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0:32

S-E-R-I-A-L.

0:36

The two attorneys, Wes Clark and

0:38

Mark Downton, were feeling pretty good. They'd

0:40

just gotten a 15-year-old kid at a solitary

0:43

confinement.

0:44

And that felt like a big victory against Judge Davenport.

0:47

They'd also decided to team up for real, form

0:50

a firm of their own called Downton-Clark.

0:53

It had no real office, no business cards,

0:55

but

0:55

it did have one very specific goal.

0:58

The goal was to get out. Here's Mark.

1:01

To not be juvenile court lawyers

1:03

anymore, because it was too much time

1:06

for too little money. And

1:07

they needed the money. While

1:09

the work of juvenile court was steady, the

1:11

pay was low as far as attorneys go. Quarterpointed

1:14

cases were capped at 50 bucks an hour.

1:16

Wes had law school loans

1:19

and was still living at his mother-in-law's house.

1:22

Mark was a little more flush, thanks

1:24

to a side gig doing document review for

1:26

higher-paid lawyers. But he also

1:28

had a kid and mortgages for his house and

1:30

office. So they started a

1:32

private practice that would take civil cases,

1:35

personal injury, business disputes.

1:38

They knew it would take some time to really get established,

1:41

but they had faith. They both

1:44

remember an early case Wes brought in

1:46

from adult court that seemed promising.

1:48

It was a client of mine who

1:51

his foot was injured during his

1:54

jail intake process. He

1:56

ended up having the foot amputated. So

1:58

we filed this law school. for like millions

2:01

of dollars. And it turned out

2:03

fairly quickly we learned that

2:05

like his leg was supposed to be cut off before

2:07

he ever went into jail. So

2:10

that was our first one that we felt we were gonna be millionaires.

2:13

Instead, they were out of pocket about 400 bucks for

2:15

the filing fees, plus other expenses.

2:18

And things only went downhill from there. So

2:21

there was like a slip and fall and she

2:23

had fallen down. Oh my gosh, we

2:25

lost a lot of money on that case. And

2:27

we had the sex offenders. That was a terrible

2:30

case. Not a single one of those, that was terrible.

2:32

Not a single one of those worked out.

2:36

Most of their cases were duds right out

2:38

of the gate. And even the ones that paid out

2:40

didn't result in much. One

2:43

client had so little money, she offered to

2:45

pay Mark with a homemade painting of Lake Louise.

2:48

It's in my bathroom right now.

2:49

And it's while they're hustling to find cases

2:52

outside the juvenile court that Mark

2:54

and Wes got a call from a lawyer at the ACLU,

2:57

asking if they wanted to take on some

2:59

new clients. Some kids from a

3:02

school called Hobgood Elementary, they'd

3:04

been arrested for not stepping in to stop

3:06

a fight. Wes had been reading

3:09

about the arrests and he thought the whole thing

3:11

was just so absurd. A bunch

3:13

of kids arrested on this vague charge

3:15

of criminal responsibility, a

3:17

charge that turned out to not even be real. And

3:20

a few of the kids were even held in juvenile detention

3:23

overnight. It would be a pro

3:25

bono case. And it meant going back to

3:27

the Rutherford County juvenile court, going

3:29

back in front of Judge Davenport. But

3:32

immediately Wes was like, yes,

3:34

absolutely, we'll take it because.

3:37

I knew that we

3:39

were already going to get the criminal charges

3:41

dismissed. And more importantly, I

3:44

was definitely thinking about how

3:46

we could sue somebody for what happened.

3:50

Wes figured they'd sue the police, false

3:53

arrest and malicious prosecution. He

3:55

began by reviewing the police's take

3:58

on what happened.

3:59

the arrests at Hobgood in an attempt

4:02

to address

4:02

all the confusion and the outrage,

4:04

the police department had conducted an initial

4:07

audit. So Wes figured he'd

4:09

start there with that report.

4:12

So I, you know, click that, open

4:14

it up, and I didn't have high

4:17

expectations for anything written by

4:19

the police department, right? It's always, always

4:22

conducted the thorough investigation of ourselves

4:24

and have found no wrongdoing is

4:26

generally how that goes. But

4:29

in this particular instance, the

4:31

conclusion that they did nothing wrong

4:34

is based on the assertion

4:36

that they were following. And let me look here

4:38

and see exactly what

4:41

it says. Wes reads through

4:43

the report in front of him. Yep, there

4:45

it is. The line

4:48

about discussion with DA

4:50

and court regarding judicial

4:53

requirement that requires

4:56

juvenile suspects to be arrested

4:58

and prohibits department

5:01

from siding and releasing.

5:03

It's jargony,

5:05

but to Wes,

5:06

that line said a lot. You

5:08

see, in Tennessee, police have a few options

5:10

when it comes to kids accused of minor offenses

5:13

like misdemeanors. Depending on what

5:16

happened, they can arrest a kid or

5:18

maybe just issue a citation with a

5:20

notification for the kid to show up in juvenile

5:23

court for a hearing on another day, or they

5:25

can

5:26

do nothing. Just send the

5:28

kid home with a stern talking to the

5:31

police have discretion. But

5:34

this line that Wes found referencing

5:37

a judicial requirement, requiring

5:39

kids to be arrested and prohibiting

5:41

police from siding and releasing,

5:43

it seemed to be saying the police

5:46

had only one option, arrest

5:49

the kid. Wes was stunned.

