A Tennessee court has overturned an inquest into Naomi Judd’s death

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Tennessee Supreme Court on Thursday struck down an order requiring police to publicly release their investigation death of country singer Naomi Judd.

The state Supreme Court did not rule on whether the records could be released, but sent the case back to a lower court for a new trial. Judd’s family started a petition in Williamson County Clerk’s Court in August, saying police records contained video and audio interviews with relatives immediately after Judd’s death.

The release of such details would cause “significant trauma and irreparable harm” to the family, the petition said. It argued that the records of the police investigation were covered by an exception to the state’s public records law.

Williamson County Chancellor Joseph A. Woodruff ruled against the Judd family on Aug. 31, denying their request to keep the records confidential while they continue their legal case. The records “do not appear to fall under any recognized exemptions to the Government Records Act,” Woodruff found.

In addition, the chancellor ruled that specific records in the police file are public, including the body camera footage taken at Judd’s home. But the Tennessee Supreme Court upheld that part of the chancellor’s order. The high court said Thursday that Woodruff should not have decided which specific records are public and which are private without a full hearing on the matter.

The court reversed Woodruff’s earlier decision and remanded the case back to the Chancery Court for a new trial.

Judd died on April 30 at her home in Tennessee at the age of 76. Her daughter Ashley said earlier that her mother had taken her own life, and the family said she had lost the “disease of mental illness.”