A Georgia mother whose five small children were taken from her after a traffic stop has alleged Tennessee Department of Children’s Services workers acted without a valid court order in violation of the law, new filings in a civil rights lawsuit said.
Bianca Clayborne filed suit last year on behalf of herself and her children, who were placed in foster care for 55 days following the February 2023 traffic stop in rural Tennessee.
Clayborne, her partner and their five children were on their way to a funeral in Chicago from their home in Atlanta when a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer pulled them over in Coffee County for tinted windows and a slowpoke violation, an incident report said.
Claiming to smell marijuana, troopers searched the car, finding fewer than five grams, according to the report.
Possession of small amounts of marijuana typically result in a paper citation in Tennessee. Instead, troopers arrested Clayborne’s partner, Deonte Williams, cited Clayborne and asked the mother to follow them in her car with her children to the Coffee County jail to bail Williams out. Williams admitted to the possession, but Clayborne denied she had used marijuana.
In the jailhouse parking lot, social workers confronted Clayborne in her car before forcibly taking away her children, who ranged in age at the time from a seven-year-old to a four-month-old breastfeeding baby.
Williams later pled guilty to a single simple possession charge. The charge against Clayborne was dismissed.
Now the ongoing lawsuit against those who participated in the children’s removal – among them Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers, Coffee County Sheriff’s deputies, and caseworkers with the Department of Children’s Services – makes a series of new allegations that the process used to remove the children violated the law – and that DCS and Coffee County officials destroyed evidence and created a false paper trail to cover their tracks.
“These public officials illegally tore apart and terrorized Clayborne’s family,” the lawsuit said. “They acted outrageously and unlawfully. Their actions caused severe emotional trauma to Clayborne and each of her five children.”
A spokesperson with the Tennessee Attorney General’s office, which is representing Department of Children Services caseworkers and THP troopers named in the lawsuit, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Attorneys representing Coffee County and its employees argued in legal filings that the new claims are barred by a statute of limitations. They did not respond to requests for comment by the Lookout on Wednesday.
‘Momma is not going to give them up without a fight’
Tennessee law requires that DCS workers seeking an emergency removal of children from their parents file a sworn petition in court that details evidence of children being abused or neglected. Then a juvenile judge must issue a written order before any efforts to separate children from their parents is carried out.
That didn’t happen in this case, the lawsuit alleges.
Instead, a DCS caseworker who had no first-hand contact with Clayborne or her children placed a call to Coffee County General Sessions Judge Greg Perry about the traffic stop — a call that was outside the formal legal process.
Coffee County officials separately contacted Perry to question whether they could legally separate Clayborne from her children.
At the time, Clayborne was parked in the Coffee County jail parking lot, where county sheriff deputies had placed spike strips around her car to prevent her from leaving – an illegal exercise of police power to detain an individual who was otherwise not under arrest, not subject to any court order and free to leave with her children, the lawsuit said.
“Well momma is not going to give them up without a fight,” Coffee County Sheriff Investigator James Sherrill told Judge Perry, according to a recording of the call obtained from the county by Clayborne’s attorneys.
“If we get in the middle of this, there’s going to be a damn lawsuit,” Sherrill said.
In response, Perry said officers could arrest Clayborne for disorderly conduct. And, the judge said, “you won’t get in a lawsuit…because I’ve got judicial immunity.”
Perry told Coffee County officials his verbal order to remove the children was enough.
Tennessee law does not recognize oral orders from judges to remove children from a parent’s custody, the lawsuit noted.
“Tennessee does not permit children to be taken from their parents based on a private telephone call to a judge,” legal filings said.
If we get in the middle of this, there’s going to be a damn lawsuit.
– Coffee County Sheriff Investigator James Sherrill
“Instead, when DCS believes a child should be removed from their home, DCS must file a proper petition and make factual allegations under oath to support the drastic relief of removing a child from their family — and the law requires that the removal can only happen after procuring a valid court order.”
