MANCHESTER, Tennessee — The Georgia couple, whose five children were removed by the Department of Children’s Services after a traffic stop in Coffee County, did not regain custody after a juvenile court hearing Monday.
Deonte Williams and Bianca Clayborne were driving their five children from their Georgia home to a funeral in Chicago when they were pulled over by the Tennessee Highway Patrol on Feb. 17 for “darning tint and driving in the left lane without actively overtaking.” to the Tennessee Lookout, which first reported the story.
After the stop, Williams was charged with simple possession of a controlled substance, court records show. The Lookout reported that the charge was possession of less than five grams of marijuana. Clayborne was also eventually charged with simple possession, a misdemeanor.
A few hours after the stop, while Clayborne was at the Coffee County Justice Center to pawn Williams, the Department of Children’s Services took custody of all of the couple’s five children. The family is black and the case has drawn activists’ attention to whether race played a role in the traffic stops and the DCS case.
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On Monday, after a juvenile court hearing held more than a month after the children were removed from their parents, attorney Courtney Teasley said the children would not return home with their parents. Teasley, who is representing Clayborne on the possession charges, said Clayborne consented to a hair follicle test.
“The children are not being brought back today,” Teasley said outside the courthouse. “The mother has to undergo a hair follicle test.”
There were few additional details since juvenile court proceedings are confidential under Tennessee law. Teasley declined to say when the hair follicle test would be completed or when the couple would have to appear in juvenile court again. Both Clayborne and Williams had continued their criminal court dates through April 18.
The children include a four-month-old breastfeeding baby and four siblings, aged between two and seven, The Lookout reported.
DCS spokesman Alex Denis declined to speak specifically about the case, citing state law. But said the law is in place to protect the “best interests” and “anonymity” of children.
“We appreciate the public interest in the safety and well-being of these children,” said Denis. “That’s our main focus.”
On Friday, Senate Democrats, including Minority Leader Sen. Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis, urged DCS to return the children to the couple.
“No family is perfect, but an imperfection, like a simple marijuana charge, is no excuse for tearing a family apart,” Akbari said.
While the juvenile court case was closed to the media, the hearing drew DCS officials and caseworkers to the courthouse. Representatives from the Middle Tennessee social justice advocacy group also came out in support of Williams and Clayborne, calling for the children to be returned to their parents.
“I’m here today because DCS has been keeping children in offices and hallways, but has the courage to come in and say these children are in danger,” said Theeda Murphy, executive director of No Exceptions Prison Collective.
Murphy has criticized the state for efforts to shut down the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth, which she called DCS’s “watchdog agency,” and for legislation that would allow the state to put some juvenile offenders in the adult prison system .
“The state of Tennessee has no respect for black families,” Murphy said. “The state of Tennessee has no love for black children.”
Denis, the DCS spokesperson, said that the case managers handling the case “are from a variety of backgrounds” and that 35 percent of the DCS workforce is African American.
Reach Josh Keefe at jkeefe@tennessean.com.
