Special report: Inside the final 34 days before Megan Barry resigned

After five weeks of hell, Mayor Megan Barry and her inner circle convened one more time.

The five longtime friends and aides and three lawyers joined Barry and her husband that Monday evening at the Belmont-area bungalow of the embattled politician whose career they were fighting to save.

They knew it would be different than their other gatherings since the sex scandal erupted.

It was March 5. It was time for a final decision.

Timeline: The downfall of Megan Barry: From affair admission to resignation

Watch: Nashville Mayor Megan Barry resigns after affair with bodyguard

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Those closest to Barry felt sadness for the leader they loved, frustration about a situation they didn’t expect, and sheer anger at what they describe as an overzealous district attorney and an unfair media that wanted to take down Nashville’s first female mayor.

Barry’s political career once seemed unstoppable. Revered as a rock star and profiled by national press, she was considered a contender for higher office.

Her inner circle thought by publicly admitting to the nearly two-year affair with her former police bodyguard, Sgt. Rob Forrest, Barry could survive the scandal and remain in politics. She even held a prime-time news conference Jan. 31.

But what they perceived to be a serious personal situation unexpectedly turned into a criminal one.

And so they gathered together as she made the biggest decision of her career.

The Tennessean interviewed more than three dozen friends, advisers and city officials, and examined thousands of pages of emails and documents for this story.

Barry declined to comment.

Fallout from the scandal: Former Mayor Megan Barry starts emptying campaign coffers, offers refund to donors

Those at the mayor’s home that evening included Katy Varney, a friend, political adviser and partner at the public relations firm McNeely, Pigott and Fox. Varney took over damage control during the scandal. Also in attendance were Rich Riebeling, Barry’s chief operating officer who helped steer some of the mayor’s biggest projects; Sean Braisted, her press secretary and long-time devotee; Carolyn Schott, a Nashville attorney and close friend; another friend from out of town; and her team of three lawyers led by Jerry Martin, a former U.S. attorney.

And there was Bruce Barry, her husband of 20 years who remains by her side.

The tension was palpable. They knew a resignation was likely. Forrest was ready to plead guilty the next day.

Megan Barry went upstairs with her attorneys to privately discuss her legal options.

The rest of the somber group remained downstairs, pacing from kitchen to living room to dining room. Near the large wooden kitchen table where Barry had hosted so many past campaign and strategy meetings, they ate lamb, rice and other Greek take-out food.

Finally, after about 90 minutes, Barry came downstairs and her attorneys left the house. She gathered herself in a chair at her dining room table with her allies, and told them her plan.

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Forrest’s abrupt departure was peculiar

Some had heard whispers of the affair prior to her Jan. 31 public admission, but it was largely dismissed as gossip.

An email from Barry’s Chief of Staff Debby Dale Mason raised eyebrows on Jan. 17 when she notified the mayor’s office staff that Forrest would be retiring in two weeks.

Barry had broken the news to Mason the day before, telling her to “work with Rob” to prepare a retirement announcement.

More: Nashville police chief condemns Rob Forrest's 'betrayal of the citizens'

More: Rob Forrest, bodyguard who had affair with Mayor Megan Barry, pleads guilty to theft

Most knew that Forrest, a 31-year veteran of the police department, had long-ago circled spring on his calendar for his retirement. But it was January now. And Mason’s email did not give a reason for the expedited departure.

His retirement announcement struck many in the police department as peculiar. Forrest was a well-liked and widely respected officer — the kind of person who normally would get a retirement party after giving months of notice and a detailed plan to transition his duties.

But after brief phone calls with his supervisor and police Chief Steve Anderson, Forrest announced his departure without an explanation.

It took his colleagues by surprise, and spurred some chatter. Word got around that the outgoing and focused cop who earned the nickname “Secret Service” wasn’t himself during his final days on the force.

The first press inquiry came on Friday, Jan. 26 — a records request to the mayor’s office from NewsChannel5 investigative reporter Phil Williams for travel and overtime records of Forrest. It was followed by a similar request from The Tennessean.

