The family is planning to celebrate in their hometown.
By Anita Wadhwani of Tennessee Lookout
A family lawyer said that five young kids who were taken from their parents following a traffic stop nearly two months back in Coffee County have now been returned to them.
The Tennessee Department of Children’s Service has taken custody of Bianca Clayborne’s and Deonte’s children after state troopers stopped the family for “dark tinting and driving in the left lane without actively passing” on their way to Chicago for a funeral of an uncle on February 17, while they were on their way home from Georgia.
After smelling marijuana, the officer searched the family’s Dodge and found 5 grams of marijuana. This is a misdemeanor in Tennessee.
The THP reported that Clayborne had been cited but was told to go with her family.
In the space of a few hours, Williams’ mother and all five of her children — ages 7, 5, 2, 3, and a four-month-old nursing baby — were taken away from their mother while she waited at the Coffee County Justice Center to post bond. Since then, the children have been in foster care. They were first divided between three homes and then taken in temporarily by a friend of the family in Nashville.
The family is Black. The Tennessee NAACP and Democratic legislators demanded that the children be returned after a Lookout article chronicling the incident.
Courtney Teasley said that the children returned to Georgia on Friday.
Teasley revealed that the family was planning to celebrate in their hometown. We will hold a press event and celebrate in Nashville about a week after the family enjoys time together.
Teasley refused to comment further on the events leading up to the reunification of the children. Coffee County Juvenile Court has jurisdiction over the case. After DCS attorneys filed motions to prosecute and sanction them for revealing details about the juvenile proceedings, the family and their lawyers ceased public comment.
A DCS spokesperson responded to a comment request by saying: “The gag is still in place.” You would be referred to the juvenile courts.”
The case raised concerns about whether DCS acted appropriately after a parent was charged with misdemeanor charges–and if the family, which was driving from Atlanta to a funeral in Tennessee, was treated differently because they were Black.
The family was stopped while driving through Manchester in Tennessee. THP officers pulled over the family, called in a dog to sniff out drugs, searched their vehicle and decided to arrest Williams rather than cite him. Clayborne was cited and told she could leave. Clayborne said that the traffic stop had been a traumatic experience for both her and her children.
She told The Lookout that she met three DCS caseworkers at the Coffee County Justice Center where she drove her children with Williams to release him. Social workers told her to leave her children in the car and go inside, where she was asked to provide a urine specimen. Clayborne said she refused because she was afraid of leaving her children with the state caseworkers. Officers then placed spike strips all around the car. Clayborne claimed that she offered to do a urine test in the car but was unable to produce one.
She said that after Clayborne brought her five children into the justice center in order to post bond on behalf of Williams, caseworkers and officers surrounded her. They took each child away.
According to records reviewed by The Lookout, Clayborne was unaware that DCS officials received an order to take children into custody. They cited probable cause, saying the children had been neglected, and stated there was no “less drastic” alternative.
The parents were asked to submit urine drug tests when they appeared in court days later, to try to get their children returned. Clayborne did not test positive for THC (the active ingredient of marijuana). Williams was found to be positive in records examined by The Lookout.
It is not clear who asked for the couple to undergo fast-turnaround hair follicle testing after their initial negative urine test.
A Coffee County administrator has told The Lookout that the instant follicle tests used are not admissible in court. An expert in drug testing said that they have a history of producing false positives. Both parents denied taking the drugs when the test results for Clayborne and Williams showed that they were positive for methamphetamines and oxycodone.
DCS filed a revised claim for child abuse against the couple based on the results of the instant test.
Sheila Younglove, DCS’s attorney, responded via email to the couple after they subpoenaed for the test. She said that it no longer existed.
DCS claimed that the children of the couple also said their father called them “weed men,” they knew how to roll joints, and their parents had taken them on drug transactions. Williams called the allegations “absolute nonsense”; the family’s lawyers questioned when and how the children made these disclosures, and who was responsible for them. It’s not known if the children received any answers.
The attorneys for the couple subpoenaed video footage from the body camera of the traffic arrest, as well as video footage of the parking lot of the justice centre and its interior where the children were removed from their mother, and personnel files of DCS officials involved in the removal of the children following the traffic accident.
The attorneys are unsure if they have gotten any information out of these subpoenas.
Teasley directed all questions back to her statement, that the family will only make public statements after they have had a chance of reuniting with their children.
This article was originally published by Tennessee Lookout.
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