LA VERGNE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The recent alleged sex scandal in La Vergne where five police officers were fired and three were suspended wasn’t a first for the department, according to recorded interviews conducted by the city’s H.R. director, obtained by News 2.

News 2 previously reported five officers were fired in January after allegedly having sex on and off duty with each other, sending nude photos of themselves to other officers, failing to disclose relations to H.R., and lying about their actions during the investigation, according to city documents.

In the nearly 13 hours of interviews with officers, La Vergne Police Chief Burrel “Chip” Davis, the H.R. director, and two sergeants allude to a prior sex investigation involving two officers in 2020, according to the tapes.

“We’ve been through this before, with second shift before, and it feels like déjà vu,” Davis said in one of the interviews with an officer. “I wasn’t the chief then, but I caught the last end of it because I had to finish the investigation. But it feels like a big déjà vu.”

The details of the 2020 scandal are unclear. City employees never mention whether the two officers involved were fired or left the department on their own in the interviews, but one said the officers are no longer with the department.

“I know that there was a previous between two officers, which we did an investigation, and we were told, ‘Oh, we don’t know anything,'” a sergeant who was not under investigation said in a recorded interview as a witness. “Then low and behold, after both of them were gone we were told it was true. But no one told us when we were trying to investigate it on second shift.”

“That got resolved,” H.R. Director Andrew Patton said to another sergeant in a separate interview, referring to the 2020 scandal.

“That s***t didn’t get resolved,” the sergeant, who was fired for his alleged involvement in the most recent sex scandal, replied.

“Well, I mean, like the investigation happened or whatever. I don’t mean resolved, like, whatever, they’re gone,” Patton responded.

However, allegations of sexual misbehavior among La Vergne officers date back as far as 16 years ago when a sergeant, who was fired for the 2023 sex scandal, was disciplined for having sex on duty with another officer, according to his personnel record. The then field training officer was demoted to patrol officer, and the city docked his pay.

“2007 was the worst year of my career,” the former sergeant said in an interview.

Throughout the recorded interviews, some La Vergne officers are heard lying about their alleged sexual acts with fellow officers, which include having relations on duty in the weight room in the department’s gym and in the police substation.

“For a lack of better terms, it’s a d**n sex scandal going on in this police department,” Davis said.

The City of La Vergne has asked the state to decertify four out of the five fired officers.

The three officers who were suspended are back on duty.

News 2 reached out to the Percy Priest Fraternal Order of Police multiple times requesting comment from the former La Vergne officers, but we have not heard back after two weeks of waiting.