She has said previously that she plans to run again next year for what would be an eight-year term.ĭavenport’s MTSU personnel file shows that when she taught a three-credit course on juvenile justice in the fall of 2020, she was paid $2,400. In 2000, she won election to the newly created position of Rutherford County juvenile court judge, a job she has held ever since, winning reelection two times. In 1998, she was appointed to be a juvenile court referee, a position akin to a judge. (Her profile is no longer online.) She passed the bar one year earlier, in 1995, on her fifth attempt, she told lawyers in a deposition. This year, Davenport’s LinkedIn profile said she had begun working as an adjunct at MTSU in 1996. But her personnel file, obtained through a public records request to the university, showed her being a part-time dispatcher, then a full-time clerk-typist, then a full-time secretary. In a sworn deposition in 2017, she said that while a student at MTSU she worked full time as a university police officer for two to three years. Davenport, in a monthly radio segment, has spoken frequently of her law enforcement background. She provided a written statement from the county’s mayor, Bill Ketron, which said in part, “I share our community’s concerns over a news story that was recently released involving Rutherford County’s juvenile justice system.” The mayor’s statement said that because of ongoing litigation in federal court, the county is “very limited in what can be discussed.”ĭavenport is a graduate of MTSU, where she earned associate’s, bachelor’s and master’s degrees, according to a university press release from 2015. On Wednesday, a Rutherford County spokeswoman said in an email that she had not yet had the opportunity to consult with Davenport about the interview request. The story chronicled how the county had illegally arrested and jailed children for years and in June settled a class-action lawsuit, agreeing to pay up to $11 million. On Friday, ProPublica published a detailed account, in partnership with Nashville Public Radio, about Rutherford County’s juvenile justice system, which Davenport oversees. She declined to be interviewed for our previous story. Donateĭavenport did not respond to a request for an interview sent Tuesday evening. In 2015, she was one of the university’s commencement speakers.įact-based, independent journalism is needed now more than ever. For many years, she taught a course on juvenile justice. These are our babies.”Īnd on Tuesday evening, four days after the story published, the president of Middle Tennessee State University notified faculty and staff that Donna Scott Davenport, a juvenile court judge at the heart of the investigation, “is no longer affiliated with the University.” Davenport had been an adjunct instructor at the school, which is based in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. A pastor, in his Sunday sermon in Nashville, said: “We can’t allow this madness to continue. In the days after ProPublica’s investigation of the juvenile justice system in Rutherford County, Tennessee, one state lawmaker wrote that she was “horrified.” Another called it a “ nightmare.” A third labeled it “unchecked barbarism.” A former Tennessee congressman posted the story about the unlawful jailing of kids and tweeted, “The most sickening and unAmerican thing I’ve read about in some time.” The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund called for a federal civil rights investigation. Sign up for Dispatches to get stories like this one as soon as they are published. “Campaigns, if you embrace them, can be a lot of fun,” he said.Įditor’s note: This story has been updated with additional information regarding Wendy DePaul’s disciplinary history with the Florida Bar.This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with Nashville Public Radio. He said he has enjoyed being on the campaign trail. Scionti boasts the support of Public Defender Julianne Holt, former Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn and former state Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink. Before she came to Florida, Ivanov also worked for a Maryland-based business law firm, according to her LinkedIn page. Her LinkedIn page notes that she worked for two years with the firm of Spano & Woody P.A., the law firm of U.S. She has been a lawyer in Florida for five years. It directed a reporter to her campaign website. A response to an email inquiry, which was signed “campaign committee,” said she had a busy schedule. Ivanov, 37, did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Tampa Bay Times. She then made a brief challenge to Judge Nick Nazaretian before switching again just before the qualifying deadline to challenge Scionti. Initially, she filed to run for Stephens’ seat.
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