A Nashville prosecutor was let go this week amid reports that he requested some women undergo tubal ligation or maintain a birth control regimen as part of sentencing discussions.
Former Assistant District Attorney Brian Holmgren was fired from the Davidson County District Attorney's office after an investigative report found at least four cases in which the possibility of sterilisation was introduced in plea bargain talks.
The Associated Press reported that Holmgren routinely asked mothers in abuse and neglect cases to take birth control, although the court cannot require a person to use contraceptives.
The Tennessean highlighted the case of Jasmine Randers - a 36-year-old who stabbed herself in the stomach while pregnant in 2004, and brought a deceased, five-day-old baby to a hospital in 2012. Randers was found not guilty of aggravated child neglect by reason of insanity and is currently in a metal institution.
Lawyers for Randers told District Attorney General Glenn Funk that Holmgren would not consent to a plea deal unless the defendant underwent tubal ligation. Funk removed Holmgren from the case and cut the deal.
The former ADA defended his methods in a recent interview.
"The likelihood that she would get pregnant again is high," he said of the Randers case. "The likelihood that she would follow through on her court orders for medication is very, very low.
"And we already had two situations that suggest this was a significant risk. I wasn't willing to create a scenario that offered a third."
He also denied that he was fired over the controversial case.
"Suffice it to say that what you need to know is there is a fundamental difference of opinions in how to handle cases in our unit between myself and [District Attorney Glenn] Funk," he told the Nashville Scene.
