KNOXVILLE (LN) — A Tennessee federal judge has refused to let a state child-welfare supervisor walk away from a civil-rights lawsuit stemming from a 2023 traffic stop that ended with five children separated from their mother for fifty-five days, ruling that genuine factual disputes over what the supervisor knew — and when — must go to a jury.
U.S. District Judge Clifton L. Corker denied summary judgment to Dale Lynn, a Tennessee Department of Children's Services team leader, on claims that he knowingly acquiesced in the unconstitutional seizure of Bianca Clayborne's children, violated the family's substantive and procedural due process rights, and retaliated against Clayborne for refusing to cooperate with DCS workers — all while never leaving his phone.
The case began on the morning of February 17, 2023, when DCS received a Child Abuse Hotline report alleging Clayborne's children were drug-exposed as the family traveled through Coffee County, Tennessee. Case workers drove to the Coffee County Jail, where they asked Clayborne to provide a urine sample — a demand she tried to satisfy inside her vehicle because she was unwilling to leave her children alone with the DCS workers. When Clayborne eventually refused to continue speaking with DCS, directed the workers to leave her vehicle, and locked herself and the children inside, the removal machinery accelerated.
Lynn, who was not present at the jail and did not directly supervise any of the three DCS workers on scene, became involved through a rapid sequence of phone calls and text messages. At 12:39 p.m., his supervisor Kellie Lusk called him; the two spoke again for eighteen minutes at 12:44 p.m. and a third time at 1:08 p.m. At 12:56 p.m., DCS team leader Montana Medina texted Lynn, "This is a shit show." Lynn replied, "I'm hearing about it..."
The most consequential moment, Corker held, came at 1:09 p.m. — immediately after Lynn's second call with Lusk ended — when Lynn called Coffee County Investigator James Sherrill to ask him to assist with the situation at the jail. That call came more than twenty minutes before Lynn phoned Juvenile Court Judge Gregory Perry to seek judicial authorization. Sherrill told Lynn that law enforcement could not act without a valid court order. Lynn's response was to tell Sherrill a court order was being worked on.
Corker held that sequence — recruiting law enforcement before any exigency determination had been made — was the most significant fact supporting a causal connection between Lynn's conduct and the family's detention. The court described Lynn as not a passive bystander who happened to receive reports, but someone who participated in coordinating the removal, and noted that Lynn independently involved law enforcement to assist with removal before knowing whether exigent circumstances existed.
Lynn argued he was entitled to qualified immunity and that his only relevant act was the call to Judge Perry. Corker rejected both. On quasi-judicial immunity, the court held that the doctrine did not apply for two reasons: Lynn was not acting pursuant to a court order — he was the person seeking to obtain one — and, in any event, no valid written order ever issued before the children were taken, as Tennessee law requires removal orders to be in writing and Judge Perry issued none. On qualified immunity, Corker held that the clearly established inquiry could not be resolved without first determining what Lynn knew — a question for the jury, not the court.
The court did hand Lynn two partial wins: it dismissed the Fourth Amendment search claim, holding that the urine-sample demand occurred before Lynn had any knowledge of it, and dismissed the state-law false arrest and imprisonment claims, finding no evidence Lynn goaded or incited anyone to detain the family.
The children remained separated from their mother for the next fifty-five days.