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

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3 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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‘I’ll bring my plane… I plan on keeping it for another four years’ – Biden on second debate with Trump

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May 16, 2024

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President Biden and former President Trump agreed to hold a second debate Sept. 10 hosted by ABC News.

The two candidates had already accepted an invitation earlier Wednesday to attend a CNN debate on June 27, and both confirmed later in the day on social media that they plan to attend the ABC debate in September.

“I’ve also received and accepted an invitation to a debate hosted by ABC on Tuesday, September 10th,” Biden posted on the social platform X. “Trump says he’ll arrange his own transportation. I’ll bring my plane, too. I plan on keeping it for another four years.”

Biden, of course, is referring to the presidential jet, Air Force One.

“It is my great honor to accept the CNN Debate against Crooked Joe Biden, the WORST PRESIDENT in the History of the United States and a true Threat to Democracy, on June 27th,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Likewise, I accept the ABC News Debate against Crooked Joe on September 10th.”

It marked a whirlwind few hours that started with Biden’s campaign publicly proposing two deabtes in June and September and ended with both candidates agreeing to a date and host.

ABC News had planned to host a GOP primary debate in New Hampshire, but it was canceled after Trump and Nikki Haley said they would not attend. Martha Raddatz of ABC co-moderated one of the 2016 presidential debates; the network did not host a debate in 2020.

The candidates have chosen to go around the Commission on Presidential Debates, the organization that has arranged the showdowns dating back to 1988.

Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon suggested working with outlets that hosted GOP primary debates in 2016 and Democratic primary debates in 2020 to avoid any perceptions of bias.

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Nigerian officials probe plan to marry off scores of female orphans

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4 days ago

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May 15, 2024

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ABUJA, NIGERIA — Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Women Affairs says it is investigating a plan by a lawmaker in central Niger state to marry off some 100 female orphans of unknown ages later this month.

Speaker of the Niger State Assembly Abdulmalik Sarkin-Daji announced the mass wedding last week but called off the ceremony following widespread outrage.

Minister of Women Affairs Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, speaking to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, condemned the plans.

Kennedy-Ohanenye said she had petitioned the police and filed a lawsuit to stop the marriages pending an investigation to ascertain the age of the orphans and whether they consented to the marriages.

“This is totally unacceptable by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and by the government” of Nigeria, she said.

Last week, Sarkin-Daji announced his support for the mass wedding of the orphans, whose relatives were killed during attacks by armed bandits. He said it was part of his support to his constituents following an appeal for wedding funding by local traditional and religious leaders.

The mass wedding had been scheduled for May 24.

“That support I intend to give for the marriage of those orphans, I’m withdrawing it,” he said. “The parents can have the support [money], if they wish, let them go ahead and marry them off. As it is right now, I’m not threatened by the action of the minister.”

Despite national laws prohibiting it, forced or arranged marriage is a common phenomenon in Nigeria, especially among rural communities in the predominantly Muslim north, where religious and cultural norms such as polygamy favor the practice.

Poor families often use forced marriage to ease financial pressure, and the European Union Agency for Asylum says girls who refuse could face repercussions such as neglect, ostracism, physical assault and rape.

Raquel Kasham Daniel escaped being married off as a teenager when her father died and now runs a nonprofit helping children, especially less-privileged girls, get a formal education for free.

She said the ability of women to avoid forced marriage in Nigeria depends on their income and education.

“I was 16 when I lost my dad and I was almost married off, but then I ran away from home. And that gave me the opportunity to complete my education, and now I have a better life,” Daniel said.

“So, the reason why I prioritize education is to make sure that other girls have access to quality schooling so that it will help them make informed decisions about their lives. Education not only increases our awareness as girls about our rights but also enhances our prospects for higher income earning,” she said.

Thirty percent of girls in Nigeria are married before they turn 18, according to Girls Not Brides, a global network of more than 1,400 civil society groups working to end child marriage.

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Shell investigates smoke near Gbaran oil facility in Nigeria

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4 days ago

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May 15, 2024

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YENAGOA, Nigeria, May 14 (Reuters) – Oil major Shell is investigating reports of smoke early Tuesday near its Gbaran Ubie oil and gas facility in Nigeria’s coastal Bayelsa state, a spokesperson said after residents reported hearing explosions and seeing smoke near the area.
The incident would not immediately lead to an operational shut-in, the Shell spokesperson said.
A fire was reported around 0600 GMT by residents in the nearby community, who said blasts were heard where pipeline repair works had been ongoing.
The Gbaran facility, which began operations in 2010, is by far the most important Nigeria LNG gas feedstock project, processing almost 2 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day.
“We are actively monitoring reports of smoke detected near our Gbaran Central Processing Facility in Bayelsa State. While the source appears to be external to our facility, we are in close communication with regulatory authorities to look into the incident and ensure the safety of the surrounding communities,” a Shell spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
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Shell did not immediately respond to the accounts of residents in the area.
Resident Ovie Ogbuku told Reuters: “At about 7 a.m. I heard the sound so deafeningly and it shook the foundation of the earth and we ran for our dear lives. The result is the thick smoke you are seeing now.”
Another resident Uche Ede said; “We have no idea of the cause of the explosion but we are grateful no life was lost because it was far away from homes.”
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Land operations in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta are prone to sabotage, theft, and pipeline vandalism, forcing oil majors to exit such fields to focus on deepwater drilling.

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