Mayor Megan Barry's Resignation Imminent As Nashville Council Drafts Resolution For Removal

According to latest reports, preparations are being made to formally ask the Mayor of Nashville, Tennessee, Megan Barry, to step down from her post.

Barry, who confessed to having an affair with her former bodyguard, Sgt. Rob Forrest Jr., on Jan. 31, is fast losing support in the city council that has moved to drafting a resolution for her resignation. The resolution is yet to be filed, ABC affiliated WKRN reported.

Despite calls for her resignation since the end of last month, Barry has been adamant that she will not voluntarily step down. However, that was before the council drafted a resolution demanding her resignation.

If the sitting mayor refuses to comply with the council’s resolution once filed, she can be ousted from office through a recall election.

Barry also maintained that nothing illegal happened during the relationship, which started after she took office in 2015. She vehemently denied rumors that taxpayers’ money was misused in any way to further the affair or contain the fallout from the affair going public.

"No Metro funds have been used for any consultants in this matter," Barry’s spokesman Sean Braisted told USA Today affiliated Tennessean. "Beyond that, I'm not going to comment on our deliberative process."

After admitting to a nearly two-year relationship with Forrest — who is a retired police veteran, having served 31 years in the task force — Barry said she was willing to be completely transparent to regain the trust of Nashville voters.

"We will give any records over to anyone who would like them," Barry said at a news conference last month.

Meanwhile, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which is looking into Barry’s affair, has obtained video footage of Barry and Forrest entering the Nashville City Cemetery multiple times in the last year to spend some alone time together.

The footage dates back to trips taken on Oct. 9, 2017, Nov. 27, 2017, and Jan. 8, 2018, between 7 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. local time (8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. EST). According to TBI, the couple spent anywhere between 12 to 24 minutes in the facility, NBC4i reported.

Braisted waived off suggestion that anything inappropriate was happening during the meetings. According to him, Barry liked starting her day in the peaceful setting of the cemetery.

“Sometimes she would go for a walk, other times she would sit in the car and either reflect, make calls, catch up on emails, or report issues with vandalism in the cemetery,” Braisted said.

As part of a search warrant, TBI took possession of Forrest’s phone Friday and found explicit images of a nude woman, which is believed to have been taken when he was with the mayor on out-of-the-town trips.

In addition, 260 deleted chats exchanged between Barry and Forrest were obtained, as well as 35 deleted call logs. According to TBI, all of these evidence points to the fact that the mayor engaged in extra-marital affair with her bodyguard while the latter was on duty.

“A search of Megan Barry's phone could reveal information that is crucial evidence for this case," an affidavit read, according to another report by Tennessean. "In particular, data and information that has been deleted from Sgt. Forrest's phone may still exist on Megan Barry's phone."

"The deleted chats and messages between Sgt. Forrest and Megan Barry, if recovered, could provide further evidence of their activities while Sgt. Forrest reported to be on duty,” it added.

Barry said although she had not seen the photos, if they existed, "they were taken without my knowledge or permission and a complete invasion of privacy."