A Georgia mother whose five children were removed by the Department of Children’s Services for 55 days after a February 2023 traffic stop in Coffee County is suing several of the department’s employees and state and local law enforcement officers she says unlawfully seized her children.
The lawsuit claims that officers conducted an emergency court hearing in secret so that they could remove her children after officers found a small amount of marijuana in her car.
“The children are still suffering the effects of the family’s prolonged separation – and may never fully recover,” the lawsuit says.
On Feb. 17, 2023, Bianca Clayborne, Deonte Williams and their five children were driving from their home in Georgia to a funeral in Chicago when they were stopped shortly after 9:30 a.m. by the Tennessee Highway Patrol in Coffee County, Tennessee, for an alleged “slow poke” violation and possible window tint violation, the lawsuit says.
Four state troopers extensively searched the car and repeatedly interrogated both Clayborne and Williams throughout the two-and-a-half-hour traffic stop at a gas station off Interstate 24, according to the lawsuit.