Parents file lawsuit after 3 children arrested by Murfreesboro police

A mother and father has filed a lawsuit after their three children were arrested by Murfreesboro police on April 15, 2015.

All three were part of the controversial child arrests that made national headlines after some questioned the legality or policies that allowed it.

Six of 10 officers involved were recently disciplined after both an internal and external investigation was conducted into the arrests.

Zacchaeus and Lavonia Crawford are now suing five of those officers along with the city of Murfreesboro and Rutherford County.

The Crawfords claim the Civil Rights of their children were violated, and each child continues to suffer “great humiliation and embarrassment as a result of the arrests.”

They further say their children’s Fourth Amendments rights were violated due to false arrests and malicious prosecution.

The parents have named officers Crystal Templeton, Greg Walker, Scott Newberg, Clyde Adkison, and Steve Teeters as being directly responsible for those violations and the suffering thereafter.

According to the lawsuit, one child “suffered greatly from being handcuffed at her elementary school, led through the school by police, placed in a patrol car, and ultimately booked by officials of the Juvenile Detention Center without any probable cause for her arrest.”

The second child “has suffered greatly from being led from her elementary school by police, placed in a patrol car and ultimately booked by officials of the Juvenile Detention Center without any probable cause for her arrest, when in fact, she was not even present when the alleged incident took place and Officer Templeton knew or should have known that there was no evidence of her being present at the scene of the incident.”

And the third child “has suffered greatly from his arrest and booking at the Juvenile Detention Center. As with the other two children, there was no probable cause for his arrest in the first place.”

The Crawfords say all three continue to feel anguish due to their arrests and “further express continuing fear and anxiety associated with law enforcement personnel.”

The children have reportedly “suffered great mental anguish and emotional trauma as a result of the false arrest and malicious prosecution as instigated and directed by defendants.”

Zacchaeus and Lavonia Crawford are asking for damages and attorney’s fees, as well as a jury trial. Click here to read the full lawsuit.

They are not the first to file lawsuits in the case. One mother sued last July and more parents sued just last month.

Courtesy of WKRN Nashville’s News 2