$1.3 million dollar settlement reached in Operation Candy Crush lawsuit

April 3, 2026

From the Tennessee Bar Association:

Store owners who were falsely arrested during Operation Candy Crush in Rutherford County have reached a $1.3 million settlement with local officials, the  Daily News Journal reports. A class-action lawsuit against Rutherford County Sheriff Mike Fitzhugh, Smyrna Police Chief Kevin Arnold, District Attorney General Jennings Jones and Assistant District Attorney John Zimmerman was brought after plaintiffs were arrested in 2018 on charges of selling candy made with CBD, a product not proven to be an illegal derivative of marijuana. All charges were later dropped. The Tennessee Attorney General’s Office provided staff legal counsel for Jones and hired Nashville law firm Neal & Harwell to represent Zimmerman. Plaintiffs were represented by attorney Chris Smith of Nashville civil rights firm David Randolph Smith & Associates [ DRS Law], which also recently settled a  police misconduct lawsuit  against the City of Chattanooga.


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Warren County TN Wrongful Death  David Randolph Smith

October 19, 2026
On 10/20/10 the Tennessee Supreme Court reinstated a jury verdict obtained by David Randolph Smith & Associates for the widow of a Tennessee Army National Guard sergeant who died in 2000. The jury had awarded $7.2 million in the Tennessee wrongful death lawsuit against River Park Hospital of McMinnville. The Tennessee Supreme Court’s reinstatement of the verdict resulted in a total award, with interest, of $10.7 million. Warren County court officials said the multimillion-dollar judgment was the largest amount awarded by a jury in county history at the time of its award.A copy of the opinion is available here.
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Group B Strep Wrongful Death Settlement

October 19, 2026
Settlement in significant wrongful death case filed in Overton County, Tennessee in a mediation held in Nashville, Tennessee on July 25, 2005. The case involved the failure to treat and diagnose group b strep in a pregnant mother whose child was brain damaged and ultimately died from sepsis stemming from exposure to the group b strep during labor. The terms of the settlement are confidential.The firm is currently handling another group b strep medical malpractice case in state court in Tupelo, Mississippi.