CONWAY -- Faulkner County jailers raided murder suspect Hunter Drexler's cell, took his legal documents and placed him in "a full-restraint chair" for more than an hour, Drexler's attorney said Monday in requesting an emergency hearing.
Drexler, 18, of Clinton is one of four teenagers charged as adults in the July 21 shooting deaths of Robert and Patricia Cogdell, both 66, of Conway. Drexler has been jailed without bail since his arrest last summer.
In a motion filed with the Faulkner County circuit clerk's office Monday, defense attorney Patrick Benca said that about 6 p.m. Sunday jailers "shook down" Drexler's cell and took all of his legal mail and personal papers.
"When Drexler pointed out that his legal mail was being taken and that it needed to be returned, he was asked to step from his cell," Benca wrote. "Subsequent to that he was placed in a full-restraint chair for [1½] hours" and put in an "isolated unit" during that time.
All of Drexler's papers except for documents prepared by his attorney were returned Monday, Benca said.
"These documents were inside an envelope marked 'attorney-client' and identifying it [as] papers coming from the law firm of Benca & Benca," the motion added. "This envelope was inside another larger envelope that was further identified as legal paperwork."
Sheriff Matt Rice said late Monday that his office is investigating Drexler's allegations.
"We have pulled the [jail] video, and we are still looking at it," Rice said.
Benca noted that he had filed an earlier motion seeking an immediate bond hearing, in part because Drexler said sheriff's Cpl. B. Kelley and two other deputies had tried to get the teenager to discuss the murder case in jail without an attorney present. That motion also is pending.
"This is another example of Faulkner County jailers violating the rights of Drexler," Benca wrote in the new motion.
A 1974 U.S. Supreme Court decision requires that any search of legal mail be conducted in the inmate's presence, Benca wrote. Doing otherwise, he said, violates Drexler's constitutional rights.
Rice said last week that his office was looking into the issue. Kelley has denied that he questioned Drexler about the case, Rice said.
Benca requested that Circuit Judge Troy Braswell call an emergency hearing to address Drexler's allegations.
Drexler and Justin Staton, 15, of Conway are charged with two counts each of capital murder, aggravated robbery, abuse of a corpse and theft of property by threat. Anastasia Roberts, 17, of Conway and her boyfriend, Connor Atchley, 17, of Greenbrier, are charged with two counts each of first-degree murder and felony theft by receiving.
All four have pleaded innocent.
The Cogdells had been Staton's legal guardian since 2010 and had thought they were his paternal grandparents until DNA testing proved otherwise in 2008.
State Desk on 04/12/2016