Nashville's Investigative Reporter Phil Williams Finally Replied to Me
His response has been more than a little disappointing
Last fall, I discussed how NewsChannel5's chief investigative reporter Phil Williams helped bring national awareness to some of the corruption in Franklin, Tennessee with Gabrielle Hanson's bizarre mayoral race.
I reached out to Phil at the time to ask if he would also look at getting justice for Grant Solomon. After all, a large part of his investigation on Hanson focused on the Franklin Police Department's failure to do anything about the online threats Hanson’s supporters had hurled at former cop Peggy Kingsbury.
It's an interesting parallel. Peggy is an ex-cop who happens to vocally support Freedom for Gracie and Justice For Grant. She knew what she was doing when she brought the threats and hate speech about her (made by self-proclaimed Nazi Brad Lewis) to the attention of Franklin's PD.
While Phil Williams rightfully reported how the police said they could not act on Lewis’ “vague” threats, Phil failed to report on the police Department's startling hypocrisy.
After all, the Franklin PD had no qualms about arresting George Brewer for sending Grace Christian Academy's Amy Curle a few angry Facebook messages where he didn't threaten her at all—he simply told her how awful it was that she failed to report the abuse Gracie Solomon told her about. In fact, Amy is the former GCA counselor who was recorded saying 11-year-old Gracie had to stop talking about being raped by her father Aaron Solomon.
Because boys knew about it.
Amy, who never once tried to help or comfort Grant and Gracie when they begged school staff to listen, is no longer working at GCA. She recently announced her new exciting venture as a… life coach.
At any rate, I reached out to Phil repeatedly to ask about the corruption in Franklin. Didn't he find it interesting that the police claimed they couldn't help Peggy against Brad Lewis’ disturbing threats over Telegram (the social media app) but they eagerly arrested George something far less out-of-line? It all happened in the same week, folks. The night George was arrested, all eyes were on Phil as he uncovered THE TRUTH about Gabrielle Hanson. (Which frankly shouldn't have been so shocking, but it sure took attention away from George's arrest.)
Phil didn't respond to any of my questions back then, just like he had never replied to my previous questions about the lack of media coverage of Aaron’s abuse or Grant's death. Many months earlier, I implored Phil to say something about Justice For Grant when he spoke out against the Tennessee bill to seal the autopsies of minors killed in violent manners.
Phil's concern, like many others, is that the autopsies need to be public for transparency, to help get justice for children who have been abused or murdered. Sealing those autopsies makes it easier for adults to get away with murder, and in fact, some murders have been solved by keeping such records public.
Considering how badly MDI Michael Poss botched Grant's medical death investigation, and how wild it was that he didn't even order an autopsy when accidental or traumatic deaths are supposed to be thoroughly investigated in Tennessee, this was another time where it would have made sense for Phil to get on the case.
Yet, for years, Phil has remained publicly silent about Grant, Gracie, and Aaron Solomon. For a long time, I didn't understand his silence. Even if the network was afraid Aaron would sue, the media is protected when they report the facts. And the fact is that Aaron was finally substantiated as his daughter’s sexual abuser.
We have so many receipts of adults in various points of power failing to do their jobs to protect any child from Aaron Solomon, and we have receipts of Aaron and his friends lashing out at Gracie or Grant's supporters. They have repeatedly tried to shut us up, but Phil Williams ignores it. Even when local politicians come out and say Grant and Gracie deserve justice, Phil has kept quiet.
That's so strange and disappointing from a highly praised journalist who says he speaks truth to power.
What's more disappointing, however, is that two female professionals in film and journalism told Angie that when they asked Phil about his thoughts on Aaron Solomon, he told them that “Angie is crazy.”
According to those sources, Phil repeated Aaron’s line and was actively discouraging colleagues from covering the then-allegations against Aaron.
The whole thing made me look at Phil Williams differently. And it alarmed me to see how much weight Phil carries among Tennesseans.
You see, I first began covering Gracie's story and Grant's suspicious death in 2021. Less than a year after Grant was killed. The first thing that stuck out to me about the case was the absurdity that the media wasn't talking about Aaron, the former Nashville news anchor accused of years of abuse, child rape and even murder. They weren't talking about the absurdity of the church and school going to bat for the man to the point of discrediting his child who says she was raped and ignoring the order of protection against him.
