Senator Taylor sets up hotline to impeach District Attorney Mulroy

MEMPHIS, Tennessee – The war of words between State Senator Brent Taylor and Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy continues as Taylor continues to try to oust Mulroy from office.

Taylor has accused Mulroy of not doing his job by not pursuing violent or repeat offenders. Mulroy claims Taylor is “playing politics” and says he will not go down without a fight.

However, by creating a resignation hotline, Taylor is giving Shelby County residents the opportunity to leave a message, either recorded or anonymous, expressing their opinion of Mulroy.

“Honestly, I expected someone to push back and say, ‘Look, that’s pretty drastic, I don’t think we need to go down that path.’ But I didn’t get any pushback,” Taylor said.

Taylor set up the hotline in hopes of gathering more evidence after announcing last week that he was seeking to remove Mulroy from office.

The state senator criticized Mulroy, pointing to the I-240 shooting that left a man and four children injured as an example of Mulroy’s mistakes in a recent press conference.

One of the suspects involved was out on bail following a previous weapons charge.

“Let’s face it, the district attorney is not doing his job,” Taylor said. “And that’s why it’s important that the citizens of Memphis stop participating in this madness.”

Taylor told WREG that the hotline was very busy, receiving dozens of calls and texts and over 10 emails in less than 24 hours.

Taylor said his office will review all messages and emails sent to the hotline for veracity, and whatever is deemed credible could factor into the upcoming decision to fire Mulroy.

When WREG spoke to Mulroy about the hotline, he said he and his office are used to getting feedback from their constituents.

“We regularly receive both positive and sometimes critical feedback from the public and are always open to that feedback,” Mulroy said.

He said there was no record of misconduct in his office and no credible reason for his firing.

“With all due respect, my friend Brent, this is clearly all politics,” said DA Mulroy. “But at the end of the day, I just have to say we have to ask a fundamental question: Should the voters of Shelby County elect their DA or should the politicians in Nashville do that?”

Both Mulroy and Taylor have acknowledged that they are or were good friends even outside of these political tensions.

While Taylor said it was nothing personal, Mulroy said he saw the situation differently.

“You know, there’s an old saying that goes, ‘You don’t need enemies if you’ve got friends like that,'” Mulroy said. “In the meantime, I’m not going to let all this talk distract me. We’re prosecuting thousands of cases, a thousand cases every day. I’m working hard on it, my staff is working hard. We’re just going to keep doing our jobs because the number one priority of this office is public safety.”