Sandy MaloneLa Vergne, TN – A now-former La Vergne police officer who found herself at the center of a department sex scandal before she was fired is speaking out about what her supervisors and other officers did to her while she was a rookie.
Former La Vergne Police Officer Maegan Hall was fired, along with five other officers, for having sex on duty, sending nude photos of each other, not disclosing their relationships, and lying during a human resources investigation, WKRN reported.
Now-former La Vergne Police Chief Chip Davis was fired a month later after an outside investigation into the department’s sex scandal determined that the top cop had known what was going on, failed to report it, and may have encouraged the behavior.
“I remember while applying for the job at the PD they described the environment as a family. But while I was aspiring to protect others, they did not protect me,” Hall told WTVJ.
She described her work as the only woman on the department’s second shift as a nightmare.
“Maegan wasn’t looked at as a rookie cop to be trained and promoted. She was looked at like a piece of meat to be sexualized and exploited,” her attorney, Wesley Clark, told WTVJ.
Hall said she was the daily target of jokes and threats while she worked for the La Vergne police.
“I received harassing and threatening messages on my phone daily. I felt like I had been terrorized,” she explained.
Hall admitted that she was not raped but said she only participated in the sexual escapades under duress, WTVJ reported.
“They isolated me. Shunned me. They accused me, and they blamed me for becoming a victim,” she recalled.
Hall said she was so depressed that she considered suicide and had to be hospitalized.
“My supervisors worked together to take advantage of my vulnerabilities and mental health, and they used it for their gain and their sexual pleasure,” she told WTVJ.
The supervisors who were sexually harassing her including the now-former chief of police, according to Hall.
“Who do you turn to when the chief of police is sexually harassing you?” she asked. ‘How can I get justice when the entire system, including the chief, not only condoned such behavior but participated in it? I was lost, and I felt alone. I had no one to turn to and nowhere to go.”
Hall said she knows the ugly rumors will follow her and that her career in law enforcement is likely over, WTVJ reported.
“No woman should ever have to endure this type of abuse. What happened to me at LaVergne Police Department should never happen to anyone,” she said.
Attorneys for former Officer Hall filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on Feb. 27 that claimed her supervisors – former Chief Davis and now-former La Vergne Police Sergeants Lewis Powell and Henry “Ty” McGowan – groomed the rookie officer for sexual exploitation, WKRN reported.
Hall’s lawsuit said she “felt trapped” in the all-male police department and looked for mentors, the New York Post reported.
“Where Ms. Hall sought role models at her new job, she instead found predators,” the complaint read. “In place of offering professional development, her supervisors and the chief of police groomed her for sexual exploitation.”
“They colluded in using their authority to systematically disarm her resistance and entrap her in degrading and abusive sexual relationships, even sharing tips on the best ways to manipulate and exploit her,” the lawsuit continued.
The lawsuit claimed that things were so bad for then-Officer Hall, “in an attempt to escape, she nearly killed herself,” the New York Post reported.
The complaint alleged that Sgt. Powell forced Officer Hall into sex acts, and sometimes held her down.
She claimed the sergeant also recorded the incidents without her consent and shared them with other members of the police department, including Chief Davis, WKRN reported.
Hall’s lawsuit said she didn’t know the images were being sent to her chief, nor did she consent to them being sent.
Her attorneys have claimed that the city set up a “false narrative” in its summary of the sex scandal investigation and cause the now-former officer international public humiliation, WKRN reported.
Officer Hall told investigators that she “got stupid” and “got desperate” as she was going through a divorce.
Reports of how then-Officer Hall admitted to investigators that she performed sex acts on duty and on police property, and had a threesome with one cop and his wife, have circled the globe in the media, according to her attorneys.
The lawsuit claimed that Officer Hall became sexually involved with Sgt. Powell early in 2022, the New York Post reported.
“Sgt. Powell learned that Ms. Hall was going through the process of buying a home with her husband and that this process was extremely taxing on their relationship,” the lawsuit read. “Sgt. Powell positioned himself as a reliable source of companionship and advice regarding Ms. Hall’s career and her marriage.”
“Sgt. Powell persisted in requests for sex despite Ms. Hall’s resistance,” the lawsuit claimed. “Eventually, Ms. Hall gave in to Sgt. Powell’s requests for sexual favors.”
The complaint alleged that when Officer Hall tried to break off the affair with her supervisor, Sgt. Powell threatened to commit suicide, the New York Post reported.
The lawsuit claimed that the young officer’s “exploitative sexual relationship” with Sgt. Powell led to other sexual encounters involving other La Vergne cops, including Sgt. McGowan, Detective Seneca Shields, Larry Holladay, Patrick Magliocco, Juan Lugo-Perez, and Gavin Schoeberl.
The lawsuit claimed that former Chief Davis “encouraged this behavior and shared in the pornography and sexual fantasy of mutually abusing Ms. Hall with his trusted supervisor, Ty McGowan,” the New York Post reported.
Hall said the chief asked her to come into his office to “dance” for him and tried to get her to go on “lunch dates with him.” and described her clothing as “hot girl summer s–t.”
Powell, Lugo-Perez, McGowan, and Shields were terminated for their roles in the sex scandal.
The other officers who participated in the sexual activity were suspended but kept their jobs, according to the New York Post.
Hall’s lawsuit, which names the city, the former police chief, and her former sergeants, is seeking an unspecified amount in damages for lost wages, medical expenses, mental suffering, emotional distress, and “reputational harm.”
Holly Matkin
