ATLANTA — Two months after a metro Atlanta couple lost custody of their five children following a seemingly harmless traffic stop in Tennessee, a judge has released the children back into custody months later.
Deonte Williams had been fighting to regain custody of his kids after his family was stopped by Tennessee authorities traveling through on their way to a funeral in Chicago -- when they were reportedly stopped for a tinted window and "traveling in the left lane while not actively passing."
The stop led to a drug possession charge and then a bewildering legal saga that has dragged on for over two months now -- but finally has some resolution.
The initial search turned up five grams of marijuana, an amount classified as a Class A misdemeanor in Tennessee. Court records from Coffee County, Tennessee, show both Bianca Clayborne and Williams were charged on Feb. 21 with simple possession/casual exchange.
After the Tennessee Department of Child Services' hearing last week, a judge released the kids back into Williams' custody after not having them since Feb. 21.
Williams spoked exclusively with 11Alive Saturday night and said he feels he was targeted and treated unfairly. He's frustrated and calling out official's actions and said the two months without his kids felt like an eternity.
"I feel like I was dying on the inside," Williams said. "i started having anxiety attacks, but I literally felt like the inside of my body was like just at a sag, a slump; like my liver, my heart, like, I just, I couldn't bring myself to eat."
Williams is still upset over how authorities allegedly handled the arrest and the circumstances for why he was arrested in the first place.
"They blunt that they arrested me for?" I asked to see the supervisor. Like, 'Why am I going to jail? What's this about?'", Williams said. "'Shut up, you're a criminal.' They put their hands on me, got rough."
Williams said both he and Clayborne were tested for marijuana. Williams was positive, but Clayborne was not. Williams said the department of child services bombarded Clayborne's vehicle while she was on her way to bail him out. Williams said they were eventually accused of doing meth and fentanyl.
"They did a hair follicle test. It came back in two minutes," Williams said. "He came back with the paper, wrote in. We done took two more since then. None of them look like that. The people seen this and said, 'Who the hell did this?' We don't partake. How is it possible?"
This, Williams said, is what led to the kids being taken away from the Georgia couple. William's youngest is 5-months-old, while his oldest is 7-years-old.
"They held her down and took a newborn baby. They tried to make her pee in the car. It's four dudes and three men. Y'all are around the car watching this Black woman pee," Williams explained. "I come out. My kids are gone. And we don't hear nothing for five days."
Williams said he has spent thousands on lawyers and fees. Just last week, a judge released the kids back to Williams, but he believes officials' actions were unacceptable.
There was a big reunion for the kids returning home last weekend. Williams is happy things are finally getting back to normal.
"I had a feeling it was gonna work out that day. Nobody like that needs to be in that position to break someone's family up when you're doing it out of evilness, out of racism. You're discriminating," he said.
Williams said his next criminal hearing is scheduled on May 23. He's also planning to fight this in civil court. 11Alive reached out to Clayborne's sister to get her to comment but this week, but so far have not heard back.