- Alex Friedmann was billed with vandalism of the Downtown Detention Facility in 2020
- He is accused of thieving keys and hiding guns and blades in the facility.
- The jury deliberated an hour before returning their verdict.
Alex Friedmann is responsible of vandalism. His legal professional claimed so, prosecutors said so, and the jury agreed after listening to 3 days of testimony and watching several hours of online video surveillance.
Friedmann, 53, was billed with felony vandalism soon after impersonating a building contractor, stealing two keys and hiding a few firearms and numerous blades in the partitions of the Downtown Detention Facility whilst it was still beneath construction in 2019.
The jury deliberated for an hour in advance of returning a responsible verdict for vandalism with damages in the sum of $250,000. The crime is a Class A felony and Friedmann faces involving 25 and 40 many years in prison.
Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall called the incident a “deliberate, evil” plan and stated in the course of the trial that he was guaranteed there would have been massive loss of everyday living if that contraband experienced been discovered by inmates.
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“To have somebody like this go in and manipulate the procedure and compromise everybody’s personalized safety is fully unacceptable, and I am all set for justice to be served,” Corridor mentioned.
Friedmann, a Nashville legal justice advocate, is also facing a federal demo future thirty day period in connection with the scenario.
Officers discovered in December 2019 that a servicing essential ring was distinct from others in the essential management room and quickly learned two keys had been missing — a common motion crucial and a kitchen area padlock critical. Online video footage uncovered that Friedmann had been within the command place, pocketed a established of keys and taken off them from the facility for two hours prior to returning most of them.
More footage confirmed Friedmann bringing applications into the facility, masking up protection cameras and consistently returning to several regions of the detention heart much more than 20 times concerning August 2019 and when he was caught in January 2020.
The DCSO replaced 1,800 locks following the break-in and delayed opening the facility for quite a few months. Authorities approximated the expense to improve these locks, and labor to overview countless numbers of hrs of video clip footage, was more than $600,000.
In closing arguments, Deputy District Attorney Amy Hunter explained the sheriff’s workplace had two options.
“Either tear down the total constructing or exchange all the keys,” she mentioned. “It was not a difficult alternative for them.”
From the commencing, Ben Raybin, Friedmann’s lawyer, argued the point out was overcharging his shopper. He said the legislation is twofold — there 1st needs to be evidence of problems, and then the benefit of that damage requires to be identified.
The injury was by no means in dispute. Friedmann dug into the partitions and hid weapons there. He did vandalize the facility, but Raybin argued he by no means destroyed the keys or damaged the locks. The price tag to modify the locks and to evaluation the online video footage, the lawyer said, was a “collateral expense” and not coated under the regulation.
“Why did they have to alter the locks?” Raybin asked. “Since they had been eradicated, not simply because they had been broken.”
Deputy District Lawyer Roger Moore mentioned no make any difference which way the fees are dissected, they met the load of proof that there was $250,000 in damages.
“At the time the keys were being eliminated, from that position on, what was the acceptable thing for the sheriff to do at that place?” Moore asked. “What we can establish is that he compromised, tampered and damaged that facility. Was there any other acceptable alternate? No.”
Contact Tennessean reporter Kirsten Fiscus at 615-259-8229 or [email protected]. Comply with her on Twitter @KDFiscus.
