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Defense considers mistrial request in Tennessee political corruption trial • Tennessee Lookout [1]

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Date: 2025-05

The defense for a former House staffer is considering a request for mistrial in Tennessee’s political corruption trial.

U.S. District Court Judge Eli Richardson sent the jury home Tuesday before it could be seated when defense attorney Cynthia Sherwood, who is representing a former top aide, Cade Cothren, notified the court she might seek a mistrial because of audio played Monday that was supposed to be redacted.

In the audiotape, former House Speaker Glen Casada told FBI agents who raided his Franklin home in January 2021 that Speaker Cameron Sexton didn’t like Cothren and wouldn’t have approved him as a constituent mail vendor if he knew Cothren was running Phoenix Solutions.

The court was supposed to spend the rest of Tuesday allowing Sherwood to spend time talking to Cothren about the possibility of seeking a mistrial and then returning to court to talk about a potential “remedy” to the mistake.

Richardson shied away from saying a motion for a mistrial would fail. But he said such errors have to be avoided.

Federal prosecutors played a tape of the FBI’s interview of Casada from 2021 in which he reversed course and said he knew Cothren was behind Phoenix Solutions before a federal agent told him it’s against federal law to lie to the FBI.

Casada’s defense attorney, Ed Yarbrough, requested the audiotape be played in its entirety. That apparently included Casada’s reference to Sexton and a racist and sexist scandal that led to Cothren’s resignation in the spring of 2019.

Casada and Cothren are charged with 20 counts of fraud, bribery and kickbacks in connection with a plan to tap into the state’s constituent mailer program through House members and then get into campaign and Republican Caucus business.

Former Rep. Robin Smith, the third player in the plan, testified against Casada and Cothren last week, saying they wanted to start with the mail program because it was “low-hanging fruit” at a time no elections were being held.







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[1] Url: https://tennesseelookout.com/briefs/defense-considers-mistrial-request-in-tennessee-political-corruption-trial/

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