More: Board debates lowering pension of ex-bodyguard Rob Forrest who had affair with former mayor Megan Barry

More: Wife of Nashville Mayor Megan Barry's former bodyguard files for divorce after his affair

Chatter intensified just after 8 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 29, when an attorney representing Forrest’s wife sent a letter to his supervisor asking the department to keep his cell phone and save its contents.

The department put the phone in a plastic evidence bag and locked it in a safe.

But none of the police department’s top leadership suspected the bombshell announcement by the mayor.

‘Felt a need to get it out’

The 54-year-old Barry confided to her closest advisers about the affair on that same Monday.

A series of hush-hush, closed-door meetings the next day made almost everyone in the mayor’s office wonder what was going on.

The mayor and her inner circle debated how to proceed. They discussed the possibility of an immediate resignation.

In the end, they were convinced she could weather the storm by telling the public about her affair.

The plan: complete transparency.

Staff cleared her calendar, which included canceling a Wednesday appearance in Cleveland, Ohio, where Nashville’s federal lawsuit against opioid manufacturers was part of a consolidated case with other cities suing the same companies. Barry's son died of a drug overdose in July.

Instead, she agreed to separate interviews in the late afternoon with The Tennessean and NewsChannel 5. The stories would publish at 5 p.m., then she would have a 7 p.m. press conference.

The admission: Nashville Mayor Megan Barry admits to extramarital relationship with top police security officer

Barry “felt a need to get it out” ahead of potential media stories about the affair, one person close to her said.

A few hours before the news conference, the mayor told her staff about the affair. Barry’s remarks were short, and to some, they came across as hollow, awkward and scripted.

“She was not at her best,” one staff member said.

During her two and a half years in office, Barry earned immense popularity in the community. Polls put her approval rating above 70 percent at its peak.

Attending small business openings, speaking engagements and a wide array of social events during her time as mayor, Barry connected with people.

She galvanized her staff. They were committed to her progressive agenda professionally and extremely loyal to her personally.

So when she revealed her affair with Forrest — a man the staff got to know fairly well — shock reverberated through her office. Some cried as the mayor confessed, tears that continued after they went back to their desks.

More: Who is Robert Forrest, Nashville Mayor Megan Barry's former security chief?

There was disappointment over the actions of a leader they thought was truly special.

“Some people were angry. Some people were stunned and not really knowing what to say. Some people were worried, ‘What does this mean for our jobs?’” one staffer said, describing the tumultuous afternoon.

Prior to the dramatic public announcement, Barry meticulously rehearsed for hours what she would say.

During the 16-minute press conference that night, Barry stuck to the script, repeating much of the language in a corresponding news release and calling her affair a case of “two middle-aged people who had feelings for each other.” She was composed, and answered many questions from reporters.

Her team made a strategic decision to remove the podium — no one could accuse her of hiding behind anything.

Mayor’s office staff stunned

The next morning, Mason summoned the mayor’s office employees for another meeting, this one to “connect, talk about our next steps as staff, and your presence out in the community.”

Mason provided Krispy Kreme doughnuts and coffee.

Before and after the meeting, Barry took time to apologize to staffers individually, offering hugs, looking them directly in the eyes and saying “I’m sorry” for the affair.

She eventually looped in her Washington, D.C., campaign consultants to help her strategize.

Not much got done on routine mayoral work in the next few weeks. It was hard to overcome the drumbeat of stories from local news with the scandal prominently displayed on the website and front pages of The Tennessean and leading local television stations' newscasts most days.

There was an effort to have a “business-as-usual” attitude. The mayor didn’t want to look hunkered down, and she said she owed it to the city to continue what she was elected to do.

“The cloud was there, though,” one aide said. “It was hard to do anything.”

Barry kept some public commitments.

But she took a noticeable backseat at a Feb. 10 campaign kick-off for approval of her proposed $5.4 billion transit referendum plan, deferring to other community leaders as speakers instead of taking the podium herself.

Staff organized other events to generate positive publicity, including a Feb. 13 press event at Belmont University where she signed an executive order about planting trees.

“Say ‘trees!’” Barry said in an arranged photo capping the staged event.

She was no longer an influence at the Metro Council.

