Deal struck in Arkansas high school football player's wrongful arrest suit

He alleged negligence in Centerton

FAYETTEVILLE -- A tentative settlement has been reached in a wrongful arrest lawsuit brought by a former Fayetteville High School student athlete against Centerton officials.

Terrance Rock sued Centerton and a number of police officers in Washington County Circuit Court in April, alleging wrongful arrest, malicious prosecution, violation of due process, invasion of privacy and other state and federal civil-rights claims. The case was subsequently moved to federal court.

The sides met in a settlement conference Monday morning with U.S. Magistrate Judge Erin Wiedemann and reached an agreement, according to Lance Cox, Rock's attorney.

"Mr. Rock can now move on with college, and life and put this matter behind him," Cox said via email Monday.

Terms of the settlement were not immediately available.

"Hopefully, what happened to Mr. Rock will not ever happen again -- at least not in Centerton, Arkansas," Cox wrote. "We believe Mr. Rock's case has brought some much needed change within the Centerton Police Department and has brought awareness to others in and outside the State of Arkansas. If so, it will likely reduce the number of false arrests that would have otherwise occurred, which is reason enough to have filed suit."

The Centerton City Council still has to approve the settlement and will likely take it up Wednesday night, according to Brian Rabal, attorney for Centerton.

"It's quite a bit less than the relief that they were demanding," Rabal said. "It's always a crapshoot if you take a thing in front of a jury. They say a good settlement is where everyone walks away not thoroughly satisfied; that's probably the case here."

Centerton officials filed an answer to the lawsuit in which they denied the allegations. Attorneys for officers Michael Stuart and Christopher William Cummings also filed answers denying the allegations.

Centerton police arrested Rock at the school Nov. 15 in connection with residential burglary and theft of property, both felonies. He was released from the Benton County jail the next day on a $10,000 bond. Rock, as a senior running back, helped lead Fayetteville to the Class 7A football title.

Centerton Police Chief Cody Harper later acknowledged that officers wrongfully arrested Rock and apologized in a Nov. 18 news release. Benton County Circuit Judge Robin Green dismissed the charges against Rock and sealed the case in early December.

The lawsuit was seeking $750,000 in damages on the due process claim and unspecified compensatory and exemplary damages on the other claims.

The arrest came from a Sept. 25 incident in which a Centerton man claimed three teens stole items from his home, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Police didn't interview Rock before they arrested him, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit contends that Centerton police made little or no effort to make sure they were arresting the correct person and boasted that Rock's arrest was a high-profile one that would receive media attention because he was a star football player.

Officers handcuffed Rock and escorted him out of the school to a waiting police car in front of students, teachers, staff and administrators, resulting in extreme embarrassment, fear, emotional distress, physical and mental anguish, harm and hardship, according to the lawsuit.

Police ignored Rock's protests that he'd never been to Centerton and didn't know the teens accused in the break-in, according to the lawsuit. It wasn't until Cox and Benton County prosecutors investigated and confronted Centerton police with the identity of the person actually involved in the theft that they admitted they had requested and obtained a warrant for the wrong person, according to the lawsuit. That individual clearly had a different name than Rock, according to the lawsuit.

Cummings, one of the officers involved, was fired 14 days after Rock's arrest.

In addition to Cummings, the lawsuit named Centerton, Harper, Stuart, and detectives Jeremiah Nicholson and Alex Wallace. They were named in both their individual and official capacities.

The lawsuit alleged gross negligence by the defendants for intentionally circumventing the prosecutor's office to obtain a warrant. The arrest affidavit wasn't sent to the prosecutor to be reviewed before Rock was arrested, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also claimed that officers weren't trained, educated or supervised properly and that the department had inadequate policies and procedures to make sure the correct person was being arrested.

The malicious prosecution claim contended that there was no probable cause to arrest Rock and that police knew or should have known they had the wrong person.

Metro on 08/22/2017

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