illegally jailed children even when there was no crime

A Rutherford County judge illegally jailed children even when there was no crime committed.

I researched and wrote this news story, and I am still in denial that this could really be happening in the United States of America.

The investigation centers around a 2016 incident where 11 Black children, some as young as 8 and 9 years old, were allegedly arrested for not stopping a fight captured on video. Ten of the children were charged with "criminal responsibility for conduct of another."

My First Question is: I wonder are the President and Vice President aware of what is going on in the country that they manage or that they lead?

My Second question is: where is DCF? I am under the impression that The Department of Children and Families (DCF) is the state agency responsible for protecting children and ensuring that they are safe and well cared for. DCF is committed to supporting children and strengthening families. DCF recognizes that parenting is probably the single most difficult job anyone ever takes on, specialty in Rutherford County Tennessee.

My Third Question: Is there a presence of DCF in Rutherford Tennessee? The answer is YES, in fact there is the following link

https://www.dcfoffices.org/office/rutherford-county-department-of-childrenservices

and later I also found this website https://www.tn.gov/dcs.html#

When I entered the chat session that is available on the website, I did what I usually do on any robotic chat room. I requested a live agent, hoping to get a DCF agent.

The response of the Robot was:

Hi there. I understand your looking for Live Agent support. User Avatar: Virtual Agent For now, we can only offer Live Agent chat support from a few select agencies. If an agency isn't listed, check back later as more will be added.

Would you like to continue to be redirected to a Live Agent that can assist you?

So, I clicked to continue to be redirected to a live agent and the response was

Please Select from one of the Live Agent support groups below.

“Unemployment”

My Conclusion, there is no live support available on the DCF website oy they maybe on a leave.

On the homepage you will read the following statements:

“Child Protective Services are state agencies designed to protect children from abuse or neglect”

“The Department: Investigates allegations of child abuse and neglect”

I find this story very alarming and disturbing. I know parents that have lost their Children because a mother in Clearwater, Florida was late one hour to feed the baby that was in the hospital. The mother did not have transportation she depended on public transportation and the delay made her 1 hour late to feed her baby and they took away her rights! The hospital ran out of baby formula or what is going on? I am aware of many DDCF wrong doings and now I see what is going on in Rutherford, Tennessee where DCF is a total neglect? They are good on punishing parents in many states. How are we going to punish DCF for their neglect in Rutherford County?

A Rutherford County judge illegally jailed children even when there was no crime committed.

The alleged crime was “criminal responsibility for conduct of another” — a fake law.

They claim the children broke the law, but this law DOES NOT EXIST ANYWERE.

This Law was probably fabricated to ease the guilt of acting in bad faith towards Black innocent children. Children that have no idea was going on and subliminally they are being molded to be in the jail system, not allowing them to be children should be a crime itself.

By now you probably want the details to follow:

A Rutherford County judge illegally jailed children even when there was no crime committed.

According to a report from WPLN and ProPublica, Judge Donna Scott Davenport instituted a policy that all children charged with crimes be processed at the detention center. In 2016, 11 Black elementary school children were detained and or locked up after allegedly witnessing a fight between 5 and 6-year-old. These arrests were the arrests that created a snowballing of complaints and lawsuits that go back to the 1990’s. Below is the timeline of events.

Timeline for $11 million settlement

1990s: Rutherford County illegally arrested and incarcerated thousands of children, starting in 1993 at the Juvenile Detention Center on misdemeanor charges, according to plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit. "Tennessee law strictly prohibits the pretrial incarceration of children" unless the youth are "being charged with a violent felony, a weapons offense or a probation violation," stated the lawsuit filed in July 2017.

2000: Rutherford County Juvenile Court Judge Donna Scott Davenport won election to a new seat. Previously, Rutherford County General Sessions Court judges presided over juvenile cases.

2003: Davenport issued an order and memorandum that stated “upon the arrest of any juvenile, the arresting officer shall transport the child to the Rutherford County Juvenile Detention Facility."

2006: Davenport won re-election (unopposed) to an eight-year term.

2008: Lynn Duke, director of the Rutherford County Juvenile Detention Center, established a "filter system" policy that empowered center staff to decide whether "unruly" children should be jailed if determined to be a "TRUE threat to themselves or the community," according to a federal court ruling.

August 2014: Davenport won a second re-election (unopposed).

2014: The Rutherford County Juvenile Detention Center incarcerated Kazmere Watts on a misdemeanor assault charge after a school fight when he was a freshman at Oakland High. Although the incident marked his first time facing disciplinary actions, Watts said later he felt like authorities were questioning his character and the character of his family.

Dec. 12, 2014: Judge Davenport, an adjunct professor at Middle Tennessee State University, spoke at the university's fall graduation ceremony.

October 2015: Lawsuit accused probation contractor PCC (Providence Community Corrections) of extortion when people were sent to Rutherford County jail for not paying fees that were unaffordable for many.

November 2015: Chief U.S. District Judge Kevin H. Sharp called Rutherford County probation practices “troubling.”

December 2015: Judge Sharp ordered release of inmates jailed for not paying probation fees to PCC.

March 2016: Video of elementary-school-aged children fighting off campus in Murfreesboro is posted on YouTube. The nearly two-minute video displayed a group of children following another child while yelling, “Hit him!” and “beat him!” and “Get him!” The video showed two children punching an unfazed, larger child who walked away, while children continued to take swings at his back. The fight occurred on several residential yards and a street. Many other children were present, and the video recorded the voices and images of part of the group, court records show.