A Barry aide told one lobbyist that even though the administration supported a bill he was pushing, the lobbyist would be on his own to work it through council.

“We just can’t predict how any of this will play out, so we won’t be able to help you,” the Barry adviser said.

A planned meeting to discuss revising the Bridgestone Arena lease agreement with the Nashville Predators’ top executives and lobbying team was postponed.

Even as Barry’s closest supporters dug in for a protracted fight to salvage her administration, her staff would show up to work unsure of how to spend their time as media scrutiny — now national and even international — reached a fever pitch.

Mayor didn’t see criminal prosecution coming

Barry’s camp did its best handling the media onslaught of interview and open records requests, with Braisted serving as point person and Varney the top behind-the-scenes communications adviser.

But none of them anticipated the criminal investigation that would unfold.

They were caught off guard when District Attorney Glenn Funk called in the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to conduct a criminal probe of Barry’s conduct during the affair.

Barry and her team viewed the affair as a political and public relations challenge.

There was no crime, they thought.

And no reason for her to resign.

Barry said she would cooperate with the TBI. From her perspective, she didn’t have anything to hide.

More: Mayor Megan Barry affair: TBI takes bodyguard's phone, other evidence

More: Nashville Mayor Barry's affair: What we know about the two laws TBI says may have been broken

More: Mayor's office: Megan Barry not resigning despite revelations in TBI investigation

During the next week, four separate entities launched inquiries into Barry’s affair: the TBI, the city council, the Metro Board of Ethical Conduct and the state comptroller.

Her closest advisers and senior staff wondered how the affair moved so quickly from a political crisis to a scandal with legal ramifications.

Most of Barry’s closest supporters blamed Funk.

Funk seen by Barry camp as overzealous

Although they acknowledge Barry’s mistakes, her allies point to a rift that had developed between the mayor and Funk in the past year — even though it wasn’t widely being discussed around the courthouse.

It started with the Jocques Clemmons case.

As district attorney, Funk called for the TBI to investigate the 2017 death of Clemmons, a 31-year-old African-American who was killed in a shooting by a white Nashville police officer.

At the time, Anderson, who reports directly to Barry, wanted his department to handle the case.

The district attorney's role: Why Glenn Funk took a lead role in prosecuting former Mayor Megan Barry

Although Funk did not prosecute the officer for the shooting, he did raise questions about racial bias in the police force.

One source said Funk was angry because Barry did not insist that Anderson meet personally with Clemmons’ family.

There was another disagreement when Funk asked Barry's administration in the last budget negotiations for $10,000 pay increases for each of his assistant district attorneys. Barry's administration denied the request, but the council later approved raises.

Barry’s staunchest defenders paint Funk as an erratic, vindictive prosecutor trying to score a high-profile political win, displaying a zealousness to take on the case.

“It just never occurred to anyone that Glenn Funk could do what he did,” one source told The Tennessean. “Or that he would give a progress report on the investigation while it was going on,” referring to unsealed documents that provided an inside view of the TBI’s work.

Funk and his defenders say he was put in an impossible situation: He would be criticized for investigating the activities of an immensely popular politician. But if he avoided a major investigation, he would catch flak for that too.

Funk said in an interview that he asked for an investigation because of questions about impropriety. He said he hoped a thorough investigation would clear the air and "uncover no wrongdoing."

"Our office handled the matter expeditiously in the best interest of Nashville," Funk said.

Case turns ‘out of control’

The investigation exploded Feb. 22 when the TBI asked Nashville Judge Steve Dozier to approve a search warrant granting investigators access to Barry’s cellphone. The TBI filed an affidavit detailing why they wanted her phone: photos of a naked woman, assumed to Barry, had been found in Forrest’s email account.

The TBI believed there could be more information on Barry’s personal cellphone.

A police department employee discovered the images while preparing copies of Forrest’s emails for TBI investigators and media public records requests. Timestamps on the photos suggested Forrest might have been on duty when the images were taken.

Senior police officials alerted both the TBI and Barry about the discovery of photos.

Barry’s attorneys and top advisers said the search warrant was unnecessary because she intended to cooperate. Although when asked for the cellphone's pass code, Barry did not immediately comply.

