2 face charges in broken arm at youth jail

Correction: The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette doesn’t have a blanket prohibition against publishing the names of juvenile offenders. The newspaper’s practice was inaccurately described in this article.

A special prosecutor has filed felony charges against two former Yell County law enforcement officers who were involved in breaking a 13-year-old boy’s arm in a juvenile detention center last year.

Former Danville police officer Timothy Spears, 28, and former Yell County sheriff’s deputy Michael Spears, 30, were each charged with second-degree battery in connection with the March 22, 2014, altercation with the boy that resulted in a severe fracture of his upper arm.

The charges were filed in Yell County Circuit Court late last week and released Monday along with documents that shed further light on methods of punishment used on youths at the Yell County Juvenile Detention Center up until last year.

The charges come several months after a series of stories in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette exposed a years-long pattern of using pepper spray and a full-body restraint known as The Wrap as punishment at the 24-bed youth lockup in Danville. The series also chronicled the boy’s injury, which was captured by surveillance video.

Both former officers, who are brothers, have denied any wrongdoing, and court documents filed to support their charges show that a state police investigator determined that neither man entered the cellblock with intent to harm the boy.

But the investigator found that injury could have been avoided if Timothy Spears hadn’t employed “a pain compliance technique” that involved forcing the 110-pound boy’s arm upward and outward behind his back.

On Monday special prosecutor Jason Barrett said that he believes evidence developed in the case supports the felony charges against the two men and that he disagrees with the trooper’s assessment of the officers’ intent.

“I appreciate his hard work on the case, but I do not think his final conclusion is accurate or supported by the facts,” he said of the state police investigator.

Russell Wood, attorney for Timothy Spears, said in a written statement that his client “categorically” denies committing any crime and that he believes the facts laid out by the state police investigator justify his actions.

“The investigator assigned to investigate the incident, Trooper Ted Jones, even states in the affidavit that there was no evidence learned as a result of his investigation that Timothy or Michael Spears had any intent to inflict injury on this aggressive inmate,” Wood wrote. “There are motives afoot that have nothing to do with seeking the truth or justice.”

A message left for Hugh Laws, attorney for Michael Spears, wasn’t returned by late Monday.

Michael Robbins, an attorney for the boy’s parents, said that his clients support Barrett filing the charges.

“It’s attaining one of the goals that my clients wished to see attained. They wanted to bring what they believe was a criminal act to light,” he said.

The boy’s parents spoke extensively about what happened to their son, who is known as D.B., for a story published last December as part of a Democrat-Gazette investigation of the lockup. The newspaper is not naming the parents or the boy because it doesn’t publish the identities of juvenile offenders.

Last year, the newspaper found that lockup guards and top administrators used pepper spray, a full-body immobilization restraint known as The Wrap and a mechanical restraint chair to punish youths for “mouthing,” obscene gestures, throwing soft objects or banging on doors.

Children were hogtied, pepper-sprayed while in The Wrap or placed in the device for up to six hours with only two short breaks. Youth also were confined to their cells for long periods, including in excess of 24 hours, as a form of discipline, the newspaper found.

Jones, the state police investigator, drew similar conclusions about the lockup’s environment last year.

Capt. John Foster, chief deputy for Yell County Sheriff Bill Gilkey, referred questions to Barrett when asked Monday about the details contained in the affidavit summarizing Jones’ investigation.

Gilkey and a new juvenile detention center administrator, former sheriff Mike May, have since overhauled the facility and banned the use of pepper spray and the other restraints. The facility now operates using a “reward-based” system, and May has reported that staff have seen fewer disciplinary problems.

But in March 2014, staff members interviewed by Jones reported that they often used The Wrap and called in outside law enforcement officers to assist in controlling youth.

Michael Spears, who had previously worked at the juvenile detention center, said guards often disciplined youth at night by taking all mats and blankets from the children housed in one cell because it was often hard to determine which youth was being disruptive.

This caused the “other inmates to get mad,” he told Jones.

Another staff member, Travis Carroll, reported that he expected D.B. and another youth to be pepper sprayed if the boy’s arm hadn’t broken.

Jones quoted Carroll as saying, “[D.B] was going to be handcuffed and taken up to our visitation room and pepper sprayed and [the other youth] was going to be handcuffed, taken to the visitation room and be sprayed as well. That was the purpose of them being handcuffed.”

None of the other staff members interviewed mentioned pepper spray, but all reported that Timothy and Michael Spears were called to the lockup often to help place youths in The Wrap, including the night D.B.’s arm was broken.

According to Jones, by the time Timothy and Michael Spears arrived at the lockup, D.B. had served nine days of a 10-day sentence at the juvenile detention center. Court records show the sentence stemmed from an altercation at Russellville Middle School in which D.B. cursed at a teacher.

The exchange of words resulted in a violation of D.B.’s probation, ordered in January 2014, after he was adjudicated delinquent of one charge of harassment and four counts of disorderly conduct, all misdemeanors.

After being sent to the juvenile detention center, staff told Jones that D.B. had been a behavior problem and had fought with another inmate during his stay.

On the night his arm was broken, D.B. had been confined to his cell for two to three days for “disruptive behavior,” and he was on “lockdown” when the officers approached, Jones wrote.

D.B. had been kicking his door and was angry because another inmate had been making sexual comments about his sister, he told Jones.

About 8 p.m. surveillance video, obtained by the Democrat-Gazette and reviewed by Jones, shows the two officers entering the facility.

The officers, accompanied by then-assistant lockup administrator Robin Barefield, proceed to D.B.’s cell, scattering a group of boys playing cards.

The video shows Michael Spears gesturing for D.B. to come out of his cell. The boy complies within a few seconds and then stops with his arms slightly bent and out to his side, facing the two officers.

The video, which doesn’t have audio, shows Michael Spears getting close to the boy’s face and saying something. He then forces the boy face-first against a wall. Timothy Spears then grabs the boy’s arm and wrenches it behind his back. The arm snaps.

In various interviews, Jones notes that both Timothy and Michael Spears said that they believed D.B. “bowed up” on them and resisted their efforts to handcuff him, requiring them to use force.

Jones also quotes D.B. as telling an investigator with the state police Crimes Against Children’s Division that he “bowed up” on the officers, but he denied resisting.

“D.B. said he had his fists to the side and his hands were balled up. D.B. said he came out of the cell, looked at one of the officers, and could see a second officer out of the corner of his eye,” Jones wrote.

D.B. said both of the officers told him to get against the wall, and “he was going to comply.” But he was then slung against the wall, and both officer grabbed his arms.

“I kinda jumped because it scared me, and the next thing I know my arm is popped and I thought they hit me with the baton, and I could not feel the lower half of my arm,” Jones quotes D.B. as saying.

In summarizing his investigation, Jones refers to this interview and others to support his findings that the officers were justified in their use of force.

Jones notes that Timothy Spears used a “pain compliance technique” when he pulled D.B.’s arm upward while behind the boy’s back, and he believes D.B.’s arm could have been brought into that position without injury if the boy’s hand had been kept close to his back.

“However, when D.B.’s arm was moved away from his back to clear [Michael Spears’] arm, torsion was produced that resulted in the break,” Jones wrote.

Both Timothy Spears and Michael Spears, who were fired from their respective agencies, were released last week on $2,500 bond each. They are scheduled to appear in court Aug. 4.