April 2016: Murfreesboro Police Chief Karl Durr started job to replace retired Chief Glenn Chrisman.

April 2016: Murfreesboro Police Department arrested 10 children, including four at Hobgood Elementary, following an investigation of the video. At least one of the children was handcuffed in front of students and administrators before being transported to the Rutherford County Juvenile Detention Center. Another child begged for her mother, cried, and threw up on the floor before MPD transported her to the juvenile detention center, court records show.

April 2016: Davenport ordered a 15-year-old boy with developmental disabilities into solitary confinement.

April 2016: Karl Durr, the new MPD chief, promised to review arrests of children at Hobgood Elementary and elsewhere.

April 2016: House Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Stewart and Rep. John Ray Clemmons called for an investigation of Hobgood Elementary arrests.

April 2016: Federal judge ordered a 15-year-old boy with developmental disabilities to be released from solitary confinement at Rutherford County Juvenile Detention Center.

May 2016: Police chief met with Black pastors about arrests at Hobgood Elementary.

May 2016: MPD Maj. Clyde Adkison, commander of administrative services, was placed on administrative leave with pay while MPD investigated arrests at Hobgood Elementary.

June 2016: Judge Davenport dismissed charges of the three arrested Crawford children, as well as for others around that time, including the daughter of a Martin family.

Nov. 2016: Miller Meadows, Tennessee Corrections Institute Detention Facilities Specialist, examined Rutherford County Adult Detention Center and noted how the "restraint chair logs and suicide logs reflect those checks are not conducted within 15-minute standard."

Nov 2016: Rutherford County Jail converted four of 12 new jailers’ positions to booking officers to meet 15-minute check standard mandated by the state.

Dec. 2016: State decertified Rutherford County jail.

Dec. 20, 2016: MPD released an internal investigation report to the The Daily News Journal about the arrests of children. Document stated six officers violated MPD policy: Maj. Clyde Adkison, Lt. Steve Teeters, Sgt. Greg Walker, Sgt. Scott Newberg, School Safety and Education Officer Crystal Templeton and Officer Mark Todd. The supervisors were cited for failing to supervise Templeton in her arrest plans or the situation in general. Templeton faced the most severe discipline. The department reassigned Templeton from being a school officer to the quartermaster’s office, suspended her three days and placed her on six months of probation.

(I cannot believe this is the MOST SEVERE DISCIPLINE, GIVE ME A BREAK!!)

Feb. 2017: The Crawford family filed a lawsuit against MPD and the juvenile detention center.

May 15, 2017: Nashville Chief U.S. District Court Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr. ruled that the Rutherford County Juvenile Detention Center must stop illegally incarcerating children on minor misdemeanor charges based on Davenport’s 2003 order and memorandum. "The juveniles that are arrested in Rutherford County are being deprived of their procedural due process rights, which is unquestionably irreparable harm,” Crenshaw stated his ruling.

July 2017: Kazmere Watts joined other plaintiffs in a class-action case against Rutherford County after being illegally jailed on a 2014 misdemeanor assault charge following a school fight.

Aug. 2017: The Crawford family reached a $86,500 settlement agreement following arrests of three children at Hobgood Elementary.

September 2017: Rutherford County and Providence Community Corrections agreed to pay $14.3 million in extortion lawsuit.

Oct. 2017: The Martin family sued MPD officer Crystal Templeton following the arrest of their daughter at Hobgood Elementary.

October 2017: MPD Chief Durr resigned. (ABOUT TIME)

Feb. 26, 2018: The Martin family reached an $80,000 settlement agreement with Murfreesboro.

Jan. 2019: Rutherford County and state agree to pay $250,000 to the family of a boy with developmental disabilities locked in solitary confinement. County's share of settlement was $166,667 while state's was $83,333, federal court records show.

June 2021: Plaintiffs in class action suit against Rutherford County Juvenile Detention Center reached $11 million settlement agreement.

July through Oct. 29 deadlines in 2021: Attorneys representing plaintiffs seek to spread the word about filing for a claim.

In 2003, Davenport allegedly set up a "process" where police in Rutherford County took children into custody, transported them to the detention center for screening and then filed charging papers. In the 2016 incident, the children were arrested, taken for processing, and then released after they had been charged, the lawsuit alleges.

A class-action lawsuit filed, and later settled, against Rutherford County alleges this process was a violation of Tennessee law. For many juvenile misdemeanor offenses, state law requires that police officers release children with a citation or a summons rather than taking them into custody, according to the lawsuit.

According to ProPublica, records from the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts showed that in 2014, the last year where this type of data is available, children were detained on average in 5% of juvenile cases statewide. In Rutherford County, children were detained in 48% of cases, the report said.

The class-action lawsuit alleged that these policies led to potentially thousands of children being illegally arrested, illegally detained or both.

Dylan Geerts, a named plaintiff in the lawsuit, but not a part of the 2016 incident, was one of those children. When he was 15, he said he was arrested for stealing change and small items from a car.

"They essentially put me in solitary confinement for between 22 and 23 hours a day," Geerts, now 23, told ABC News. "[They] took me off of my medications by force, not by doctor's orders or anything. They just didn't allow me to have my bipolar medication."

"I was kept awake for close to 30 something hours by the staff, purposefully," he added. He was released on house arrest after four days.

"I really struggled through my teenage years after that," Geerts said, noting that he had fallen in with the "wrong crowd" during his time in juvenile detention. Before his arrest, he said he had been hospitalized for suicidal thoughts. Although he had support from his family, following his arrest, he was hospitalized for attempting to harm himself and was later diagnosed with PTSD.

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