MANCHESTER, Tenn. (WTVF) — An amended motion in a federal lawsuit against Coffee County deputies and the Tennessee Department of Children's Service provided new allegations in a case where five children were taken from their parents during a traffic stop in Manchester.
Bianca Clayborne and her partner, Deonte Williams, were driving through Coffee County in 2023, when a traffic stop resulted in DCS taking all five of their children. A year later, Clayborne sued everyone involved in federal court.
The traffic stop happened when Clayborne and William traveled through Tennessee to a funeral in Chicago. The suit said they were initially pulled over for a "slow poke" violation. During a full search of the car, troopers found less than a presumed five grams of marijuana in the car, which is typically a simple possession offense that is dealt with by issuing a citation.
However, that is not what happened, according to the lawsuit and previous NewsChannel 5 reporting. Instead, the amended complaint alleged that a Coffee County judge violated the law by taking her children after a private phone call with DCS and leadership within the Coffee County Sheriff's Department.
"The actions by the DCS defendants were illegal," Clayborne's attorneys wrote. She is being represented by Tricia Herzfeld, Anthony Orlandi and Abby Rubenfeld.
"Tennessee does not permit children to be taken from their parents based on a private telephone call to a judge. 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 removal can only happen after procuring a valid court order."
The lawsuit alleged no court order happened because DCS didn't provide proof to General Sessions Judge Greg Perry. Per the suit, DCS and Judge Perry used the Coffee County Sheriff's Office to separate Clayborne from her kids.
"Judge Perry called a county official (James Sherrill) on his cell phone regarding the case — without any representative for Clayborne involved," the attorneys wrote. "In the presence of CCSD Chief Deputy Watkins, Sherrill told Judge Perry: 'If we get involved, there’s going to be a damn lawsuit for sure.” In response, Judge Perry told Sherrill to arrest Clayborne for disorderly conduct, remove her children from her, and not to worry about getting sued because 'I’ve got judicial immunity.'"
The lawsuit alleged that Judge Perry said an oral order to detain the five children was "good enough." That's when the attorneys wrote that an order to remove the children came blank with an emergency order to remove the kids.
In filing records requests for the civil litigation, the attorneys said that the evidence involving the family went missing after the Clayborne family hired them and asked for the preservation of the evidence.
The employee in question with DCS no longer works for the state. She started working in 2022 and was on probation with DCS for one year. She had been on the job only eight months when the case originated.
In the lawsuit, Williams claimed he was denied asking to call his lawyer that he was being illegally detained by the Tennessee Highway Patrol. It also alleged that the troopers were only going to cite Clayborne so the children could stay in her custody and not be separated. She received the citation at the gas station during the traffic stop.
The attorneys allege while some troopers were talking to Clayborne that they were threatening Williams in the back of a law enforcement vehicle.
"'Man, you want to be quiet? Because I could take her to jail and get the kids in DCS. So you need to be quiet, okay? Because you want her to go to jail too, if you keep your mouth up, all right?'" the attorneys wrote "In other words, Basaldua threatened Williams that if he did not stop talking about what Williams (validly) considered to be an improper detention, Basaldua would arrest Clayborne and separate the children from their mother by placing them with DCS."
Attorneys are now waiting for a federal judge to accept the amended 85-page complaint in the case.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at emily.west@newschannel5.com.
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