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A Tennessee judge created and used policies – and a non-existent law – to jail children

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4 years ago

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  • A juvenile court judge implemented policies that permitted jailing and detaining children, many of them Black, without sufficient cause, according to an investigation.

  • The Tennessee county settled a class-action lawsuit for $11 million after lawyers alleged the policy departed from Tennessee law.

  • The policy has been halted and Donna Scott Davenport maintains her position as the Rutherford County Juvenile Court Judge.

A Tennessee juvenile court judge orchestrated a system to arrest and jail children, many of whom were Black and some who were as young as eight and nine years old, according to an investigation by ProPublica and Nashville

According to the report, published on October 8, Juvenile Court Judge Donna Scott Davenport of Rutherford County created a “process” that involved arresting children, taking them into custody at a detention center, and then filing charges against them.

This differed from the norm in Tennessee, where police would typically serve court summonses to children and their parents instead of arresting children and taking them into custody, the investigation found.

Davenport declined an interview with ProPublica and did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment. Representatives from Rutherford County and from the state judicial system also did not respond to Insider’s requests for comment.

Under Davenport’s system, in 2016, 11 Black children were arrested and 10 were charged with “criminal responsibility for conduct of another” after they allegedly failed to stop a fight that was captured on video. But the attorney who represented some of the children said “criminal responsibility for conduct of another” is not a charge under Tennessee law.

Rather, it’s a prosecutorial theory, the attorney Frank Ross Brazil told ABC News.

“So, that being applied as a charge in and of itself is unlawful,” said Brazil, who did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment Sunday.

Davenport cultivated a public profile as a disciplinarian, discussing her work in interviews and on her monthly segment on WGNS radio. She even referred to herself as the “mother of the county,” the joint investigation found.

“I know I’m harsh, I’m very harsh. I like to think I’m fair, but I’m tough,” Davenport said in a 2015 profile in the Daily News Journal. “Juvenile Court is all about urgency – we are not dealing with the offense, we are dealing with the offender. We work on rehabilitation.”

Davenport’s “process” was challenged in a class-action lawsuit that involved over 1,000 children that alleged Rutherford County violated children’s rights by arresting and detaining them without sufficient cause. A judge involved in the case said that “children in Rutherford County are suffering irreparable harm every day” from a policy that “departs drastically” from the norm, Nashville Public Radio reported.

The case was settled in June of this year, and the ruling permanently halted the juvenile court’s use of Davenport’s policies. Rutherford County agreed to pay up to $11 million, including $7.75 million to the children who were arrested and detained, according to the investigation.

Just around 200 of the 1,500 children included in the class action lawsuit have filed a claim to get the settlement money, News 4 Nashville reported last week.

Following ProPublica and Nashville Public Radio’s investigation, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said that “the appropriate judicial authorities should issue a full review” of Judge Davenport.

As of October 12, Davenport is no longer teaching at Middle Tennessee State University, where she was an alumna and adjunct professor, Nashville Public Radio reported.

According to the outlet, the president of the university said that Davenport, “whose actions overseeing Rutherford County Juvenile Court have recently drawn attention in national media reports, is no longer affiliated with the University.”

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Bizarre Epstein files reference to Trump, Putin, and oral sex with ‘Bubba’ draws scrutiny in Congress

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2 weeks ago

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November 14, 2025

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The latest tranche of emails from the estate of late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein includes one that contains what appear to be references to President Donald Trump allegedly performing oral sex, raising questions the committee cannot answer until the Department of Justice turns over records it has withheld, says U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.

Garcia insists the Trump White House is helping block them.

In a Friday afternoon interview with The Advocate, the out California lawmaker responded to a 2018 exchange, which was included in the emails released, between Jeffrey Epstein and his brother, Mark Epstein. In that message, Mark wrote that because Jeffrey Epstein had said he was with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, he should “ask him if Putin has the photos of Trump blowing Bubba.”

“Bubba” is a nickname former President Bill Clinton has been known by; however, the email does not clarify who Mark Epstein meant, and the context remains unclear.

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USDA head says ‘everyone’ on SNAP will now have to reapply

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2 weeks ago

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November 14, 2025

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Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Thursday said the Trump administration is planning to have all Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) beneficiaries reapply for the program due to alleged fraud.

The secretary said after receiving data on SNAP recipients from 29 red states that “186,000 deceased men and women and children in this country are receiving a check.”

“Can you imagine when we get our hands on the blue state data what we’re going to find?” she asked during a Thursday appearance on Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight.”

“It’s going to give us a platform and a trajectory to fundamentally rebuild this program, have everyone reapply for their benefit, make sure that everyone that’s taking a taxpayer-funded benefit through SNAP or food stamps, that they literally are vulnerable, and they can’t survive without it,” she added.

Every state has a periodic recertification process that requires SNAP or food stamp recipients to update their whereabouts and earnings, according to the Department of Agriculture (USDA). Most municipalities require updated data every six to 12 months.

“Secretary Rollins wants to ensure the fraud, waste, and incessant abuse of SNAP ends,” a USDA spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill. “Rates of fraud were only previously assumed, and President Trump is doing something about it. Using standard recertification processes for households is a part of that work. As well as ongoing analysis of State data, further regulatory work, and improved collaboration with States. “

Earlier this month, food stamps were threatened amid the government shutdown as the Trump administration argued against using contingency funds to fuel the welfare program.

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Trump orders Bondi to investigate Epstein’s ties to Clinton and other political foes

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2 weeks ago

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November 14, 2025

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NEW YORK (AP) — Acceding to President Donald Trump’s demands, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday that she has ordered a top federal prosecutor to investigate sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to Trump political foes, including former President Bill Clinton.

Bondi posted on X that she was assigning Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton to lead the probe, capping an eventful week in which congressional Republicans released nearly 23,000 pages of documents from Epstein’s estate and House Democrats seized on emails mentioning Trump.

Trump, who was friends with Epstein for years, didn’t explain what supposed crimes he wanted the Justice Department to investigate. None of the men he mentioned in a social media post demanding the probe has been accused of sexual misconduct by any of Epstein’s victims.

Hours before Bondi’s announcement, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he would ask her, the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate Epstein’s “involvement and relationship” with Clinton and others, including former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and LinkedIn founder and Democratic donor Reid Hoffman.

Trump, calling the matter “the Epstein Hoax, involving Democrats, not Republicans,” said the investigation should also include financial giant JPMorgan Chase, which provided banking services to Epstein, and “many other people and institutions.”

“This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats,” the Republican president wrote, referring to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of alleged Russian interference in Trump’s 2016 election victory over Bill Clinton’s wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Asked later Friday whether he should be ordering up such investigations, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One: “I’m the chief law enforcement officer of the country. I’m allowed to do it.”

In a July memo regarding the Epstein investigation, the FBI said, “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”

The president’s demand for an investigation — and Bondi’s quick acquiescence — is the latest example of the erosion of the Justice Department’s traditional independence from the White House since Trump took office.

It is also an extraordinary attempt at deflection. For decades, Trump himself has been scrutinized for his closeness to Epstein — though like the people he now wants investigated, he has not been accused of sexual misconduct by Epstein’s victims.

None of Trump’s proposed targets were accused of sex crimes

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