Investigation - coming to a theater near you!

Before anyone goes off the deep end with the news that the attorney general has appointed a special prosecutor (or prosecutors) to investigate Mayor Mike Ragsdale's administration, you should take a deep breath and repeat after me: ouster suits are tough to successfully prosecute.

For good reasons, Tennessee courts have consistently set a high threshold of proof for plaintiffs in an ouster suit. Plaintiffs bear the burden of making the case, and more ouster suits are lost than won.

None of which is to say that the investigation is not warranted or long overdue. But at this point, no one can predict whether the investigation will even lead to an ouster suit, much less a successful one. Personal opinions mean nothing; statutory requirements are everything.

For interested parties, here's a link to a state court of appeals decision concerning a failed ouster suit that also contains background on one that succeeded (pages 8 and 9 of the decision).

 http://www.tsc.state.tn.us/OPINIONS/tca/PDF/081/carneyjOPN.pdf