Clark County civil-rights suit now class action

Forty people who're now listed as plaintiffs in a federal civil-rights lawsuit allegedly spent a total of 2,560 days in jail without a hearing, attorney or other due process, according to a brief filed by attorneys this week against Clark County officials and its drug court treatment and probation programs.

On Thursday, a magistrate judge in U.S. District Court in New Albany granted Louisville attorney Mike Augustus' motion, certifying the case as a class-action suit with two classes of potential victims.

The first class — which is seeking monetary damages for each person's "loss of freedom," — includes all people who were participants in treatment program and who were incarcerated for more than 72 hours without due process from February 18, 2012 until August 4.

The second class, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief only, includes all who are or will be subject to the jurisdiction of the program as a participant and as a result face or will face the possibility of being alleged or determined to be in violation of the rules, terms or policies of probation or drug court.

Augustus, of the Bolus Law Offices, wrote in the brief in support of joining the cases as class action that the list of plaintiffs "will undoubtedly grow," due to his and his clients "inability to obtain even rudimentary information" about potential victims, including a list of drug court participants from 2012 to 2014.

"This tally was the result of a grossly imperfect search of Clark County's court records. The computer search was laborious and imprecise due to the inability to filter by drug court participants, division, judge or nature of the original charges," Augustus wrote.

Augustus went on to say he "essentially searched by the names of attorneys assumed to have handled cases involving drug charges brought since 2009. Each 'drug' case that was located was then reviewed individually to determine if there had been a referral" to drug court "and, if so, whether there had been an unlawful detention during the 30-month period."

The plaintiffs' complaint that was amended in April lists the following defendants: Clark Circuit Court II Judge Jerry Jacobi, former drug court program director Susan Knoebel, drug court bailiff Jeremy Snelling, Clark County Sheriff Danny Rodden, chief probation officer Henry Ford, community corrections director Stephen Mason, work release director Danielle Grissett, drug court case manager Josh Seybold, the Clark County Board of Commissioners as its executive body and other unknown county work release and court clerk employees.

The plaintiffs, responding in recent months to Augustus' myriad of allegations in the complaint, have mostly denied or claimed to be "without knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief as to the truth of the allegations."

Jacobi, who is being represented by the Indiana Attorney General's Office, fired Knoebel after initially suspending her and Snelling in January. Indianapolis attorney Rosemary Borek is representing Knoebel and Snelling, while other defendants are being represented by attorney Jeff Lowe, of the New Albany-firm Kightlinger & Gray LLP.

Following discovery requests to Borek and Lowe, Augustus wrote in the latest motion that attorneys for Knoebel, Rodden, Ford and the commissioners "were not in possession" of the list of drug court participants. An open-records request to the Clark County Court Clerk's office yielded a response that it could not release their identities without a subpoena or waivers from each participant, Augustus said.

Sgt. Jerry Goodin, an Indiana State Police spokesman, said its investigation into potential criminal charges has been completed. Its findings have been turned over to Jefferson County Prosecutor Chad Lewis, who was appointed special prosecutor in the case, though an attempt to reach Lewis Thursday afternoon was unsuccessful.

The drug court was suspended in mid-February by the Indiana Judicial Center, an arm of the state Supreme Court, after allegations of unlawful conduct by drug court staff and practices harmful to participants. The state high court later agreed to reinstate the drug court conditionally, lifting the ban March 7 strictly to allow existing participants a chance to complete treatment and have their charges dismissed.

It was the first time Indiana has suspended a drug court or any other problem-solving court.

Jacobi lost during the May primary election to political newcomer Laura Harbison.

Rodden, whose job also includes overseeing the jail, is currently on paid administrative leave after being indicted and arrested on charges of making false statements to FBI agents and encouraging a prostitute to hide evidence of their 2013 encounter after he allegedly paid her $300 for oral sex.

Reporter Charlie White can be reached at (812) 949-4026 or on Twitter @c_write.

Class members (alleged dates of detention, number of days)

Destiny Hoffman (May 1-June 20, 2013, 51; June 20-January 24, 2013-14 154)

Nathan Clifford (February 21-June 5, 2013, 105)

Josh Foley (June 27-September 4, 2013, 68)

Jesse Hash (August 8-October 7, 2013, 60)

Ashleigh (Hendricks) Santiago (May 16-June 21, 2013, 36)

Michael Campbell (May 23-July 31, 2013, 59)

Amy Tuttle (May 1-June 28, 2012, 59; May 10-July 8, 2013, 60)

Amanda Campbell (February 7-May 7, 2013, 89)

Bobby Upton (May 16-June 18, 2013, 34)

Justin Lanham (August 2-26, 2013, 25)

Tretney Rhodes (December 3-21, 2012, 19)

Joannie Watson (April 26-May 10, 2012, 15; May 16-June 14, 2013, 30)

Jason O'Connor (April 10-May 22, 2013, 43; June 20, 2013-January 24, 2014, 219)

Julia Joseph (January 18-March 12, 2013, 54; April 4-26, 2013, 33; October 16-21, 2013, 6)

Anthony Callaway (January 3-March 29, 2013, 86)

Katherine Tudor (August 8-November 2, 2012, 87; June 25-September 3, 2013, 71)

Brandon Layton (July 11-August 15, 2013, 36)

James Collmann (August 15-22, 2013, 8)

James Hendrick (July 15-August 15, 2013, 32; September 26-October 25, 2013, 30)

Jennifer Wall (December 27, 2012-March 5, 2013, 69; October 16-21, 2013, 6)

Deanna Wilkins (May 16-20, 2013, 5)

Jacqueline Snelling (August 31-December 14, 2012, 106; May 10-July 22, 2013, 74)

Jeremy Hutt (April 9-May 7, 2012, 29)

Courtney Harris (February 19-March 28, 2012, 38)

Heather Holden (April 9-May 24, 2012, 46)

Ricky Houston (March 23-June 7, 2012, 77; July 5-23, 2012, 19)

Jarvis Peele (April 17-May 2, 2013, 16)

Andrew Dematos (August 15-22, 2013, 8)

Christopher Klingsmith (April 19-October 30, 2012, 195)

Christina Hamilton (January 24-30, 2013, 6; June 27-July 23, 2013, 27)

Erica Rae Miller (August 16-24, 2012, 9)

Terry Gill (September 13-November 1, 2012, 50)

Amanda Barksdale (May 22-30, 2013, 9)

Joseph Allen (February 18-March 13, 2014, 24)

Jerry Houchens (October 25-November 24, 2012, 31)

LeeAnn Rager (October 12-November 30, 2012, 50)

Jennifer Snyder (March 21-April 24, 2012, 35)

Shelby Griffin (June 22-July 5, 2013, 14)

Jessica Hobbs (July 25-29, 2013, 5)

Alyssa Samuels (February 14-March 22, 2013, 37; May 16-21, 2013, 6)

Source: U.S. District Court records