A Black family from Georgia was pulled over in rural Tennessee for driving with 'dark tint and traveling in the left lane while not actively passing' Within hours, they had lost custody all five of their children, including a nursing baby tennesseelookout.com/2023/03/16/a-b… via @TNLookout
Highway patrol searched their car, finding 5 grams of marijuana - a misdemeanor in Tennessee. They arrested the dad, cited the mom and told her she was free to go with the kids That would prove to be false.
In the jail's parking lot, where the mom drove to post bond for her partner, she was confronted by 3 child services workers. They asked for a urine sample. She tried to give them one from the car - when she couldn't she was told the kids would be taken. She locked her car doors.
Officers put spike strips around the car. But they had no court order - yet. She wasn't detained. The mom took her kids inside to post bond. That's where officers & social workers circled her, each one walking away with a different child. The kids are 4 months, 2, 3, 5 and 7
Days later, in court, the parents took a urine screen. The dad: +THC; the mom: negative. They then took a hair follicle test that lit up for both of them: meth, fentanyl and other drugs. Both parents deny they took these drugs They were accused of severe child abuse
Rapid follicle tests are inadmissible in court, the county's own court administrator said. An expert says they are known to yield false positives. The test result in this case were the reason DCS gave to a judge that 'the children should be deemed to be severely abused'
Lawyers for the parents have subpoenaed the hair follicle test. But a DCS attorney told them it no longer exists. 'The court does not hold onto them,' the attorney emailed. The case is ongoing and open - there's been no final custody decision. The lawyers call this shocking.
There are more head-scratching details to this story. DCS stories are hard to pin down-state law bars them from saying much. Parents, traumatized, get details wrong, or lie. Here, court docs & DCS emails revealed more It's been a month since the traffic stop. Kids aren't home yet
A postscript: THP yesterday denied our request for dash- and body-came video of the traffic stop because it is part of an ongoing investigation. They also cited state law that bars release release of records identifying kids involved with DCS tennesseelookout.com/2023/03/16/ten… @TNLookout