According to the Daily News Journal, Chancellor Robert Corlew III decided “to appoint his Clerk and Master John Bratcher to review county government e-mails as possible evidence in a lawsuit to stop construction of a mosque here.”

Corlew even gave Bratcher the authority to conduct hearings about the issue or appoint someone else to trudge through the government’s paper trail.

Plaintiff’s attorney, Joe Brandon Jr., argued the county is purposefully withholding the e-mails from County Mayor Ernest Burgess, Planning Director Doug Demosi and Assistant Planning Director Elizabeth Emslie to cover up the county’s true intentions for approving the Islamic community center and mosque.

Brandon also contends the county tried to hide the meeting where the center was approved by using The Murfreesboro Post to publicize the meeting’s time and place.

Earlier this year, Corlew found the 17 plaintiffs involved in the suit have a statutory right to challenge the county’s approval of the Islamic Center under the state’s public notice law. No date has been sent for that hearing yet.