Perry is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, which nevertheless alleges he acted with “no lawful authority.”
Perry did not return a message left with his office seeking comment about the allegations.
Lawsuit alleges DCS effort to “paper over” the record
The children were taken from Clayborne’s side as she waited to bail Williams out of the county jail about six hours after the traffic stop.
It was sometime after the children were taken into state custody that a DCS attorney filed the necessary legal paperwork. The time stamp on the petition was obscured, a further step to hide that legal paperwork had been filed after the children had already been taken from their mother in violation of state law, the legal filings said.
“Presumably aware they had not followed any legal ‘process,’ the DCS Defendants immediately began to paper over the record to make it look like they had followed the law — when in fact they had not,” the suit said.
The same DCS attorney continued to communicate with the judge one-on-one about the case, despite standard court rules that bar communications about an active case that do not include all parties.
Weeks later, after the family’s then-attorney learned about the private communications between DCS and Perry, the DCS attorney and the judge engaged in a series of late-night texts after 11 p.m. to discuss how to avert a lawsuit, legal filings said.
The attorney, who is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit, was terminated by DCS in 2024 for her conduct in a separate case that involved helping a DCS caseworker submit a “sworn petition falsely alleging that a child was drug-exposed to justify” removal of that child, the filing said.
U.S. District Judge Clifton Corker has yet to rule on whether the new claims filed by Clayborne’s attorneys may go forward.
Corker ruled in August that DCS caseworkers can be held liable for their conduct in the case, including for claims they violated the family’s Fourth Amendment Constitutional protections against unlawful search and seizures and the family’s legal claims of false arrest and false imprisonment.
The new filings also seek to add additional DCS caseworkers and Coffee County officers involved in the incident whose identities were only made known to the family after the initial lawsuit was filed.
The family is represented by prominent Nashville civil rights attorneys Abby Rubenfeld, Tricia Herzfeld and Anthony Orlandi.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.
SUMMARY: Desmond Mills Jr., a former Memphis officer who pleaded guilty, testified during the trial of Tadarrius Bean and others charged in Tyre Nichols’ 2023 death. Nichols was beaten after fleeing a traffic stop; footage showed officers laughing while Nichols struggled. Mills admitted hitting Nichols out of anger after accidentally pepper-spraying himself and regretted failing to stop the beating. Nichols died three days later from blunt force trauma. Defense argued Nichols resisted arrest, while prosecutors said officers were “overcome by the moment” and failed to intervene. The trial, moved from Memphis due to publicity, addresses charges including second-degree murder amid scrutiny of MPD’s conduct.
www.thecentersquare.com – By Kim Jarrett | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-30 12:15:00
(The Center Square) – Democrats and Republicans from three states are supporting a 287-mile trail that would include Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina.
The lawmakers are asking for a feasibility study on the Benton MacKaye National Scenic Trail. U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Tenn., said Wednesday the trail deserves a national scenic designation.
“The Benton MacKaye Trail is an invaluable part of my district in East Tennessee that thousands of Tennesseans and Americans hike each year, and the trail connects some of the most beautiful and pristine parts of Tennessee with Georgia and North Carolina,” Fleischmann said.
The trail that winds through the Southern Appalachian Mountains was completed in 2005, according to Bob Cowdrick, president of the Benton MacKaye Trail Association, which has supported its development since 1980, according to the bill.
“This study would help protect our storied outdoor heritage for future generations, support local economies, and provide a wide array of recreation opportunities for everyone from day hikers to thru-hikers and solo trekkers to families,” Cowdrick said.
The trail’s path is made up of 95% of federal land. It passes through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Chattahoochee-Oconee, Cherokee and Nantahala National Forests. It begins at North Georgia’s Springer Mountain and ends at North Carolina’s Mount Sterling, according to the Benton MacKaye Trail Association.
