NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper accused of conducting unauthorized background checks on nearly 200 people, including two journalists and a country music figure, was fired Wednesday.

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Lt. Ronnie Shirley was fired for gross misconduct and violating the public's trust, Highway Patrol Col. Mike Walker said. Shirley conducted 182 background checks, and of 139 people interviewed by investigators, only seven had asked Shirley to do the check, officials said.

Of the 43 people who have not been contacted, seven of the people are dead and the others can not be located.

Shirley is entitled to a hearing to contest the firing. His attorney, Worrick G. Robinson, said Shirley was "very disappointed and was somewhat in shock" when he found out about the firing.

Shirley, who was suspended last month, has been cooperating with investigators, and that "there was no malicious intent and no criminal intent involved" in the checks, Robinson said.

State officials refused to release the names Shirley checked, but no politicians or elected officials were among them, said Safety Commissioner Dave Mitchell. He declined to give any possible motives for the checks.

Channel 4 News learned on Wednesday that entertainer Gretchen Wilson was among the 182 people that Shirley performed a background search on.

Shirley used an internal Web portal that doesn't include criminal background records, and much of the information he looked at is available to the general public -- though often for a fee. He ran the checks between October 2006 and July, when his access was cut off.

Prosecutors are reviewing the investigation and Nashville District Attorney's office spokeswoman Susan Niland said they do not have a deadline for deciding whether to pursue criminal charges.

Shirley first got attention in 2004 when he helped get a speeding ticket dismissed for former Deputy Gov. Dave Cooley, who had been Gov. Phil Bredesen's top aide. Shirley and Cooley both received reprimands for the ticket-fixing.

Shirley's firing is the latest in a series of scandals involving the department in recent years.

The department's top three officials resigned in December 2005 following reports of troopers with criminal backgrounds, allegations of ticket-fixing and a culture of cronyism and political arm-twisting.

Many of the problems were revealed in a series of investigative stories by The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville. The paper also has reported that staff writer Brad Schrade was among those who had their backgrounds checked by Shirley.

In another scandal, a state trooper resigned last year after a porn actress claimed he let drug charges slide in exchange for oral sex in an encounter captured on video.

"We have people who make mistakes. It's not the total group," Walker said Wednesday. "If there are more out there we will find them and deal with them accordingly, I assure you."