5:52

So here we've

5:54

got a government police

5:56

agency that pins

6:00

not just the Hobgood situation

6:03

on this judicial policy, but

6:06

every single kid in Rutherford County who

6:09

is charged with a delinquent offense is

6:13

arrested and they're subject to

6:15

this policy. So immediately,

6:18

I feel

6:20

like I'm onto something, right? Like

6:23

I'm not taking crazy pills because

6:26

literally everyone is getting arrested and

6:28

it is not limited

6:32

to the cases I've personally handled. To

6:36

Wes, the whole thing seemed illegal

6:39

and perfect for a big lawsuit.

6:41

I just remember being giddy like

6:44

a kid, you know? Like this sentence,

6:46

this is fucking bonkers that this

6:49

exists. And as

6:51

for the judicial requirement, Wes

6:53

knew immediately who was behind it. That's

6:56

just Davenport, right? Davenport.

6:59

Meaning, judge Davenport. There's

7:02

no question that it could be anybody else. Two

7:07

and a half years earlier, when Wes first

7:09

started taking cases in Rutherford County,

7:11

he'd done it because his buddies had told him, there's

7:14

always work in juvenile court. At

7:16

the time, he hadn't thought about why that might

7:18

be, but the longer he worked

7:20

there, the why seemed

7:23

like a more and more important question. And

7:25

now finally, he felt like he was on

7:27

the verge of answering it. From

7:30

Serial Productions and the New York Times, I'm

7:32

Merriba Knight.

7:33

And this is the kids of Rutherford

7:36

County. This is three.

7:38

Would you like to see the game?

10:00

lawsuit, something much larger

10:02

than just this Hobgood mess. I

10:04

remember being super, super,

10:07

super excited about it and just

10:09

couldn't wait to talk to Mark

10:12

about it. I wasn't very

10:15

enthusiastic about it. Mark

10:18

didn't share Wes's eagerness. I

10:20

wasn't enthusiastic at all, you know, because

10:23

Wesley would have ideas a lot. When

10:26

someone were not very good, you know, and

10:28

he'd bring them to me and I'd look at him and I'd try to, he'd

10:30

get very excited and I'd try to calm down and all that

10:32

stuff and I thought this was another one of those. Mark

10:36

felt they had a better chance focusing on

10:38

a class action lawsuit related to solitary

10:40

confinement. They'd already gotten a favorable

10:43

ruling on that issue.

10:44

They should spend their time on that. So

10:47

he waved Wes off.

10:48

But Wes,

10:49

he was still convinced, there's

10:51

got to be something here. He

10:54

figured if Mark doesn't want to help me,

10:56

I'll find someone who can. So he

10:58

spoke to a lawyer he really respected who'd done

11:01

some important cases involving police

11:03

misconduct, a guy named Kyle

11:06

Mother said, Kyle's a good lawyer. He'll

11:09

tell you so. And that's not all

11:11

he'll tell you.

11:12

I mean, like, you know, I am a very good

11:15

looking man. I'll just say that to

11:17

you. That's how I would describe it.

11:20

In juvenile court is actually when I first started

11:22

being compared to Bradley Cooper. As

11:27

you can hear, Kyle has a lot of confidence

11:30

and for pretty good reasons. For one, he

11:32

actually does look like Bradley Cooper. And

11:35

two, he's won some big civil rights

11:37

cases in Tennessee. And even though Kyle

11:39

told me he found Wes to be, quote,

11:42

very, very, very, very,

11:44

very green. Five veris. This

11:48

case was too good to pass up. You

11:50

know,

11:50

I just I just want it. You know,

11:52

like I want in on that. And I want

11:54

to be part of that. And I wanted to, you know, have

11:56

a high profile case that that felt important.

11:59

seem like a moneymaker? Yeah, but

12:02

not like massive money, but like good

12:04

money.

12:07

Kyle laid out a plan for Wes.

12:10

Let's first file a lawsuit on behalf

12:12

of one of the hop good clients. Then

12:14

maybe through discovery in that case, we

12:16

can find evidence that Judge Davenport

12:19

really is telling police to arrest all

12:21

kids in a way that violates state

12:24

law. So in July 2016, the

12:26

lawyers filed a lawsuit. And

12:29

a few months later, they got their first big round

12:31

of discovery, an email link

12:33

to a bunch of documents, internal

12:36

memos from the judge, the jail, the

12:38

sheriff's office and the police. As

12:41

they started reading through the documents, they

12:43

quickly found exactly what they were looking for,

12:46

a series of policy memos written

12:48

by Davenport to law enforcement

12:51

about arrests. One memo

12:53

said even kids accused of the most minor

12:55

offenses, things like skipping school,

12:58

smoking cigarettes or breaking curfew

13:01

should be quote, taken into custody

13:04

and transported to the juvenile detention

13:06

center. There was no other

13:08

option, no notice to show

13:10

up in court at a later date, nothing.

13:14

The police had to arrest kids. Wes

13:17

couldn't believe it was written down so starkly,

13:20

just there in black and white. I

13:23

remember thinking, how stupid

13:26

could you possibly be to put

13:28

this kind of a thing in

13:31

writing in simple terms and

13:33

then send it out to

13:36

a bunch of law enforcement agencies because it

13:38

immediately to me appeared

13:41

to be illegal in

13:45

excess of her jurisdiction,

13:47

borderline criminal, because

13:53

you're directing law enforcement officers

13:55

to commit mass illegal arrests

13:58

of children. This

14:00

explained

14:00

so much

14:02

why Rutherford County's police were arresting

14:04

so many kids. But it didn't

14:06

explain everything Wes had been seeing.

