Stanleys consider federal lawsuit
The family alleging it was unlawfully detained during the January 2015 search of its home has filed to dismiss the lawsuit it brought in Garland County Circuit Court earlier this year, but has intentions to file an action in federal court.
The motion for voluntary non-suit attorney Joe Churchwell filed Wednesday on behalf of the Stanley family seeks to dismiss the false imprisonment claim the Jan.
12 filing directed at the governor, Garland County and numerous state and county law enforcement officials. The motion requests that the family have the option of refiling the suit.
Churchwell said Wednesday that he intends to merge the false imprisonment claim with a civil rights lawsuit he plans to file in federal court. He said a possible federal filing would continue to name as defendants Garland County, Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Arkansas State Police Director Bill Bryant, state police Cpl. Russell Rhodes, Katherine Finnegan of the state police’s Crimes Against Children Division, CACD Commander Ron Stayton, Garland County Sheriff Mike McCormick, Chief Deputy of Enforcement Jason Lawrence and Investigator Terry Threadgill and Sgt. Mike Wright of the sheriff’s department.
Churchwell said a possible cause of action could be based on the state Department of Human Services contract worker that monitored the family after Hal and Michelle Stanley recovered custody of their minor-aged children.
They were removed from the family’s Treasure Isle Road residence after reports of abuse to the DHS child abuse hotline led to the Jan. 12, 2015, execution of a search warrant. An administrative law judge overturned for lack of evidence true findings of abuse and neglect connected to allegations that Hal and Michelle Stanley poisoned, struck and bruised their children.
Churchwell said earlier this month that the monitor DHS contracted to supervise the family for several months after the children were returned home had access to the house for a minimum of 20 hours a week, a condition Churchwell said the Stanleys complied with to get their children back.
“They put a stranger in the house to monitor them,” he said. “(The monitor) had the full run of the house, 24 hours a day.”
The complaint filed in January alleges Hal and Michelle Stanley, who was pregnant at the time, were forced to sit on the front porch of their home during the more than five-hour search conducted by “30 government agents.” It said the children were confined to the living room area before being taken to an ambulance and examined by a doctor without the consent of their parents.
Churchwell said Wednesday that the family wasn’t allowed to make phone calls during the search or answer numerous calls to the house. The warrant sought the chemical substance known as Master Mineral Solution and other substances that could endanger minors, but Churchwell said the reports to the child abuse hotline didn’t constitute probable cause for issuing the warrant.
“It’s an unreasonable search and seizure,” he said. “If you’re coming into my home based on hearsay or anonymous phone calls and remove my children, of course the Fourth Amendment applies.”
Churchwell said he doesn’t expect DHS to defend the Stanley’s appeal of 12 true findings of educational neglect if the petition for review he filed in March is granted. The filing was sealed at the request of DHS, Churchwell said.
He’s requested that the Garland County Circuit Court remand the appeal to the administrative law judge who refused to rule on educational neglect findings related to the Stanleys not registering six of their children as home-schooled with their local school district.
The judge overturned the abuse and neglect findings but said that the educational neglect aspects had already been settled during mediation Garland County Juvenile Judge Wade Naramore had ordered the Stanleys to enter into with DHS.