The bill is cosponsored in the House by Democrats Steve Cohen of Tennessee and Lucy McBath of Georgia. Rep. Chuck Edwards, R-N.C., is also a cosponsor. Republican North Carolina Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd are cosponsoring it in the Senate with Rep. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga. The bill is currently in the House Natural Resources Committee.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Centrist
The article reports on bipartisan support for a feasibility study on the Benton MacKaye National Scenic Trail, without advocating for a particular ideological stance. The language used is factual and neutral, primarily focusing on the collaboration between Democrats and Republicans from three states. The article does not show a clear bias in favor of one political party or the other. It simply highlights the specifics of the bill, its sponsors, and the potential benefits of the trail, such as supporting local economies and outdoor recreation. Therefore, it adheres to neutral, factual reporting without promoting a specific viewpoint.
The trio charged in a Tennessee political corruption case shared text messages in early 2020 complaining about the state’s failure to pay a mysterious vendor for work on lawmakers’ constituent mailers, at one point cursing the administrator in charge of handling invoices.
One text message from former Rep. Robin Smith of Hixson to ex-Speaker of the House Glen Casada said, “Connie’s a bi—.” Casada responded, “Agreed!”
Smith, who pleaded guilty in the fraud and kickback case and is cooperating with federal prosecutors, was referring to now-retired Legislative Administration Director Connie Ridley, who handled payments for the state’s postage and printing program for lawmakers. Ridley held up payments because of problems with W-9 tax forms by the vendor, Phoenix Solutions, which was run by former legislative aide Cade Cothren, and Casada, testimony showed.
Smith testified she was “highly frustrated” because Ridley approved work without having the federal tax documents on hand. Eventually, Cothren sent the state a W-9 signed as “Matthew Phoenix,” one of the key documents prosecutors are using in the case to show deception by Smith, Casada and Cothren to direct business to Phoenix Solutions without state officials or lawmakers knowing who was behind the company.
Casada and Cothren had stepped down from their posts at different points in 2019 because of a racist and sexist texting scandal. Casada remained in the General Assembly but not as House speaker.
Connie Ridley, former director of legislative administration, shown leaving Nashville’s federal courthouse on April 25, 2025. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout)
Another text displayed for the jury Tuesday showed the state had paid for work on a lawmaker’s constituent mailer but didn’t include taxes.
Smith and Cothren sent each other “incredulous” text messages and Smith added another one saying, “Quite the bullsh–.”
Smith, former chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party, met with Ridley to speed up payments in February 2020 when the state owed Phoenix Solutions $34,000 for work on several Republican lawmakers’ constituent mailers, including now-former Rep. Patsy Hazlewood of Signal Mountain, Rep. Dan Howell of Cleveland, Rep. Esther Helton-Haynes of East Ridge, Rep. Dennis Powers of Jacksboro, Rep. Susan Lynn of Mt. Juliet, Rep. Bud Hulsey of Bristol, Rep. Chris Hurt of Halls, Rep. Andrew Farmer of Sevierville and Smith and Casada.
Ridley testified earlier this week she didn’t find out Phoenix Solutions was run by Cothren until May 2020 when federal authorities told her to continue processing the New Mexico-based company’s invoices.
Earlier Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Eli Richardson ruled that prosecutors can present evidence showing the trio wanted to expand from constituent mailers, which are paid for with tax money, to House Republican Caucus work. Defense attorneys argued that the prosecutors should be limited to evidence about the postage and printing program because it is outlined in the indictment, not an effort to tap into caucus funds.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com.
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Center-Right
The content highlights a political corruption case involving Republican lawmakers in Tennessee, presenting factual details about legal proceedings, text communications, and testimonies. While it exposes misconduct within a specific party, the reporting style remains largely neutral and focused on the facts without overt editorializing or broad partisan critique. This aligns with a center-right bias, as it scrutinizes members of a right-leaning party but in a relatively balanced and fact-based manner typical of moderate conservative or center-right news coverage.
