The arrest of a Hobgood Elementary child has sparked a federal case that could emerge as a class-action lawsuit against the Rutherford County Juvenile Detention Center.
The center “maintained illegal arrest and detention policies (of Juvenile Court Judge Donna Scott Davenport) for well over a decade, resulting in the illegal arrest and incarceration of thousands of children,” states a lawsuit filed by Nashville attorney Kyle Mothershead, Mark Downton and Wesley Clark.
The case involves four children, including one who was part of a group of Hobgood students arrested in April 2016. The Hobgood arrests led to an $86,500 settlement of a lawsuit against the Murfreesboro Police Department and the Rutherford County Juvenile Detention Center.
The county and state earlier this year also settled another lawsuit against the center for $250,000. That case involved a boy with developmental disabilities being locked in solitary confinement in 2016.
Attorneys representing the county in the current case want Nashville’s Chief US District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr. to reject the lawsuit becoming a class-action case. The defense attorneys are Jonathan P. Lakey of Memphis and D. Randall Mantooth of Nashville.
Judge Crenshaw is expected to rule soon but wants the plaintiffs to respond to the county’s position by Dec. 9.
Hobgood Elementary Arrests: Family accepts $86K settlement
Hobgood child placed in solitary
The plaintiffs at the time of incarceration include two 14-year-olds, a 12-year-old and a 10-year-old.
The 12-year-old boy was among the arrested Hobgood students. While others were handcuffed at school, the 12-year-old was arrested at his home and transported to the Juvenile Detention Center.
While awaiting a hearing, the 12-year-old remained jailed for two days and “was placed in solitary confinement for standing at his window and knocking on the door of his cell,” the lawsuit said.
“As a result of his unlawful incarceration, (the 12-year-old) suffered damages including but not limited to personal humiliation, mental anguish, loss of liberty and emotional distress,” the lawsuit said.
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La Vergne boy detained four days
One of the 14-year-olds was arrested by the La Vergne Police Department in September 2014 on non-violent, non-weapons delinquent charges.
The boy had no prior delinquent record, which was not on probation and did not otherwise meet the conditions for detention.
The boy, however, remained incarcerated for four days.
“The illegal incarceration infringed (on the boy’s) liberty and imposed mental anguish, emotional harm, and psychological distress on him,” the lawsuit said.
Lawsuit blames local judge’s policy
The plaintiffs’ attorney contends a class-action lawsuit will be more efficient for the court than to hold trials for multiple cases.
“For over a decade, Rutherford County maintained a policy, referred to by Rutherford County Juvenile Court Judge Davenport as ‘The Process,’ requiring law enforcement to take into custody any child charged with any delinquent or status offense, regardless of severity or type, for delivery to the Juvenile Detention Center for ‘processing,'” the lawsuit said.
The policy in question dates back to February 2003, according to the lawsuit.
Lawsuit: Policy led to ‘rampant false arrests’
Law prohibits the custodial arrest of status offenders except for runaways or where a court has issued an arrest order, the lawsuit said.
Arresting children on misdemeanor charges must involve the offense occurring in the presence of law enforcement or pertaining to violation of probation, domestic assault, driving under the influence, a collision-related traffic offense or stalking, according to the lawsuit.
Judge Davenport had established a protocol that children could be incarcerated for up to three days before a hearing when “there was probable cause that the child had committed any delinquent offense” or staff deemed detention to be in the child’s “best interest,” the lawsuit said.
By 2008, a “Filter System” was adopted within the JDC Standard Operating Procedures that established specific guidelines when determining if incarceration was necessary.
“This policy led to rampant false arrests,” under state law, the lawsuit said.
The county’s attorneys, however, said the four plaintiffs listed in the case have faced charges involving assault, stalking, rape of a child, burglary and evading arrest. Only one plaintiff had a hearing outside the 48-hour window generally permitted by law, the county said in its response.
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Reach Scott Broden at [email protected] or 615-278-5158. Follow him on Twitter @ScottBroden.
This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: Class-action lawsuit may emerge against Rutherford Juvenile Detention
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