14:10

Remember, for over two years Wes

14:12

had been in court, waving around the state's

14:14

detention statute, complaining that

14:16

his clients were getting jailed when they shouldn't

14:19

be. Tennessee law was really

14:21

clear and narrow about when a kid

14:23

could be locked up, generally for only

14:26

the most serious charges and circumstances.

14:29

With the memos, Wes now understood

14:32

why these kids were being arrested and brought

14:34

to jail for processing. But

14:36

why were the county's juvenile jail staff

14:38

also locking these kids up instead

14:41

of sending

14:41

them home?

14:43

Well Wes found the answer to

14:45

that was also written down in black

14:47

and white. Come to find

14:50

out that Lynn Duke just like wrote the policies,

14:52

you know, they got rubber stabbed and implemented.

14:55

Wes is referring here to Lynn Duke,

14:58

the woman Davenport appointed to run the jail.

15:01

For years the jail had an informal

15:04

system for its intake process. If

15:06

a jail staffer wasn't sure what to do with a kid,

15:09

put them in jail or let them go, well

15:12

they could call administrators like Duke

15:14

or even Davenport who would tell

15:16

the jail staff what to do with the kid. Lynn

15:19

Duke declined to talk to me for this story,

15:22

but in a deposition she said the problem

15:24

with this informal system was that

15:26

it was exhausting. Jail

15:29

staff had just too

15:30

many questions for administrators like her,

15:32

especially after work hours.

15:35

So in 2008 Duke and her team put

15:37

together a new intake policy called

15:39

the filter system, a quote guideline

15:42

jail intake officers could refer

15:44

to when deciding to keep a kid or

15:47

release them. It was

15:49

a two-column chart. On one side

15:52

was when to release, on the other

15:54

was when to hold, i.e. hold

15:56

a kid in jail. But under that

15:59

section many

15:59

of the reasons listed were in direct violation

16:02

of actual Tennessee law.

16:04

For instance, this so-called

16:07

filter system said kids would

16:09

be held any time a

16:10

victim alleged an injury, even

16:12

just a scratch, a kid could get jailed.

16:16

The most disturbing category, though, was

16:19

also the most vague, and it

16:21

echoed something West had heard a lot in Davenport's

16:23

courtroom. According to the filter

16:26

system, any kid would be held

16:29

if they were considered, quote, a

16:31

true threat.

16:33

That's the line. That phrase,

16:36

true threat, if deemed

16:38

true threat to themselves or

16:40

the community, they could detain them for anything,

16:43

regardless of what the charge was. But

16:45

nowhere in the jail's manual did it actually

16:47

say what a true threat was.

16:50

There was no definition. It was up

16:52

to the ranking jail staff to decide whatever

16:54

that phrase meant. So

16:57

this true threat analysis

16:59

was the made-up

17:02

sort of standard that they could use to detain

17:05

a lot of kids that shouldn't be detained.

17:08

West didn't know

17:09

just how many kids had been wrongly arrested

17:11

over the years because the police followed Davenport's

17:14

memos, or how many kids were wrongly

17:16

jailed by Lynn Duke's filter system.

17:19

So just to get a sense of how big this

17:21

could be, he went into his own files

17:24

to look back at all the kids he'd represented.

17:28

So what I did was I sat

17:30

down in my office, and

17:32

about a third of my files

17:35

ended up as, you

17:37

know, these people have claims. From

17:40

what West could see, about a third of his

17:42

old clients were either arrested or

17:44

detained illegally, some both.

17:47

And he was just one lawyer out of a dozen

17:49

or so who regularly worked at the court.

17:51

Plus,

17:52

West had only been there for two years. The

17:55

filter system had been on the books for eight.

17:58

Davenport had been on the bench. for

18:00

almost 20. How

18:02

many kids were caught up in this?

18:05

Um, I was 16, yeah. Was

18:08

when I was 14 years old. 15 years

18:10

old. 9th grade. I was like 11 or 12. I

18:13

got to 12 years old the first time I got arrested.

18:16

How old were you? Seven.

18:20

Oh my God.

18:22

I talked to 25 people, now

18:24

adults, who told me about being arrested

18:27

or locked up as kids in Rutherford County.

18:30

I had gotten to a farted school. We

18:32

went in a store and

18:35

decided we were gonna steal sunglasses

18:37

in magazines.

18:38

I just ran away. I

18:40

ran away. I spray painted a penis

18:43

on a wall. The

18:46

kid named Zeb was in 9th grade

18:48

when he got charged with petty theft for taking

18:50

a portable speaker from his grandma. I

18:53

remember sitting on my bed and I hear a knock at the door

18:55

and I kinda go towards the door.

18:57

And then all of a sudden they come

18:59

in and they said, Mr. Smotherman, you're under arrest for

19:01

theft and put your hands behind your back.

19:04

And I asked them, I said, man, how long am I gonna

19:06

be arrested for this? He said, for a year, for

19:08

all I care.

19:11

Grace, 16, was at a

19:13

party with some friends. We were just sitting on

19:15

the couch when all of a sudden we hear a knock

19:17

at the door and we go

19:20

to the door and it was the police and they

19:22

came and they arrested us.

