Federal Judge Travis McDonough has declined to sever cases filed against the Hamilton County Department of Education over the Ooltewah High rape incident.
He set he wants to push these cases on to a conclusion and has set a trial date for next Sept. 4.
The cases relate to an incident in which freshmen basketball players were assaulted by upper class players in the rectum with a pool cue at a Gatlinburg cabin. Supt. Rick Smith and several Ooltewah High officials wound up losing their positions over the incident in which one player was seriously injured.
The Tennessee Department of Children's Services, the 11th Judicial District District Attorney's Office and District Attorney Neal Pinkston asked that, for discovery purposes, a case brought by former Ooltewah High officials be separated from two cases brought by parents.
Judge McDonough said in an order, "On September 21, 2017, one day after extending the discovery period and rescheduling the trial date to accommodate legitimate scheduling complications, the Court heard the parties on the Motion by telephonic conference. The parties’ discussion centered on an asserted lack of overlap between the Jarvis case and the Doe and Roe cases, the difficulties of scheduling depositions with so many lawyers, the difficulty some lawyers were having in deciding whether to attend depositions of witnesses, and the difficulty in finishing depositions of some witnesses in one day of seven hours given the wide scope of issues involved in the cases.
"First, there is sufficient overlap between the cases to authorize consolidation for discovery purposes. The Doe and Roe cases concern alleged failures by certain school-system officials that led to assaults on student plaintiffs in those cases. The Jarvis case concerns whether some of those same school-system officials suffered actionable treatment in the wake of the assaults at issue in Doe and Roe.
"At the very least, school officials (including, but not limited to, the plaintiffs in Jarvis – who are also defendants in Doe and Roe – and Defendant Fred R. Smith, Jr., in Doe and Roe) are important witnesses in both cases. Even if these were the only areas of overlap, consolidation of discovery would be warranted.(providing for consolidation of actions that “involve a common question of . . . fact” (emphasis added)).
"But additional overlap exists, for example, in the form of issues such as whether the defendants in Doe and Roe had appropriate policies in place and, if so, whether the plaintiffs in Jarvis complied with those policies. The parties’ insistence that the cases have virtually nothing in common is, to say the least, not convincing.
"Second, the parties assert that it is difficult to schedule depositions with so many lawyers involved. But they make no showing that it is any more difficult than scheduling duplicative, successive depositions of at least some witnesses. Doe, Roe, and Jarvis arise from the alleged rape and assault of high school students.
"The Court has a strong interest in moving the litigation along as quickly as reasonably possible in order to protect the minor litigants, and it has made its intent to do so extremely clear from the start of this litigation. Lawyers who do not have the flexibility to make this case their top priority and to conduct discovery as ordered should step aside for other lawyers whose schedules do allow for compliance with the Court’s orders and the reasonable protection of the minors involved.
"Third, the fact that the cases have been consolidated does not mandate that every lawyer from every case be present at every deposition, any more than the lawyers in the Jarvis case would have been mandated to notice their own depositions of every deponent in the Doe and Roe cases if there had been no consolidation. Counsel must exercise professional discretion to make such decisions whether or not the cases are consolidated for discovery. If the parties agree they need more time to conduct depositions, then they may agree to extend the depositions beyond seven hours. If they cannot so agree, they may apply to the Court for relief."