Barry's team questioned the TBI’s public filing of the search warrant request, saying it should have been sealed and not available to the media and public. They saw the move as an attempt to embarrass her politically and personally.

Funk said the TBI was following its usual protocol.

That same day, NewsChannel 5 aired a story showing video of Barry being driven by Forrest to Nashville City Cemetery in the early morning hours before work. The story implied the two went to the cemetery to have sex.

Braisted said Barry went there for a quiet spot to work, to report vandalism and to pick out her possible burial plot.

He emailed Barry a link to the NewsChannel 5 cemetery story after it aired. Barry told Braisted the reporter needed to correct some information in the story. “And you can add that he’s an asshole,” she wrote.

“It was out of control at that point,” one source said, adding that the media stories had taken a toll on the mayor. “You could see she was slowly dying inside.”

In the days after the search warrant, plea deal negotiations began between Funk and Barry’s attorneys about alleged misuse of public funds based on travel expenses and Forrest’s overtime.

Barry took 10 out-of-town trips on city business during which Forrest was the only city employee to accompany her. Forrest earned more than $170,000 in overtime during her tenure.

More: Mayor Barry routinely traveled without security prior to affair, records show

Criminal defense attorney Aubrey Harwell was among about a dozen prominent Nashvillians to reach out to Funk advocating the situation be resolved as cleanly and amicably as possible for the good of the city.

Funk told Barry's attorneys that he wanted the matter settled early in the week of March 5 because there was a judicial conference at the end of the week that would postpone any court hearings until the following week.

Adding more pressure, Barry and her attorneys knew that Forrest had reached an agreement with prosecutors and would plead guilty on Tuesday, March 6, regardless of what Barry did.

Defense attorneys were confident Barry could beat the charges

Most of Barry’s top advisers, even weeks after her resignation, do not think she committed a crime or stole any money. In order to be found guilty of a theft charge, Funk would need to show Barry intended to steal money from the city, and intent can be hard to prove in court.

Her attorneys thought she could win. The legal team was led by Martin, a politically-aligned veteran of Democratic politics, who was known more as a white-collar prosecutor than a criminal defense attorney.

But multiple factors weighed on Barry’s decision to accept a plea deal.

Barry cringed at the prospect of a trial. It would be difficult for her personally, but it would be equally difficult for Nashville.

In her view, sources said, a resignation would be better for the future of the city than a mayoral administration handcuffed by a criminal trial.

She worried about the expense of a legal battle that would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, money that Barry and her husband, a Vanderbilt University professor, did not have at their disposal, according to sources.

One source said that Barry’s husband was a “prince of a human being” during the ordeal. He was “loyal, kind and supportive” of Barry as she decided what to do.

On the evening of Monday, March 5, she was scheduled to be at a Citizen’s Police Academy session. A speech had been prepared and police department leadership was expecting her.

But 30 minutes before she was scheduled to speak, her staff called to cancel.

Instead, her inner circle and attorneys met at her home decorated with paintings from local artists.

Plea deal negotiations between her attorneys and the district attorney's office reached a crescendo that night. Forrest's plea agreement raised the specter of more details about the affair and criminal wrongdoing being revealed in open court.

Talks with Barry continued the next morning, Tuesday, March 6.

They hammered out final details at 7:30 that morning with handwritten notes scribbled on the court document.

Rumors circulated among city hall insiders that a resignation was imminent.

The Tennessean published the breaking news of her impending resignation at 7:56 a.m.

And at 9:26 a.m. in the court courtroom of Judge Monte Watkins, Barry was under oath. She pleaded guilty to felony theft and then shot an icy glare in Funk’s direction before leaving.

Barry publicly announced her resignation at a news conference immediately after her court appearance.

She wrote the short speech herself.

Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236 and jgarrison@tennessean.com. Follow him on Twitter @joeygarrison. Reach Nate Rau at 615-259-8094 and nrau@tennessean.com. Follow him on Twitter @tnnaterau. Reach Adam Tamburin at 615-726-5986 and atamburin@tennessean.com. Follow him on Twitter @tamburintweets.

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