Judge: Realtor killer Arron Lewis not believable in injury suit

Deputies cleared of claims they used excessive force

In this file photo Arron Lewis is escorted from the Pulaski County Courthouse after a jury found him guilty of kidnapping and murdering Beverly Carter.
In this file photo Arron Lewis is escorted from the Pulaski County Courthouse after a jury found him guilty of kidnapping and murdering Beverly Carter.

A federal judge Wednesday described convicted murderer Arron Lewis as intelligent but "not believable" in ruling in favor of two Pulaski County sheriff's deputies whom Lewis accused in a lawsuit of using excessive force against him after his 2014 arrest.

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In this week's two-day, nonjury trial, the 35-year-old Jacksonville man testified that deputies twisted his right shoulder out of its socket on two occasions, first to get him to tell them where he had taken abducted real estate agent Beverly Carter and then to punish him after he was charged with her murder.

In January, a Pulaski County circuit judge sentenced Lewis to two terms of life without parole on the recommendation of a jury that convicted him of capital murder and kidnapping. Jurors found that Lewis targeted Carter, 50, because he believed she was "rich" and worked alone.

He kidnapped her after luring her to an empty house for sale in Scott, pretending that he was interested in buying it. Authorities said he told her that he and his wife would meet her there, but instead he showed up alone.

Lewis filed the lawsuit against the deputies shortly after his arrest. It is one of five he has filed against various authorities since that incarceration.

U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson dismissed most of Lewis' claims before the trial, but he allowed Lewis to present evidence in court on the excessive-force claims.

Lewis' appointed attorney, Chet Dunlap of Trumann, called several witnesses to testify Tuesday and Wednesday, including the two deputies, Sheriff Doc Holladay and two nurses who work at the Pulaski County jail. Dunlap's final witness was Lewis, who testified at length from the defense table, where he sat wearing prison whites.

Attorney David Fuqua, who represented the deputies, along with attorneys Blake Hendrix and Patrick Spivey, didn't call any witnesses, but questioned the witnesses Dunlap called.

Ultimately, the judge said, Lewis failed to prove his case by the greater weight of evidence.

"Mr. Lewis is obviously a highly intelligent individual, but he is not a believable individual," Wilson said, crediting the testimony of the two deputies -- reserve deputy Gary Seibel and Lt. Jackson Bennett.

Lewis alleged that Seibel walked him to a restroom in the sheriff's office while he was being interrogated in Carter's disappearance and shoved him against a wall, then twisted and dislocated his arm. He also accused Seibel of grabbing his testicles and not allowing him to finish defecating.

Seibel testified that another officer, then-Capt. Simon Haymes, accompanied them down the hallway to the restroom, and that there was no scuffle in the restroom, no testicle-grabbing, and Lewis didn't defecate.

Lewis alleged that Bennett returned him to the jail after doctors reset his shoulder, and Bennett violently removed a stabilizing sling that Lewis was supposed to keep on for three weeks. He said Bennett's actions caused his shoulder to dislocate a second time, causing intense pain.

Wilson said he believed that Lewis suffered the shoulder injury before Little Rock police arrested him and turned him over to sheriff's deputies. He noted that on Sept. 28, 2014, Lewis was in a single-car accident in northern Pulaski County and complained afterward of shoulder pain. An emergency medical technician put a brace on Lewis' shoulder and took him to Baptist Health Medical Center, but before Lewis could be treated, he "cut out," fleeing from authorities, Wilson said.

Wilson noted that on Sept. 29, 2014, Lewis jumped from the second floor of a Little Rock apartment complex while fleeing from Little Rock police and then lay on the ground and, without difficulty, held his arms out as the officers directed.

Wilson said he believed that nothing eventful happened on Lewis' trip to the restroom at the sheriff's office, while Lewis' hands were cuffed in front of him and tethered to his leg shackles. The judge said that upon Lewis' return to the interview room, deputies who were questioning Lewis said he didn't complain about being injured.

The judge noted that when Lewis was booked into the jail early Sept. 30, 2014, the intake nurse noted that he told her his shoulder had been dislocated in an accident. The nurse said he never told her he had been harmed by deputies.

Wilson said another nurse who examined Lewis later that day, after Holladay ordered him held on suicide watch, noted a deformation on Lewis' right shoulder and referred him to Dr. Carlton Johnson, a jail physician who found that Lewis had a dislocated shoulder and sent him to UAMS Medical Center, where doctors repositioned it.

Wilson noted that Bennett told the emergency room doctor that Lewis wouldn't be able to wear an arm stabilizer in jail because it was a choking hazard and Lewis was on suicide watch. He noted that upon Lewis' return to the jail, someone on the medical staff asked Bennett to remove the sling and put Lewis into an anti-suicide smock, over Lewis' objection.

Wilson said Lewis later complained in a grievance written on his behalf -- because he couldn't write while in the smock -- that the shoulder had been dislocated again, but the grievance said it was because of the stabilizer being removed and said nothing about the device being forcefully removed. The judge said Lewis also never mentioned being injured by deputies when he talked to attorney Jim Hensley that day about representing him.

Lewis was transferred to the state Department of Correction on Oct. 3, where he was medically assessed, and his shoulder was finally repaired Oct. 9.

"When exactly his shoulder was dislocated and how is extremely hard to determine," Wilson said, "but I do not find it was by excessive force." The judge noted that the second dislocation "may well have happened when Mr. Bennett took the immobilizer off, but if it did, I find there was no intent to punish him." He cited testimony from Bennett and Lewis that the device was difficult to remove.

Outside the courtroom Wednesday, Holladay said he was "certainly satisfied with the result," and added, "Hopefully, we can put Arron Lewis behind us."

From the courthouse steps, Carter's son Carl Carter Jr., who attended parts of the trial, said it was a reminder that the pain of his mother's death and dealing with her killer will never go away.

"When I walked in yesterday, it occurred to me -- I thought I was never going to have to see him again," Carter said.

He said the sight of the deputies, the sheriff, the attorneys and the prison guards who escorted Lewis between the prison and the courthouse made him think about them having to be away from their regular duties for two days.

"It just seems like a horrible abuse of public funds," he said.

But the trial outcome was welcome, Carter said. Referring to his family, he said, "We love the Pulaski County sheriff's office. We consider them family."

Metro on 04/21/2016

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