Going over the years of notes, doctors’ records and the whole timeline, it was especially frustrating to hear women say that Phil had called Angie crazy, because that's the line that protected Aaron for so long. One reason people didn't take Grant and Gracie seriously was because of that “Angie is crazy” lie. And for years, Aaron’s abuse and manipulation made Angie feel like she was going crazy when few would believe her and her children.
Phil's failure to touch any of the controversy around Aaron has had a ripple effect. Fellow citizens refuse to take Gracie's story seriously, and they don't even take the court's substantiation of abuse seriously because Phil hasn't covered it.
Virtually anytime I've talked about getting justice for Grant and Gracie in a local forum, people tell me that Phil Williams would have covered it a long time ago.
“If Phil isn't covering the story, there must be nothing there.” Some folks have even told me that Angie must be crazy, or Phil would have been on the case.
“Phil doesn't back down!” That's what everyone says. “He doesn't get intimidated!”
Um, hi? I'm a nobody who Grace Chapel threatened to sue. Aaron has previously sued other Gracie and Grant supporters. We've put our necks on the line when Phil wouldn't.
Yet Tenneseans have put Phil on such a high pedestal, they defend him like he's an untouchable saint the minute I publicly ask about his silence on Aaron Solomon.
I was honestly surprised, then, when he suddenly replied to one of my Tweets yesterday.
Lately, there have been a lot of accusations against Phil from voices known to share conspiracy theories.
I've put in my two cents as a citizen who really only wants to know why Phil stays publicly silent about Aaron, Grant, and Gracie.
When someone complained about one of the Conservative characters criticizing Phil, I replied:
“I would still like to know why Phil called Angie crazy and discouraged his colleagues from looking deeper at Grant's death and Aaron’s abuse of Gracie.”
Notice how I didn't use last names? It was a tweet so I had to keep it brief, and I was certain that Phil would know who I'm talking about, anyway.
Surprisingly, Phil replied to me!
“Never happened,” he tweeted.
An immediately flippant denial was disappointing but I wasn't surprised. At least one of the women hasn't really wanted Phil to know that she repeated his comment. This is something I see a lot in the corruption of this case—too many adults are scared to go on the record because they don't want to make someone else angry. So there's all this stuff we don't get to talk about since professionals like Phil get the benefit of a doubt when they refuse to name sources, but writers like me are nobodies without the ability to be taken seriously even when we do use the names of our sources.
I've been exhausted by the media's silence, however, so yesterday, I went for it. I answered Phil's denial.
“If you want us to believe it never happened, you shouldn't have said it to Molly and Ruth 🤷♀️
Very strange how two different women on separate occasions heard you say that "Angie is crazy" when they asked about the scoop on Aaron Solomon.”
Phil's reply?
He suddenly responded to my lack of using last names. And used a gif. How great.
At this point, Phil has yet to respond to the actual content of my questions. I'm asking why he has not touched a story that many locals have been begging him to cover for years.
I understand that Angie herself has begged him to investigate.
For a man who's so well-respected in the area, and a man who claims to speak truth to the angry mob (often to the chagrin of white supremacists), it's so sad to see he's not taking this seriously at all.
But do you know what?
He doesn't even have to take it seriously. He doesn't have to defend himself. Phil's got a whole army of viewers ready to come to his defense.
Usually, when I cover this case, it's Trump supporters who get angry at me. Now, it's Democrats telling me to leave Phil alone and calling me MAGA. Saying they hope Phil sues me for libel.
The whole thing is fascinating. Where were these angry locals when Grace Chapel sent me that cease and desist letter because I believed a then-14-year-old Gracie? (Kent, you wrote on Medium in my support—thank you!) But lots of locals harassed me on social media, made fun of my “big legs” and said they didn't respect any research I'd done on the case because I wasn't Phil Williams.
As if Phil Williams is the definitive voice on which injustices should get media coverage and which shouldn't.
Here you go, Shannon...https://medium.com/@kentanderson-17716/in-defense-of-shannon-ashley-f0580370895e