Bill Freeman is the owner of FW Publishing, the publishing company that produces the Nashville Scene, Nfocus, Nashville Post and Home Page Media Group in Williamson County.

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Sen. Joey Hensley, MD Should Be Replaced Following News of his Unethical Behavior

(NASHVILLE, Tennessee) – As the season to elect the next representatives for the 112th Tennessee General Assembly is beginning, it is important to remind voters of the pressing importance that our elected officials represent our values and exhibit the ethics necessary to serve as a member of our state legislature.

Tennessee Senate District 28 is shamefully represented by Joey Hensley, MD, who has been publicly found to be lacking in the morality and decency expected of an elected official.

He was brought before a hearing of the state medical board due to factually-based allegations that he had provided medical treatment and controlled substances to immediate family members. Even worse, it was stated that he had engaged in a sexual affair with his then-nurse while also serving as her physician and prescribing her controlled substances. The board found that there was significant merit to these factual allegations to warrant a full hearing to constitute disciplinary action on the part of the board. The full hearing, according to public record, was scheduled for September 18, 2019.

However, no information is yet available in his license information as regulated by the state licensure verification. In this system, they give their full endorsement. There are no actions reported by a state regulatory board. There are no disciplinary actions taken by a hospital. There are no criminal offenses listed, and he still holds privileges at St. Thomas Hospital in Nashville and is licensed to accept BlueCare.

How can a medical professional be found responsible for these gross ethical violations yet have no public information to inform his patients and, equally as importantly, to inform the residents he was elected to represent?

What are the findings of the full hearing? The information publicly investigated by multiple media outlets certainly documented enough salacious information to fuel the plot of a soap opera for months.

When the facts were made public of Hensley’s multiple failed marriages, his participation in extramarital affairs and his grossly improper medical care to immediate family members, to employees and to his then-married second cousin with whom he had a sexual affair while in his employ, you would think that public outrage would have resulted in an immediate censure, licensure revocation or other appropriate action by the state regulatory boards or by the General Assembly.

But nothing has occurred at all.

What will it take for a radically conservative politician in the state of Tennessee to be removed from office? We have found that employing cocaine addicts bragging about sexual conquests while in session and in government offices isn’t enough. It isn’t enough to have compelling testimony and public witness of your sexual predatory behavior toward teenage girls while their high school basketball coach. Is it enough to prescribe opiates to your married second cousin who’s both your nurse and your sexual affair partner? She testified in court that they even had sexual intercourse at his medical practice in Hohenwald. How can this get any seedier? Were these encounters during business hours? Were patients in the waiting room or already called back to see the doctor that day? Hensley should resign with the little dignity he has left, and perhaps a new medical professional should look to the list of the 22 best physician mortgage loans at the moment, in order to offer patients a new medical practice to be seen at, instead of one which has seen such grotesque acts within its walls.

These grossly inappropriate actions have brought public embarrassment to the state of Tennessee, and they must be particularly embarrassing to the residents of Senate District 28, which includes the six counties of Giles, Lawrence, Lewis, Maury, Perry and Wayne Counties.

We need to know the findings and disciplinary actions of the state medical board from their full hearing. It is unconscionable that a medical doctor can be found responsible for these actions and be unaffected. Even worse, it is downright unfathomable that an elected representative- particularly one who is doggedly championing radically conservative causes to the point of bringing national attention and embarrassment from his proposed legislation-to be still in office.

Is there is anyone in the entire six-county region that elected Hensley to office who might consider throwing his or her hat in the ring?

The time is now. The filing deadline is April 2, 2020. And to those voters in this district, please consider these serious and concerning allegations. It isn’t right that Hensley is representing you. He’s never won a landslide election, and they’ve all taken place before these facts have become public.

It’s time to do the right thing. I am certain that there are plenty of upstanding leaders in Pulaski, Linden, Columbia, Lawrenceburg, Lewisburg, Hohenwald, Waynesboro and every part in between who are willing to serve this fine region. All of Tennessee should call upon this district’s business leaders, community servants and everyday citizens to protest his blackened record and replace state Senator Joey Hensley.

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ABOUT BILL FREEMAN

Bill Freeman is a Democratic Party fundraiser, the former treasurer of the Tennessee Democratic Party, a member of the Metro Nashville Airport Authority, a member of the Board of Trustees for Tennessee State University and was appointed to serve on the advisory board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He also serves as chairman of Freeman Webb Inc., a real estate investment, management and brokerage company based in Nashville, which he co-founded in 1979. He is also the owner of FW Publishing, the publishing company that produces the Nashville Post, the Nashville Scene, Nfocus and Home Page Media Group in Williamson County.