By Katie Northcott, News Director
The Coffee County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office has leaked juvenile court dockets three times since September.
The most recent leak occurred on Thursday, Jan. 29 at 1:59 p.m. when Judge Gerald Ewell’s Feb. 3 docket was sent via email to over 100 email addresses. The list of email addresses included court reporters, attorneys, bond companies, and the Tullahoma News.
The two previous email leaks included Judge Greg Perry’s Sept. 8 juvenile court docket and Sept. 25 juvenile court docket. Those leaks occurred on Sept. 5 and on Sept. 19.
All three dockets included information such as notes about the case, the children’s names, and the children’s dates of birth.
The cases on the dockets included parental rights, delinquency, and neglect. The most recent leak also included cases of severely sexually abused children on the docket.
While Peterson Media Group has possession of redacted emails, we have chosen not to publish them here in the interest of protecting whatever confidentiality may still be maintained for the children involved.
According to Tennessee Code Annotated (TCA) 37-1-153, only the following are allowed access to juvenile court files and records:
- The judge, officers and professional staff of the court
- Parties to the proceeding and their counsel and representatives
- A public or private agency or institution providing supervision or having custody of the child under order of the court
- A court and its probation and other officials or professional staff and the attorney for the defendant for use in pretrial reports used to set bonds and preparing a presentence report in a criminal case in which the defendant is convicted and who prior thereto had been a party to the proceeding in juvenile court
- With permission of the court, any other person or agency or institution having a legitimate interest in the proceeding or in the work of the court
- The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation for the limited purpose of performing a background check prior to the transfer of a firearm
The TCA states that the intentional disclosure or dissemination of juvenile court files and records should be punished as criminal contempt of court.
According to the source who provided redacted copies of the emails to Peterson Media Group, “the only response from the Circuit Court Clerk’s office is ‘please disregard’. No one has been contacted that their information and confidentiality was leaked.” Peterson Media Group has been unable to independently verify if anyone involved in the leaks has been contacted.
A statement from Jenny Anthony, the Coffee County Circuit Court Clerk, is published below.
A member of the Juvenile Court staff inadvertently sent out a copy of Juvenile Court dockets to the wrong docket distribution group. Immediately upon being made aware of the mistake, I addressed the issue with my staff, the wrong docket distribution group, and made sure that appropriate controls were in place so that this mistake could not happen again. While we regret the mistake, given the changes made, it should never happen again.
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