Formerly Incarcerated Child Sues Rutherford Juvenile Judge for $15M - Articles

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Posted by: Kate Prince on Oct 29, 2021

A juvenile who was incarcerated for three days in 2016 is suing Rutherford County Juvenile Court Judge Donna Scott Davenport and Juvenile Detention Center Director Lynn Duke for $15 million, the Daily News Journal reports. The plaintiff, who was 10 at the time of incarceration, was arrested for allegedly encouraging an off-campus fight which, according to the lawsuit, he was not actually present for. The suit pointed to a 2017 ruling by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr., which said that the juvenile center was illegally incarcerating children accused of misdemeanors based on Davenport's 2003 order and memorandum in asking officers to "arrest all" children facing charges. Last month, Rutherford County agreed to pay $11 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought on behalf of juveniles wrongly detained by the county. A report from Nashville Public Radio and ProPublica earlier this month revealed the county’s “staggering history of jailing children” and its use of an illegal filtering system for determining which children go to jail.