The police union's communications director appeared on a local news program at 10:00 p.m. and described the incident as a security protocol response to an uncooperative individual who had failed to provide proper identification.
He used the phrase "standard procedure" four times in six minutes. He did not address the clippers.
When the anchor asked about the clippers directly, he said the department would be conducting an internal review.
The department's internal review would be conducted by Lieutenant Barbara Crane's division.
Chief Judge Sutton released a written statement at 11:15 p.m., expressing concern for all parties involved and calling for a measured, thorough investigation through appropriate channels.
He did not name Naomi. He did not use the word "assault." He used the phrase "alleged incident" twice, and the phrase "judicial temperament" once, in a context that required no further explanation.
Naomi read the statement in her kitchen, standing at the counter with a glass of water. Then she set down her phone, finished the water, and went to bed.
She slept five hours. Dreamlessly.
Dana Crest arrived at the Columbus field office of the DOJ Civil Rights Division at 7:15 the following morning with four attorneys, two investigators, and a federal warrant for the courthouse's complete security archive going back 18 months.
She was 44 years old and had prosecuted 11 cases of systemic police misconduct in eight years. And she had the particular quality of calm that belongs to people who have spent a long time doing difficult things and have stopped needing anyone to acknowledge how difficult they are.
She called Naomi at 7:45.
"I've reviewed the footage and Briggs's log. I need the notebook in federal custody by 9:00."
"Thomas will bring it," Naomi said.
"And the voicemail from Voss?"
"Already forwarded to your secure line."
A brief pause. "You were ready for this."
"I've been ready for this for 20 years," Naomi said. "I just needed the right room."
By midmorning, the walls were coming down in sequence.
Voss's employment history surfaced through a public records request filed by a journalist at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Two use-of-force complaints from his time in patrol, both marked administratively closed, both bearing Crane's case number in the filing system.
A third complaint, filed by a Black woman named Darlene Okafor in 2021, had been assigned to internal affairs and then quietly reclassified as a training matter. Darlene Okafor had never been contacted by anyone from the department.
Pruitt's social media history, archived by a digital civil rights organization before it could be deleted, contained a private group chat in which Pruitt, Voss, and four other officers had exchanged messages over three years.
The messages documented a pattern of language and behavior so extensive and so specific that the union's communications director went silent on social media entirely by noon and did not reappear.