MORRISTOWN, Tenn. (WATE) — More than five years after a federal civil rights lawsuit over its money bail system was filed, Hamblen County will pay more than a half million in attorney fees.

The 2020 lawsuit contended that the county regularly imposed unaffordable money bail amounts, sometimes as high as $1 million, without consideration of defendants' ability to pay in a county where one in five residents lives below the poverty level. It alleged this system forced defendants to remain jailed arbitrarily while awaiting trial in a facility operating at over 170 percent capacity at significant cost to taxpayers.

It also alleged that county policies lacked procedural protections like the opportunity to present evidence and make arguments at a hearing with counsel, leaving the defendants to

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