A Georgia mother, whose five small children were taken from her after the traffic stop, allegedly claimed that Tennessee Children Services workers acted without a valid court order, according to new filings in the civil rights lawsuit. I stated.

Bianca Clayborn filed a lawsuit last year on behalf of herself and her children, who were fostered for 55 days after a traffic stop in rural Tennessee in February 2023.

Claiborne, her partner and their five children from their Atlanta home when Tennessee Highway Patrol officers pulled them in Coffee County and pulled them over for a window and throwpoke violation. He was on his way to the funeral, the case report states.

Reports say the trooper searched the car, claiming it smelled like marijuana and found it under 5 grams.

Possession of small amounts of marijuana usually results in paper citations in Tennessee. Instead, the Troopers arrested Claiborne’s partner, Deonte Williams, cited Claiborne, and asked his mother to drive with her children to the Coffee County Jail and release Williams on bail. Ta. Williams admitted to possession, but Clayborn denied using marijuana.

Tennessee DCS workers can be held responsible for the role of bringing children from parents after traffic stops

In the prison parking lot, a social worker confronted Clayborne in his car, then forced her child to be taken away from a breastfeeding baby between the ages of seven and four months old, ranging from her age.

The incident attracted widespread attention and raised questions about whether black families received different treatments for their race. A few days after Tennessee Silencer Checkout first reported a traffic stop, Tennessee Democrats, Tennessee NAACP Conference and others demanded that the children be returned home.

Williams later pleaded guilty to a single, simple possession charge. The charges against Clayborne were dismissed.

Currently, ongoing lawsuits against those who participated in the removal of children – in which Tennessee Highway Patrol Troopers, Coffee County Sheriff’s Deputies and Children’s Services caseworkers have been used to remove children. The process has filed a series of new allegations that have been violated. Law – and DCS and Coffee County officials have destroyed the evidence and created fake paper paths to cover their trucks.

“These civil servants were illegally toreed and terrified Claiborne’s family,” the lawsuit said. “They acted outrageously illegal. Their actions caused serious emotional trauma to Clayborne and each of her five children.”

A spokesman for the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office represents caseworkers and THP troopers with the Department of Children’s Services appointed in the lawsuit, but did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

The attorneys representing Coffee County and its employees argued in their legal declaration that new claims are prohibited by the law of restrictions. They did not respond to a request for comment by the Observatory on Wednesday.

“Mom isn’t going to give up on them without a fight.”

Tennessee law requires DCS workers seeking emergency removal of their children from parents to submit a sworn petition to court detailing evidence that their child is being abused or ignored. The juvenile judge must then issue a written order before any effort is made to separate the child from the parent.

In this case, it did not happen, the lawsuit alleges.

Instead, a DCS caseworker who had not had any direct contact with Clayborne or her child called Coffee County General Session Judge Greg Perry about a traffic stop.

Black families fight to undo children from the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services

Coffee County officials contacted Perry separately to question whether Clayborn could legally separate her from her child.

At the time, Claiborne was parked in the parking lot at the Coffee County Jail. There, county sheriff’s deputies kept spike strips around her car to prevent them from leaving. The lawsuit can be left freely in accordance with court orders, the lawsuit said.

According to records of calls obtained from the county by Claiborne’s lawyers, Coffee County Sheriff’s Investigator James Sherill said, “Well, they won’t give up without a fight,” James Sherill told Judge Perry. He spoke.

“If you go in the middle of this, you’ll have a damn lawsuit,” Sheryl said.

In response, Perry said officers could arrest Clayborne for disorderly conduct. The judge then said, “You’re not involved in the lawsuit… because I have a judicial immunity.”

Perry told Coffee County officials that order by the words to take children away is enough.

Tennessee law does not allow verbal orders from judges to remove children from parental custody, the lawsuit noted.

“Tennessee does not allow children to be taken by their parents based on private calls to judges,” the law filing said.

“Instead, if DCS believes that the child needs to be taken from home, DCS will file an appropriate petition and under oath to support the dramatic relief of taking the child away from the family. You must make a de facto claim at the following: After procuring a valid court order.

Perry has not been appointed as a defendant in the suit, but he still claims he acted “without legal authority.”

Perry did not reply to messages left in his office for comment on the allegations.

The lawsuit alleges DCS’ efforts to “paper” records

The children were taken from Claiborne’s side as they waited for Williams to be released on bail from the county jail about six hours after the traffic stop.

It was only after the children were taken to state custody that DCS attorneys filed the necessary legal documents. The time stamp on the petition is obscure, and this is a further step to concealing that legal documents have been filed after the children have already been taken from their mothers in violation of state law, legal proposals. said.

“Perhaps they were aware that they had not followed the legal ‘process’, but the DCS defendants immediately began to show the records to paper, and in fact they followed the law when they didn’t. “We made it look like it was,” the lawsuit said.

The same DCS counsel continued to communicate with judges and one-to-one judges despite standard court rules responsible for communicating on active cases that do not include all parties.

Mother of five children photographed by DCS after the traffic stop file lawsuit

A few weeks later, after the family’s then-power of attorney learned about civil communication between DCS and Perry, DCS lawyers and judges engaged in a series of late-night texts after 11pm to see how to avoid the lawsuit. The legal proposal said it was discussed.

The lawyer, who has not been appointed as a defendant in the suit, said she was told in another case that DCS caseworker “in a separate case involving falsely filing a petition claiming that the child was drug assaulted to justify. It was terminated by DCS in 2024 for the act. The removal of that child, said Filing.

US District Judge Clifton Corker has yet to control whether a new claim filed by Claiborne’s attorney could move forward.

In August, Coker alleged that DCS caseworkers violated the Fourth Amendment Constitutional Constitutional Protection of Family for illegal searches and seizures, as well as the family’s legal claims for false arrests and false sentences. It has determined that it can be held liable for the actions in the litigation.

The new filing also seeks to add DCS caseworkers and Coffee County officials involved in cases whose identity is known to the family only after the initial lawsuit is filed.

The family is represented by prominent Nashville civil rights lawyers Abby Rubenfeld, Tricia Herzfeld and Anthony Orlando.

First revised complaints