Posted on 06/29/2005 9:15:01 PM PDT by SmithL
Get your paws off those panties.
That was Knox County Juvenile Judge Carey E. Garrett's message to Knox County Public Defender Mark Stephens Wednesday in the ongoing battle over whether juvenile detainees should be allowed to wear their own underwear.
Garrett ruled after a hearing in his court Wednesday that Stephens' office has no legal authority to represent two teenage girls in their complaint about the sharing of underwear at the Richard L. Bean Juvenile Service Center.
If the girls want to challenge detention center Superintendent Richard Bean's decision to scrap a policy that had allowed detainees to wear and keep as their own underwear provided by relatives, Garrett said the two teenagers could either file a civil rights lawsuit or a petition alleging they are the victims of neglect.
In either case, Stephens' office legally could not represent the girls, the judge ruled.
Knox County Chief Deputy Law Director John Owings praised Garrett's ruling as an appropriate restriction on the authority of Stephens' office.
"The public defender is limited by (law) in what he may do, and I believe the judge recognized that," Owings said.
The ruling did not sit well with Stephens, however.
"I respect Carey Garrett," he said. "Carey is, in my view, a wonderful judge, but I disagree with his ruling."
Stephens said Garrett's options for the girls - file a lawsuit or a petition - are "unrealistic" given their age.
The issue over underwear at the detention center, dubbed by Bean as "pantygate" began earlier this year when Assistant Public Defender James Owen filed a "motion for panties" on behalf of two girls who had been housed at the facility.
Owen argued that the girls had suffered psychological trauma as a result of sharing underwear.
Until recently, detainees could wear their own underwear if relatives supplied them. Bean complained that he wound up supplying underwear for the lion's share of detainees anyway. Allowing relatives to bring in underwear for others created a two-tier laundry system that was cumbersome for staff, he said.
So, he scrapped the policy and instead decided that all detainees would share underwear communal-style.
Although Owen had set out merely to get the judge to order Bean to allow his two clients to have their own underwear, he touched off a major battle when the Knox County Law Department stepped in to argue that the Public Defender's Office was overstepping its bounds.
Stephens pushed back, arguing that the county was wrong to try to limit the scope of his office's authority to only issues of guilt or innocence.
"There's no statute that imposes that kind of limitation on us," he said.
Garrett sided with the county, however. In his view, the beef over panties has no bearing on the delinquency case, and that would shut out Stephens' office, since the job of Stephens' staff is to represent poor people charged with crimes, the judge said.
Stephens and Owen asked Garrett to appoint a legal guardian for the two girls to help guide them in how to file a petition for neglect. Garrett declined, saying the battle over panties was "moot" since neither girl would be in detention by today.
One of the girls has since been sent to a drug treatment center in Chattanooga. The second girl is to be released into a treatment center today.
Stephens said the fight may not be over.
"We'll explore and consider what our options are," he said.
But at least they have plenty of orange chicken.
"One of the girls has since been sent to a drug treatment center in Chattanooga. The second girl is to be released into a treatment center today."
Seems to me that these girls have
more to worry about than the panties
they are wearing.
Hey, are you still in CA? I'm moving to Tennessee from Alexandria this month! I'll take care of things when I get there..lol
Let's see, I need a priority list..
girls panties
Senator Ford
Why Madison still aren't in jail
Property taxes
etc
I do miss the hills of East Tennessee.
They are amazing..the way you live in the clouds there. I wish we were settling there but we are passing through on to the Memphis area. When are you coming back?
I haven't finished California yet.
; )
LOL..okay, well "git-er-done" and come home soon!
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