19:25

They said it was a noise complaint, it was why they came.

19:28

But then they saw that there were alcohol

19:29

bottles and no

19:31

adults present. So the police arrested

19:34

Grace and her friends for underage

19:36

drinking.

19:37

And there was Thomas,

19:40

the fifth grader, arrested for truancy. I

19:42

didn't wanna go to school and my mom

19:44

drove me up there. Like, you gotta go to school.

19:47

And I got out to walk up

19:50

to the school and I tried to turn around

19:52

and run towards you. And I remember I was crying.

19:55

I was like, I don't wanna go here. I

19:57

remember the principal, he grabbed

19:59

me. me and threw me in a chair and

20:01

set on me until the cops came.

20:04

So he put you in a chair and he

20:06

sat on you? He

20:08

literally sat on me and

20:10

grabbed my hands until

20:13

the police showed up and then

20:15

they arrested me that day.

20:20

Brandon, the seven-year-old,

20:21

was horsing around with

20:23

his older brothers in a vacant duplex

20:26

and they made some holes in the drywall. Sometime

20:29

after that, the police came to their house.

20:32

My mom said that

20:35

they weren't going to take me in,

20:37

but since they thought

20:40

I had

20:41

contributed to what was done to the

20:43

house, they were like, well, he

20:45

needs to learn his lesson. It's

20:52

varied as the reasons for

20:54

the arrest were. The people I spoke

20:56

to were usually thrown into the back of a police cruiser,

20:59

often in handcuffs and taken to the

21:01

same place. So they

21:03

arrested us

21:04

and took us to

21:07

the juvenile detention center.

21:10

The cop, she said that, you

21:13

know, in normal instances, she would

21:15

call our parents and have them come

21:17

pick us up, but she

21:19

wanted to teach us a lesson. So

21:21

she was going to keep us in there until Monday

21:23

and this was a Friday night.

21:26

So he cuffed

21:28

us and gave us a ride down to the

21:30

juvenile detention center, which as

21:32

you know is like a real

21:34

deal, kind of like almost

21:36

like a prison.

21:44

They were just looking at like my date of birth

21:46

and stuff and they were like, well, you're very young,

21:48

a little too young.

22:02

Once the jail staff decided to keep a kid,

22:04

here's what would happen next. They

22:07

started doing paperwork intake stuff, you know,

22:09

they mugshot, check you for injuries,

22:12

that kind of thing. The intake of it

22:14

was you have to strip down naked in front

22:16

of this weird, I'm sorry for the language,

22:19

weird ass man. He has to

22:21

watch you naked, take you

22:23

to either extremely cold shower or

22:25

extremely hot shower. So you

22:28

really feel like your integrity

22:30

is completely taking away from you?

22:32

Yeah, like just ice cold

22:34

water and just getting sexually

22:37

humiliated verbally by

22:40

a large police officer telling

22:42

me to like spread my cheeks, talking

22:45

about like my like penis shrinking. That's

22:48

gross. Yeah, tell me about it.

22:55

That was scary at first, you know, they

22:58

maybe put on the little jumpsuit and I remember

23:01

being so little, the jumpsuit didn't even fit

23:03

me. It was a short sleeve jumpsuit

23:05

that went past my elbows. I

23:08

never experienced something like that before at such

23:11

a young age. So it's like something new to

23:13

me. And

23:16

I was doing a lot of crying and stuff.

23:19

I was screaming too, because I mean,

23:21

I didn't know where I was. I didn't even know

23:23

I was in jail. I felt like

23:25

I didn't do nothing wrong. I don't deserve to be locked up. I'm

23:28

just mad. My mama died. I'm sad. I'm hurt.

23:31

Now she'll be trying

23:31

to help me. So I'm just locking me up. And

23:41

that's yourself. You have toilet, shower,

23:44

bench, bed, nothing.

23:47

You did fall asleep. You have to stand in corners.

23:51

You

23:51

don't get any books and you're forced to

23:53

sit up all day long. You

23:55

can do push-ups, set-ups. You

23:58

need to work out. But... Other than that,

24:00

if you lay down, they come yell at you, threaten

24:02

to like yank you up and then

24:05

put you on lockdown.

24:09

Lockdown, you might remember, was

24:11

the county's term for solitary confinement.

24:15

Fifteen-year-old Quinterious Frazier was

24:18

once put on lockdown for eight days

24:20

straight. Like, I'm

24:22

sitting in there just looking at myself, thanking

24:26

a lot of crazy bad thoughts.

24:29

Like, I wanted to really take my life

24:31

because I'm in there and I'm just cold

24:34

and I'm just stressed and then it got to the point where when

24:36

I started thinking those thoughts, I would read the Bible

24:39

because that's all I had was a Bible.

24:44

Kids told me about their struggles to get

24:46

their basic needs met. Here's

24:48

Grace, the girl arrested for underage

24:51

drinking.

24:52

While I was there, I started my period

24:55

and they refused to give me any kind of tampons

24:58

or pads or anything. So I

25:00

basically sat in a bloody

25:02

jumpsuit for two full

25:04

days while I was there.

