Lawsuit: Boy handcuffed in police car for hours, jailed for days

A Farragut family whose middle school-aged son was kept handcuffed for hours in the back of a deputy’s car and held for days in the juvenile center because of the delay taking him there has filed a federal lawsuit against Knox County.

The civil lawsuit filed by Knoxville attorney Adam Strachn seeks to hold Knox County responsible for violations of the boy’s constitutional rights of due process and against unreasonable seizure.

Strachn declined to comment to Knox News about the lawsuit. The Knox County

Law Director’s Office and a spokesperson from the Knox County Sheriff ’s Office did not respond to a request for comment.

The boy was arrested on Sept. 16, 2022, according to the suit, after a Farragut Middle School teacher overheard him joking with friends about stealing a plane and crashing it into the school.

Later that day, the boy was taken out of class by a Knox County sheriff ’s deputy and taken to the principal’s office, where he met with the principal, another deputy and a school counselor, the suit said.

When he realized he was being interrogated, the boy declined to answer questions without his parents or an attorney present. The deputy removed his body camera and searched the boy’s backpack, the suit says.

The principal called the boy’s father, who said he was 15 minutes away and heading to the school. But the deputy told him his son would be arrested if he wouldn’t answer questions and taken to the juvenile detention center.

The boy’s father went to the juvenile center and waited for his son for hours, but his son did not arrive until the juvenile center was closing for the weekend. By then, there was no judge present to process the boy for release to his father. That meant the boy could not be arraigned until Monday, so he was locked up for the weekend.

The lawsuit says the deputy kept the boy in his patrol car for hours, in sight of the middle school’s lobby, until the transport van arrived. The van did not arrive at the detention center until three and a half hours after the boy was detained.

The boy spent 72 hours without seeing his parents or speaking to an attorney, the suit said.

“The wholly unreasonable delay ... was either an intentional act designed to prevent (the) minor from being arraigned on the date of his arrest or was a negligent act of laziness in ensuring the wellbeing of the detainee,” the suit added.

The family is asking for compensatory and punitive damages, court records show.