A Washington, DC-based civil rights organization is taking Durham officials to court—for keeping them out of court.
Civil Rights Corps (CRC) filed a federal lawsuit against District Court Judge Doretta Walker and Sheriff Clarence Birkhead on Wednesday alleging that the officials have systematically blocked the organization’s staff from monitoring dependency court hearings. In these hearings, a judge may separate children from their parents or terminate parental rights. While several Durham judges preside over dependency hearings on a rotating basis, the lawsuit singles out Walker.
“Almost every single time that we have tried to observe court proceedings in Judge Walker’s courtroom, we’ve been kicked out without any chance to explain why we’re there, without any justification,” says Elizabeth Rossi, an attorney and the director of strategic initiatives at CRC.
According to the lawsuit, on at least seven occasions when CRC staff have shown up to observe dependency proceedings in Walker’s courtroom, sheriff’s deputies have escorted them out and posted “CLOSED HEARING” signs on the door. The organization’s attempts to obtain transcripts of the orders excluding their staff have been denied, the lawsuit states.
Court watching is the “bread and butter investigative tactic” of CRC’s work, according to Rossi. The lawsuit argues that blocking public access to dependency proceedings violates the First Amendment’s presumption of open courts.
“We’re not asking the federal court to say that as a blanket matter, the public must always be led into every single case,” Rossi says. “We’re asking for a presumptive right of access that can be qualified, that can be balanced against other important interests.”
CRC staff began monitoring Durham courtrooms last year after learning of ongoing issues with the county’s dependency court system. A 2022 report from Emancipate NC and Thrive Tribe NC described dependency proceedings as “slow-moving” and “inefficient,” with “unrelenting continuances.” The INDY has also reported on cases where parents say they’ve been penalized by the court for speaking publicly about their cases or joining protests about DSS policies.
Leading the local push for reform is Amanda Wallace, who spent a decade as a Child Protective Services investigator before founding Operation Stop CPS, a Durham organization that works with families navigating what Wallace calls the “family policing system.” Wallace quit her investigator job in 2020 after she was required to relocate a child she says she knew was safe at home.
“The majority of children coming into custody, it’s because of poverty-related concerns,” Wallace says. “If the public just came and sat inside the courtroom, they’d see—wait, so this child was taken away because the parent didn’t have childcare? Can we not figure that out without giving their child to somebody else?”
For parents in dependency court, Operation Stop CPS has become a source of crucial emotional support. Sharrocka Pettiford discovered the organization last year after leaving a hearing feeling defeated.
“I just remember feeling like it was over. I had nobody else to turn to,” says Pettiford, a Durham mother of seven who has been navigating dependency court proceedings since 2019. For years, she says, she sat through hearings feeling isolated—”in the lion’s den,” with “everyone against me, even my attorney.'”
“When my support is allowed to be there, when my community is allowed to be there, it’s everything,” Pettiford says. “Even though they’re sitting in the audience and I’m over here with my lawyer, I still feel that support and that love, and it means a lot.”
In proceedings over the past year, Pettiford says Walker sometimes closed the courtroom to community supporters for reasons she did not understand.
The lawsuit seeks to require Walker to provide an opportunity for advocates to be heard and make “specific, on-the-record, reviewable findings demonstrating that closure is essential to preserve higher values and is narrowly tailored to serve that interest” before excluding them from the courtroom. The lawsuit also seeks an injunction to stop Birkhead from enforcing what it calls “unconstitutional courtroom exclusion orders.”
Wallace sees the stakes in stark historical terms.
“The courtroom is the new auction block,” Wallace says. “What they’re trying to hide is the evolution of slavery. If you look back, there are pictures of the actual moment of Black mothers reaching their hands out as their children are being taken of them. If that image was happening in 2024, we would have public outrage. People would be upset. And so what they’ve done now is bring it into the courtroom to be able to take children away in private.”
Walker and Birkhead did not respond to the INDY’s request for comment on the lawsuit.
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