-hour "cooling off" period for the safety of alleged victims. But it's an option judges don't always use — a point of controversy in a recent city analysis of domestic violence cases.

Chase got that period of incarceration waived because of a call from Judge Casey Moreland.

Around 9 a.m. Sunday — two hours after Chase was booked into the Metro Jail — Chase's defense attorney, Bryan Lewis, contacted Moreland.

The attorney told the judge that Chase and the alleged victim, Lauren Aletia Bull, were not dating and that she showed up unannounced at Chase's Elliston Place apartment at 3 a.m., according to Moreland.

Based on that information — later found to be incorrect, according to Metro police — Moreland said Chase did not qualify for the hold. He called the judicial commissioner on duty and cleared the way for Chase's release.

According to a bail order signed that morning, Judicial Commissioner Steve Holzapfel at first wrote that Chase would be held until 6:23 p.m. That got scratched out and was replaced by a handwritten note that stated, "Not domestic relationship per Judge Moreland."

"I thought that was the end of my involvement," Moreland told The Tennessean on Wednesday. "Twenty-twenty hindsight, of course, I wouldn't have done it."

Arrest affidavits state that Chase dragged the woman out of his Elliston Place apartment by her hair Sunday morning, prompting the initial arrest. He went to jail, and less than three hours later, he returned to the apartment where Bull was packing her belongings.

"She was advised that he would have a 12-hour hold so that she would be able to collect her things and leave without his presence," the warrant said. "Ms. Bull was extremely surprised when he showed up around 10:30 a.m."

Once he was in the apartment, the warrant said, Chase began to "throw her around" and choked her on the bed. The warrant said he threatened her, saying, "You ruined my life. I'm going to kill you, I'm going to throw you out the balcony."

Chase destroyed the woman's phone as she tried to call 911. She escaped to find help from a neighbor.

Officers arriving at the scene found blood on the walls and belongings in the hallway. Chase had left.

He was arrested again Monday on charges of aggravated assault by strangulation, vandalism and interference with a 911 call.

Moreland said his "heart just fell" when he heard about Chase's second round of charges.

"Other than the victim, nobody feels any worse than I do about what happened," he said.

The judge said he takes a call like the one from Lewis rarely — maybe once a year — but that he does try to be available when his phone rings.

Hold waived again

Taken before Judge Thomas Nelson for the second arrest, the 12-hour hold was waived again and bond set at $15,000. Chase was later released. Why the hold was waived again isn't clear in court records.

Lewis wouldn't discuss particulars of his call to Moreland, but he said in a prepared statement Wednesday he intends to "vigorously and zealously defend this case."

"Both Mr. Chase and I respect domestic violence victims' rights, and we do not stand for or believe in domestic violence," he said.

Metro Police Chief Steve Anderson released a statement Wednesday saying the 12-hour hold policy should have been enforced and that he expressed his "dismay" to the judge.

"As I stated in my message to Judge Moreland, if 12-hour holds are going to be routinely waived in the future, there is a need for the police department to inform victims of domestic assault that this promise cannot be relied upon and that they should act accordingly," Anderson said.

Chase is executive vice president of D.F. Chase Inc., touted by the company as one of the largest construction firms in Tennessee.

The failure of Nashville's Night Court commissioners to use the 12-hour "cooling off" period triggered recent criticism in a citywide study on the handling of domestic violence cases.

The Metro report found that commissioners chose not to hold suspects for 12 hours in more than 40 percent of cases in one stretch during October 2012.

"When we were going through the mayor's assessment and the (court system) gaps, this was one we heard repeatedly: There just is not enough time between the incident and the offender's release for the victim to develop and implement a safety plan," said Cathy Gurley, executive director of victims' advocacy group You Have the Power. "A cooling-off period is not a bad thing."

Chase is due to appear in court two more times this month.

Reach Adam Tamburin at 615-726-5986. Reach Tony Gonzalez at 615-259-8089.