She presided over the juvenile court and legal system for the county, appointed magistrates (formerly, referees), set protocols, directed police and heard cases involving minors, including parents charged with child neglect.
[5] Her father was a decorated United States Air Force pilot with a distinguished World War II service record.
After failing the exam four times, Davenport passed in 1995, on her fifth attempt,[1] then began teaching as an adjunct professor of criminal justice at MTSU the following year.
[6] In her role as sole juvenile court judge, Davenport devised a unique, so-called "filter system" aside from federal or local processes.
[12] In 2003, Davenport issued a memo, which outlined her decree for local law enforcement to arrest, transport to the juvenile detention center for screening, then file charging papers for all children, emphasizing that "IT IS SO ORDERED".
[1] In 2016, lawmakers called for a federal investigation into the arrest and detainment of 11 young, black elementary school children in Rutherford County who had merely, allegedly, witnessed a fight between five and six-year-olds.
[12] In May 2017, a federal court ordered Rutherford County to stop using Davenport's so-called "filter system",[1][16] noting that it "departs drastically" from ordinary juvenile detention standards.
[17] In October 2021, PBS News Hour broadcast an investigative report by Meribah Knight of Nashville Public Radio (WPLN) and Ken Armstrong of ProPublica which exposes Davenport's enforced culture of operating outside the law throughout her more than 20 years on the juvenile court bench;[18] Investigative reporters Knight and Armstrong were subsequently nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for the feature article.
[21] Lawyer for the 2017 class action plaintiffs Kyle Mothershead stated, in February 2022, that Rutherford County had illegally arrested and incarcerated minor children prior to Davenport's appointment as its juvenile court judge in 2000.
[22] Rutherford County Representative John Ray Clemmons released a statement decrying inaction, "As I stated in 2016, there is no rational justification for any of this in our society.
She released a statement, in the wake of allegations against her, that she remains "so proud of what this Court has accomplished in the last two decades and how it has positively affected the lives of young people and families in Rutherford County".
[26] In January 2023, State Representative Mike Sparks responded by introducing House Bill 720[27] to the Tennessee General Assembly, undertaking to protect juveniles from interrogation without a guardian present.
[29] Released in October 2023, the series is produced by Serial Productions and The New York Times in partnership with ProPublica and Nashville Public Radio, and hosted by Meribah Knight of WPLN.