25:06

Dylan was 15 years old when

25:08

he went to jail. It was the first

25:10

time he'd ever been in trouble with the law. I

25:13

had asked him for my medication. They weren't going to give me that. They

25:15

weren't going to give me my retainer, which you know is one thing

25:17

because that's metal, but

25:18

my psychiatrist prescribed

25:21

medication for my bipolar disorder and

25:23

my depression. And so

25:25

there's just a lot of constant

25:28

anxiety and stuff. And so to be in there without this

25:30

medication, now I'm manic depressive

25:32

in this cell. And that's

25:35

either got you bouncing off the walls or wanting

25:37

to sleep all day and you can't do either of them. You're stuck

25:39

in a box. And so it's a real,

25:41

it's almost like a four day panic attack.

25:46

I remember on the fourth day, I was starting

25:48

to get really manic and out of control. At

25:55

some point, the kids will go before

25:57

judge Davenport for their hearing.

25:59

find out if they'd be released or

26:02

stay in jail even longer.

26:04

They had us

26:08

shackles on our feet, so our arms

26:11

going into court.

26:12

I just remember staying in there and

26:14

I'm pretty sure I had hank, I guess they're

26:16

not hankups up there around your feet, but

26:18

shackles. Oh, the shackles. Yeah,

26:20

around our feet.

26:22

And our parents were there and all my friends'

26:24

parents were there and they had all four of us come out

26:26

there. So obviously,

26:28

just

26:30

had been in there for two days and been crying

26:32

and looking a

26:34

mess and I

26:36

was just embarrassed. What

26:41

do you remember about the judge? She

26:44

called our parents up and made

26:46

them stand in a single file

26:49

in front of her and said that

26:51

because of what they were doing as parents, that

26:54

this was the problem with Rutherford County.

26:56

She treated us like we were beneath her, you

26:58

know, that there were kids like us running

27:00

around the street. She treated us like we were

27:02

scum.

27:03

The one thing I remember

27:05

she said is that I was a threat

27:07

to myself and my society. Yeah,

27:10

she told me that I was a menace to society.

27:13

I was deemed infamous, is

27:15

what she called me. I think she had a gavel

27:17

to admit it, that you're staying

27:20

in juvenile so I didn't see that to take

27:22

you out. Something

27:23

about that? I wouldn't see Rutherford County

27:25

again until I was an adult, out of her courtroom.

27:36

As for seven-year-old Brandon, Judge

27:38

Davenport sent him back to jail for

27:40

another week. For

27:43

me, I feel like it was like a dream that

27:46

never happened, but it actually happened.

27:57

The

28:00

arrest policy and the filter system,

28:02

Wes knew they had the makings of a massive

28:05

lawsuit, just the kind of case

28:07

he'd been dreaming of. These

28:09

policies have been in the books for years,

28:12

and now seeing just how many of his own clients

28:14

were affected, it didn't take much

28:16

imagination to ponder the scope of it all.

28:19

Four, five, 6,000 kids maybe,

28:23

all of whom were now potential plaintiffs.

28:26

So I started calling those kids

28:29

and their parents, and just telling

28:31

them, hey, I'm

28:32

Wesley, good to talk to you again, I hope

28:35

things are going well. Would you like to see

28:37

the government?

28:38

When a handful said yes, that they were

28:40

prepared to be the named plaintiffs for a class

28:43

action, that's when things got real.

28:46

Even Mark, who dismissed all this early on,

28:49

was by now fully on board.

28:51

Like this was now a huge case, it

28:53

was a huge case.

28:55

A case that could finally hold the county responsible

28:58

for its juvenile justice system, and

29:00

make a difference in the lives of the kids there.

29:04

But let's be honest, these guys are also

29:06

plaintiffs lawyers, and they also saw

29:08

the potential for their lives to change.

29:11

We did think that we were going to make

29:14

more money than we'd ever made on anything, because

29:16

it was such, it seemed so obvious

29:19

to us that this

29:21

was a gross deprivation

29:24

of the civil rights of thousands of children,

29:27

and how could that not be worth millions of dollars?

29:30

$30 million, I think is what Wesley and I would throw around.

29:33

The guys now knew, with all their hard

29:35

evidence, that they had a powerful story

29:38

to tell in court about the illegal

29:40

things Rutherford County and Judge Davenport

29:43

had been doing to kids.

29:44

But for years, Judge Davenport

29:47

had been telling her own story, and

29:49

that story felt a different kind

29:52

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29:54

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W-G-N-S, ZipRecruiter. Well

30:54

good morning to you. Welcome into the action

30:56

line from W-G-N-S. This

30:59

morning we're talking about the Rutherford County juvenile

31:01

court system. Judge Donna

31:03

Scott Davenport is our guest this

31:05

morning. Good morning to you. Good morning

31:08

Bart. Good to have you with us today. Thank

31:10

you. I always loved it. Judge Davenport

31:12

wouldn't talk to me, so I wasn't able to ask her directly

31:15

any of my questions which were all

31:17

variations of the same question.

31:19

Why? Why order law

31:22

enforcement to arrest children when they shouldn't?

31:24

Why allow jail staff to lock them up when

31:26

they shouldn't? But there was a place

31:29

where for 10 years Judge Davenport

31:31

shared many of her views on all things juvenile

31:34

court.

31:35

W-G-N-S radio, Rutherford

31:38

County's good neighbor station. On

31:40

the first Tuesday of every month she could

31:42

be heard chatting with host Bart Walker

31:44

III. It's a sunny day out

31:47

today. It

31:47

is. Even though if we got a little snow coming in that's

31:49

okay. We're always open for business down on

31:51

South Church Street. I've

31:54

listened to 70

31:54

hours worth of these radio broadcasts

31:56

and in the process I've

31:59

come to understand some.

