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Ex-Tech star’s wife asks for $500M in suit against judges, DFCS

Therian Wimbush, seen here in an August 2014 file photo, has filed a civil lawsuit alleging that several judges, attorneys, child services workers and other officials slandered her family. KENT D. JOHNSON/KDJOHNSON@AJC.COM
Therian Wimbush, seen here in an August 2014 file photo, has filed a civil lawsuit alleging that several judges, attorneys, child services workers and other officials slandered her family. KENT D. JOHNSON/KDJOHNSON@AJC.COM
June 24, 2015

Six child services workers, three judges, two attorneys, one police detective and an “anonymous caller.”

Therian Wimbush is suing them all — and she’s asking for half a billion dollars.

Saturday will mark one year to the day since Wimbush and her husband, former Georgia Tech football star Recardo Wimbush, turned themselves in at the Gwinnett County jail amid allegations that they kept their eldest son locked in a basement bedroom for nearly two years. The case been full of bizarre developments ever since, and the civil lawsuit filed Friday in Gwinnett County Superior Court adds another to the list.

In the suit, Therian Wimbush accuses 13 different people — essentially everyone involved in the case against her and her husband — of slandering her family. Each of the defendants "maliciously and falsely defamed" the family through "disparaging" statements made in court or elsewhere, the suit alleges.

Wimbush, who is serving as her own attorney, asks for $500 million in damages.

A Gwinnett County police spokesman declined to comment Wednesday on behalf of Detective Felicia Churchill, who is named as a defendant in the suit. Gwinnett County Chief Assistant District Attorney Dan Mayfield, also named in the suit, said he could not “comment on the pending litigation.”

Messages left with several other defendants — a list that includes superior, juvenile and magistrate court judges and six representatives of the Division of Family and Children Services — went unanswered Wednesday afternoon.

The final defendant listed on the suit is "Anonymous Caller" — the unidentified person who made the initial outcry to authorities in 2014.

About the Author

Tyler Estep hosts the AJC Win Column, Atlanta's new weekly destination for all things sports. He also shepherds the Sports Daily and Braves Report newsletters to your inbox.

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