Two different lawsuits filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee claim that Lynn Shrum and Jenna Meness, former Smith County Misdemeanor Probation operators, and Smith County ran an “extortion scheme.”
Smith County Misdemeanor Probation was a private company contracted to oversee all misdemeanor probation for Smith County from 1999 until April of this year. The county ended its contract relationship with them and established its own probation department to directly oversee misdemeanor probation services at the April County Commission meeting and no longer uses a private company for probation services.
Smith County Misdemeanor Probation operated under a user-funded probation model, so their revenue was from the fees and surcharges paid by the probationers they supervised.
Two separate defendants have filed lawsuits with similar allegations. In one case, Lynn Walker alleges that she had to walk ten miles each way to attend her weekly probation meetings after being denied a request for an accommodation to have bi-weekly meetings. She also alleges she was forced to extend her supervised probation “under the threat of imprisonment” for nonpayment of court costs even though only “willful nonpayment can constitute a violation of probation” in the state of Tennessee. Walker was later incarcerated for a total of 94 days during the extended probation. In January 2020, General Sessions Judge Branden Bellar dismissed all charges against her and found that Smith County Misdemeanor Probation’s probation extension was illegal.
In the other lawsuit, Christopher Beale alleges that he could not make payments due to having no money on multiple occasions, was threatened with a violation of probation warrant without legal counsel or appearing before a judge. Under these threats, he signed a probation extension already pre-signed by the General Sessions Judge Michael Collins. Probation officer Jenna Meness is alleged to have then held the extension without filing it to continue to use it to threaten Beale. Beale was also incarcerated for three months during the probation extension.
Another allegation, in addition to the threats of imprisonment and forced extension of probation that led to more fees for Smith County Misdemeanor Probation, is that they were provided with stacks of blank, pre-signed violation of probation warrants from the General Sessions Judge. This allowed the probation company to execute arrest warrants and incarcerate probationers without a judge determining whether probable cause existed for the arrest. While the lawsuit does not name the General Sessions Judge, the timeframe for the actions would have fallen under previous General Sessions Judge Michael Collins.
Both lawsuits state the “extortion scheme constitutes a systemic violation of constitutional rights calculated to generate profits for the company and provide the payment of court debts to the County.”