31:59

of Judge Davenport's worldview.

32:02

A worldview with a healthy dose of nostalgia

32:05

for a simpler time. We don't

32:07

have that old traditional

32:10

family, sit down at dinner, how was

32:12

your day? A time when society

32:14

had better values. Then we continue

32:17

to go downward with our

32:19

morals and our ethics. Back

32:21

before things like cell phones and video

32:24

games infiltrated kids' lives. And

32:26

every year, whatever would be new with the

32:28

video games and now we've got the phones and

32:30

the games, with that comes increasing

32:33

aggression. And I've been here so

32:35

long that I do see the increase

32:38

of our violence.

32:39

The main thing that I... During the years Davenport

32:41

had this radio segment, juvenile

32:44

crime in Rutherford County was actually

32:46

on the decline. But statistics

32:48

be damned. According to Judge Davenport,

32:51

things were getting worse every year. And

32:53

she was seeing younger and younger kids coming

32:55

into her courtroom.

32:57

We are having younger children

32:59

that need assistance. And

33:02

we do not have programs for

33:04

children, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7.

33:11

And we are looking at... I've

33:13

locked up one 7-year-old in 13 years and

33:16

that was a heartbreak. But 8

33:19

and 9-year-olds and older are

33:21

very common now.

33:22

That's scary. I mean, that

33:25

sounds like kindergarten.

33:28

Part of the problem was parenting. Judge

33:31

Davenport said many parents were simply

33:33

unwilling to do what was necessary to

33:35

keep their kids safe. You need to be

33:39

monitoring what they do. Do

33:42

not let them lock their bedroom

33:44

door and not allow you in. And

33:47

some parents, they'll say, well, what do you

33:49

want me to do? Well, take the door off the

33:51

hinges. Oh, well, that's a good idea. Well,

33:54

they don't need to be driving. Well, disable

33:57

the car. Take the car keys. Don't

33:59

have your keys.

33:59

that where they can take them, common

34:02

sense. We need a Department

34:05

of Common Sense.

34:07

Listening to these

34:09

radio segments, it sounded to me

34:12

that Judge Davenport saw herself as

34:14

part of that Department of Common Sense,

34:17

waging a battle against decline in civility

34:20

and morals, the increase in entitlement

34:22

and aggression. And the detention

34:25

center was a vital tool for keeping

34:27

kids from going down that path.

34:29

And they know if they break the law, there's gonna

34:31

be a consequence.

34:31

And they're gonna

34:33

be detained, possibly. They're gonna be

34:35

held for a while, and they are gonna be held accountable

34:37

for their actions. And there is no more

34:40

slap on the wrist. They're going

34:42

to see some consequence.

34:44

And I'd like to think that that's

34:46

part of it, and that we will

34:49

use our facility to detain children.

34:56

Davenport

34:56

bragged about the detention center all the time.

35:00

The great staff there, the great programming, how

35:03

state-of-the-art it was. She called

35:05

it a dream come true, and even opened it

35:07

up for tours. You have

35:09

an open house coming up soon. Yes, you know how

35:11

we're always excited about our open house, and

35:13

you can bring your family. We

35:17

do like to wet your whistle there and

35:19

give you a little piece of cake. We'll have two tours. As

35:22

for the kids who were held in the jail, Davenport

35:25

liked to refer to them as hers,

35:27

I'm seeing a lot of aggression

35:29

in my nine and 10-year-olds. In

35:32

fact, her role as a stand-in parent

35:34

was pretty explicit.

35:36

You know, in watching you, you

35:39

act like a proud parent.

35:40

Well, I've been called the mother of the county,

35:43

so... That is a good decision. I

35:45

am, I'm very proud of them, because that's

35:48

my job, is to push them and shove

35:50

them and fuss at them to know

35:52

what's important and shape and help

35:54

shape their lives and have them a future. Listeners

35:57

to the radio show would sometimes

35:59

call in.

35:59

to praise Judge Davenport's work. We

36:02

just wanted to call in and tell

36:04

Judge Davenport how much we appreciate her

36:06

and wanted to thank her for everything she does.

36:09

You're a very good judge. You're very fair. How

36:11

you doing? Very good job. I'm very impressed. All

36:13

right, hello. This is Butch Campbell. I just want to

36:15

say thank you for your years of

36:17

leading the young people of this county. You've done

36:20

a heck of a job.

36:21

What I love doing every day. Well,

36:23

I know it is. It's

36:26

like in one reality, there were the lawyers,

36:28

Wes and Mark and now Kyle.

36:31

So we're saying the way you've been running this

36:33

operation is against the law. And

36:36

it's pretty clear.

36:37

The state says exactly when to arrest

36:40

and jail a kid. And you and the county

36:42

have ignored what the state says and

36:44

made up your own rules. But

36:47

on the other side was Judge Davenport,

36:49

who is confident

36:50

in her own criteria. And then you look

36:52

to see if they are a risk to themselves

36:55

or a risk to the community. And

36:57

if there is a finding that they're a risk, then

37:00

we can hold them. We don't

37:03

use our facility as punishment. We use

37:05

it only as attainment if they're

37:07

a risk to themselves or a risk

37:09

to our community. If they pose a risk

37:11

to themselves or this community, we will utilize

37:14

our detention facility. A special

37:16

thank you to Judge Donna Scott

37:18

Davenport for joining us this

37:20

morning. We're

37:24

gonna

37:24

check on the weather and we'll be back.

