A federal lawsuit filed by the CEO of the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County names six defendants and lists several allegations after a document release last summer accused the organization of financial mismanagement.
In the complaint, Bari Beasley alleges violations of the civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, the Stored Communications Act, and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
Among the defendants are former Heritage Foundation board members Pamela Chandler and Mary Lankford, former employees Miriam Wiggins, Cynthia Stielow and Shelly Birdsong, who also serves as the publisher and editor for Your Williamson magazine.
The suit stems from the July 2025 release of a packet of documents entitled “Save the Heritage Foundation” that was sent to numerous people outside of the organization, including members of the press, signed by “Concerned Citizens of Williamson County.”
“Over the past several months, multiple internal documents, emails, financial reports, and staff accounts have come to light — revealing a pattern of mismanagement, misuse of restricted funds, unethical conduct, and a workplace culture rooted in fear and retaliation,” a letter in the 2025 document packet reads in part. “This is not about politics or personal vendettas. It is about the responsible stewardship of public goodwill, charitable donations, and the preservation of the very history this organization was created to protect.”
The release of the packet and subsequent reporting by some news outlets caused debate among the public. In September 2025, the Heritage Foundation addressed the document release in a statement, saying that it had investigated with the help of a law firm, determining that the information and “misrepresentation of data included in those documents” had originated from inside the organization, while also touting the completion of what it said was its “most extensive” audit to date.
The complaint also notes an anonymous March 25 email sent to then-board chairman William Scales and a human resources consultant that “made numerous false allegations about plaintiff [Beasley] and her management of the Foundation, her relationship with employees, and the financial condition of the Foundation.”
Last month, a Davidson County judge vacated an attempt to subpoena testimony from several people — some of whom are now named in the federal civil suit.
“The publication of these materials constituted a coordinated effort to damage plaintiff’s [Beasley] professional reputation and personal standing in the community and to exert pressure on the Foundation’s Board of Directors to terminate Plaintiff as CEO, and harm her financially. The publication of these materials has also injured the Foundation itself,” the 2026 complaint reads in part.
The complaint also names defendant Walter Green, a historian who allegedly “illegally transmitted the document using interstate mail and wires and the Internet to local government officials and major donors to the Foundation,” documents that included confidential and private information that the complaint alleges were “improperly accessed” and “wrongfully obtained” by Wiggins. Also listed are numerous unidentified “John and/or Jane Doe(s).”
Beasley is seeking a jury trial and an unspecified amount in compensatory damages for “loss of income and bonuses, for harm to Plaintiff’s professional reputation, loss of standing in the community, emotional distress, mental anguish, and humiliation.”
The lawsuit also aims to force the defendants to the identity or anyone else “involved in the creation, compilation, distribution, and publication of the Document,” obtain a “permanent injunction enjoining Defendants from engaging in further racketeering activities,” and collect compensation for damages “in an amount sufficient to punish Defendants for their willful, wanton, and malicious conduct and to deter similar conduct in the future.”
This case is in the Middle District of Tennessee in the federal court system before Judge Eli Richardson.
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