Ex-state lawmaker’s DHS lawsuit dismissed

High court reverses case’s initial ruling

FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit by former state Rep. Justin Harris against the state Department of Human Services.

Harris sued the agency after it sent an investigator to Shiloh Christian School in 2015 to look into allegations of maltreatment of his three children. The lawsuit in Washington County Circuit Court claimed the move by Human Services was a violation of the family’s constitutional rights.

The suit argued the Harrises should be allowed to pursue monetary damages against the state because the agency acted illegally.

Human Services asked for the case to be dismissed, claiming sovereign immunity. The motion to dismiss was denied by Circuit Judge John Threet, and the state appealed his ruling.

“The circuit court erred in denying DHS’s motion to dismiss based on sovereign immunity. Accordingly, we reverse the circuit court’s order and dismiss the case,” the Supreme Court’s majority opinion said.

The opinion noted that the court’s prior rulings have limited the exceptions to sovereign immunity when it concerns state actions. The court has limited its allow

able exceptions to lawsuits that sought relief from actions not money, the opinion said.

On April 29, 2015, a Human Services investigator entered Shiloh Christian School, a private school in Springdale, to interview the three minor children of Justin and Marsha Harris in the course of a child-maltreatment investigation, according to court documents.

The Harrises alleged that the agency exceeded the scope of the order of investigation because the order didn’t permit the interviews at the private school. The Harrises contended they voluntarily allowed the state to interview the children in their home.

They also alleged that Human Services violated the Fourth Amendment rights of themselves and their children. They sought monetary damages but no other relief.

The investigator entered the school on an order by juvenile court Judge Stacey Zimmerman directing the school to allow Human Services employees to interview the children. The school wasn’t specifically identified in the order.

The circuit court lawsuit claimed Human Services violated the constitutional rights of the Harris family to be free of unreasonable government intrusion into their lives.

Justice Josephine Linker Hart, in a dissenting opinion, questioned the court’s recent rulings on sovereign immunity, saying they have unleashed a “menace.”

“By dismissing the Harrises’ complaint, the majority has given the government a free hand to deceive the courts so that it can secure the assistance of an armed police officer and invade the privacy and security of the Harrises’ children,” Hart wrote. “I am not overstating the effect of today’s majority decision when I say that it gives new unbridled power to the state.”

Harris, a former state representative from West Fork, and his wife were investigated in early 2015 by Arkansas State Police on allegations of child maltreatment relating to a 5-year-old girl and her 3-yearold sister. It was alleged that the couple “re-homed” the adopted 5-year-old daughter to a man who was later convicted of raping her.

Harris said in 2015 that the publicity about his decision to re-home his adoptive daughters coincided with a call to the State Police Crimes Against Children Division, prompting an 83-day investigation into allegations of mistreatment by a babysitter.

The allegations were unsubstantiated, Harris said, adding that he and his wife were cleared of wrongdoing.

Harris runs a West Fork day care, Growing God’s Kingdom. He decided in June 2015 not to seek reelection to his seat in the Legislature.