37:38

In the spring of 2017, nine months after Wes, Mark

37:41

and Kyle filed

37:43

their lawsuit, they

37:45

got their chance to put the two versions of

37:47

reality side by side in

37:49

a different courtroom where a different judge

37:52

presided. It was a preliminary

37:54

injunction hearing where they would present

37:56

all the evidence and say to

37:57

a federal judge,

37:59

hey. While we know this lawsuit

38:01

is still going to take a while to resolve, in the

38:03

meantime, Rutherford County is illegally arresting

38:06

and jailing kids. Can you force

38:09

their hand? Make them stop using

38:11

these policies immediately? The

38:14

attorneys had uncovered a hefty bit of evidence

38:16

to present. The memo is outlining

38:18

the arrest policy, the jail's manual

38:21

laying out the filter system. There

38:23

was also some striking data from the county

38:25

and the state that they found too, from

38:27

just a few years before. It

38:29

suggested that Rutherford County had

38:32

been jailing kids at 10 times

38:34

the state average.

38:36

They also had depositions.

38:38

Judge Davenport in a deposition told

38:40

the lawyers that when she'd issued her arrest

38:42

memos, it was never her intention to take

38:45

away police discretion. But

38:47

a sheriff's deputy in his own deposition

38:49

said essentially, well, that's how his

38:51

department interpreted Davenport's memos. It

38:54

was why they arrested kids for even the most minor

38:56

offenses. It's our policy

38:58

to obey court orders and not being

39:00

contempt of juvenile court, the deputy

39:03

told the lawyers. Jail

39:05

staffers testified that they were

39:07

trained in the filter system, that

39:09

they could be quizzed on it when up for a promotion

39:12

or disciplined for not applying it

39:14

as written.

39:15

One said, we

39:17

were told when in doubt hold them

39:19

because

39:19

it's better to hold a kid that should have been released

39:22

than release a child that should have been held.

39:25

Now

39:28

inside the stately halls of Nashville's federal

39:30

courthouse, the federal judge would

39:32

weigh the lawyer's evidence and he

39:34

would decide what reality they were living

39:36

in. Judge Davenport's

39:39

or the law's. Here's Wes. It

39:42

was surreal. Like

39:44

I remember I'm waiting

39:46

outside the courtroom before the hearing

39:49

is to begin and

39:51

the county's lawyers are there and

39:53

a couple of the other witnesses are there. And

39:55

then suddenly Judge Davenport

39:58

walks up and I'm like. Oh

40:00

my god, there she is. And

40:03

it was such a different context from

40:06

how I had previously encountered

40:09

her. And like, she was here to have

40:11

to give an accounting for

40:14

the policies that she

40:16

had implemented at this place. And

40:18

so I was at

40:21

the council table and I only examined

40:24

one of the witnesses during that hearing, partially

40:27

because Kyle was not impressed with my

40:30

deposition skills. But

40:33

I watched as he examined

40:37

Duke. Again, Duke

40:40

being Lynn Duke, who ran the jail

40:42

and put together the filter system. As

40:45

he examined Duke and Judge

40:47

Davenport and in

40:50

that really thorough, meticulous

40:53

way, like he wouldn't let them avoid a question

40:56

and if they tried to just talk around

40:58

his questions, he would just ask it again

41:01

and nail them down to

41:03

the reality of what

41:06

they had been doing here and of the reality

41:09

that this two pages of

41:11

statutory mandate

41:14

that I had been carrying on

41:16

about years before that, they

41:19

now had to explain why

41:22

they weren't following it. And

41:25

they simply couldn't. Judge

41:27

Davenport, she just could

41:29

not give a straight answer that

41:32

made any sense about why

41:34

that statute wasn't being followed. And

41:38

in that context, everyone

41:41

in the room realized how absurd it

41:43

was that the

41:45

statute wasn't being followed. So it was just the

41:48

inverse of the

41:51

review of the statute in the juvenile court.

41:56

the

42:00

statue

42:00

around, telling her you're not following

42:03

it.

42:04

And now

42:06

she's on the witness stand in a federal

42:08

court

42:10

and she's having to explain why

42:12

she didn't follow it. Yeah, it was

42:14

so satisfying. I

42:17

remember grinning. Like I remember just feeling

42:19

my cheeks from like the

42:22

musculature attention of me grinning for

42:25

the entire time she was trying

42:28

to give some cohesive

42:30

explanation for the detention

42:33

policy. And at

42:35

first I was like worried, is there something

42:37

we don't know? Is there some

42:39

like brilliant legal strategy they're gonna

42:41

employ here today that we just didn't

42:43

see coming? And whenever

42:46

she started talking about the

42:49

safety of the kids in the community as

42:52

the standard, I knew

42:54

that like this

42:56

was it. She was going down. And

42:59

I remember looking up at Judge Waverly Crenshaw

43:02

as a very imposing

43:05

intellect and figure. And

43:08

I'm like watching him observe

43:11

her testimony. And I remember he held his

43:13

face with his hand and like his elbow

43:15

was down. He was taking notes. And

43:17

then at some point he just

43:20

set his pin down and put

43:22

his hands and crossed them in front of him and

43:25

didn't take any more notes. And

43:27

I was thinking, that's a good

43:29

sign that he's

43:32

already

43:33

made up his mind as to

43:35

the testimony that's being presented

43:37

by this witness.

43:39

Up until now, had you ever

43:43

contemplated what

43:45

Davenport's motivations were?

43:49

Yes. And we

43:51

knew that it was not that

43:54

she was somehow pocketing money

43:56

off of any of this. Like we knew that was not

43:58

what was happening. So the question

44:01

still remained like, why

44:03

do this? You know, what's

44:06

the benefit? But the

44:09

answer to that question, I believe, is just

44:11

power.

44:14

That this bureaucracy

44:17

that she was the chief

44:20

administrator over, this

44:23

was all kind of wrapped up in her identity.

44:27

Do you think she didn't understand

44:30

the statute, or do you think she cared

44:32

more about power than the statute? I

44:36

think that it is impossible

44:39

for her not to have understood the statute,

44:42

because I explained it to her

44:44

on dozens and dozens of occasions.

44:47

And I don't think she's dumb. I don't

44:49

think she's an idiot. It doesn't

44:51

take 170 IQ

44:53

to understand how that statute applies in

44:55

that context. And

45:01

I don't know what

45:04

exactly is in her mind. I just

45:06

know that that is not

45:09

a realistic possibility.

45:17

The hearing lasted only one day. And

45:20

then, the lawyers waited for a decision.

45:23

If Judge Crenshaw rejected their request

45:25

for an injunction, that could kill the

45:27

entire case. It would mean the lawyers

45:30

were out months of work and thousands

45:32

of dollars. Even more,

45:34

Rutherford County would likely continue to

45:36

jail kids at an extraordinary rate.

45:40

It took about a month until one day,

45:43

having just finished a medical appointment and

45:45

sitting in his car in the parking lot, West

45:48

got a notification. The

45:50

judge's ruling was in. Only

45:52

West couldn't read the order on his phone. lot

46:01

and I'm trying to use the voice dial to yell

46:03

at my car to call Mark down and I'm

46:07

just dying to get back to my office so

46:09

I can actually open the order

46:12

up and see for myself but Mark

46:14

picks up and he's already you know

46:16

he's got his hands on the actual

46:19

order and we're basically

46:22

like school children who've

46:25

just gotten a free holiday

46:27

or something I mean needless to say

46:29

they'd won we're screaming

46:32

like can you believe it we did it we did it blah

46:34

blah blah you know they're

46:37

so fucked I think we probably said that two

46:40

or three times at least they

46:43

are so fucked

46:47

judge Crenshaw found that the kids

46:49

were quote suffering irreparable

46:52

harm every day through Rutherford

46:54

County's a lethal detention of them

46:56

he ordered the county to stop using

46:58

the filter system immediately he

47:01

also said the arrest policy

47:03

likely violated state law but

47:06

he ruled it wasn't a constitutional issue so

47:09

it was out of his hand that

47:11

said police departments in the county eventually

47:14

stopped following Davenport's policy

47:16

anyway for West

47:22

he told me judge Crenshaw's ruling

47:24

was the best thing he'd ever read in his entire

47:27

life for so long he

47:29

complained about judge Davenport and

47:31

what her court and detention center were

47:33

doing to children the arrests

47:36

the jailings and for so long

47:38

he felt like he'd failed failed

47:41

to get anyone to see what he did now

47:44

finally his reality

47:47

had prevailed what had been

47:49

happening to the kids in Rutherford County

47:51

was wrong the

47:54

next step in the lawsuit

47:55

was to make the county pay for it

47:59

It became the Rougneba.

48:28

The Kids of Rutherford County

48:30

is a co-production of Serial Productions,

48:33

The New York Times, ProPublica,

48:35

and Nashville Public Radio. It

48:37

was reported by me, Mera Van Nite,

48:40

with additional reporting from Ken Armstrong.

48:43

The show was produced by

48:45

Danos Dumet, with additional production

48:47

by Michelle Navarro.

48:49

Editing from Julie Snyder

48:52

and Jen Guerra, along with Sarah Blustein

48:54

and Ken Armstrong at ProPublica,

48:56

and my colleague Tony Gonzalez at

48:58

Nashville Public Radio.

49:00

Additional editing from Anita Batagot

49:03

and Alex Colowith. The

49:05

supervising producer for Serial Productions

49:08

is N. Day Chubus, research

49:11

and fact checking by Ben Salen, with

49:13

additional fact checking by Naomi Sharpe.

49:17

Sound design, music supervision, and mixing

49:20

by CB Wang. The original

49:22

score for our show is from The Blasting

49:24

Company.

49:25

Susan Westling is our standards

49:28

editor, and legal review from

49:30

Dana Green, Alameen Suma,

49:32

and Simone Protis. The

49:34

art for our show comes from Pablo

49:37

Delcon. Additional

49:39

production from Janelle Peifer. Mac

49:42

Miller is the executive assistant for Serial.

49:45

Sam Dolnick is the deputy managing editor

49:47

of The New York Times.

49:49

Full thanks to Katie Mingel, Mike

49:52

Comite, Aaron Rees, Bianca

49:54

Gaver, Jordan McCarley, and

49:57

Rob Robinson. The

49:59

kids of Rutherford.

49:59

the original

50:14

organism.