A federal judge this week dismissed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Little Rock police on the grounds that the statute of limitations had expired, an argument the judge's father, a former federal judge, previously rejected.
U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr. granted a summary judgment to dismiss all claims against the defendants in the case of William Collin Spradling, a 25-year-old Sherwood man fatally shot in July 2008.
The case was first filed in November of 2012.
Then-officer Clay Hastings and officers Michael Ford, Frederick "Steve" Woodall and Aaron Simon, as well as then-Police Chief Stuart Thomas and the city, were named as defendants.
Attorney Michael Laux represented plaintiff Michael Spradling, the younger Spradling's father. Laux claimed William Spradling was a victim of excessive force and that police officials conspired to cover up their mistakes.
On July 16, 2008, officers arrived at 621 Gillette Drive to speak with William Spradling and his girlfriend about the theft of a handgun. During the investigation, Spradling was shot and killed.
The lawsuit says Hastings, Woodall, Simon and Ford tried to arrest Spradling without a warrant. After he resisted, they threw him to the ground, the complaint says.
At least three officers then fired at Spradling, striking him four times. He died at the scene.
Police said the officers fired because Spradling brandished a handgun, which fell from his hand after he was shot.
The lawsuit claims the four officers planted the firearm and "conspired to cover up the unlawful arrest and shooting."
An internal investigation cleared the officers of any wrongdoing.
Police protocol was severely flawed, Laux alleged, in part because an uncle of one of the shooters was allowed to handle much of the communication of information.
He also claimed the city was "deliberately indifferent" to systemic misconduct at the department.
After his son was killed, Michael Spradling requested the case file from Little Rock police. The file, sent in 2009, didn't contain any audio or video files, the lawsuit says, and the elder Spradling wrongly believed the information was complete.
He didn't realize that certain audio recordings, which the lawsuit says cast doubt on the police version of events, were missing from the file until August 2012, four years after his son's death.
On Nov. 5, the elder Spradling filed a federal lawsuit, which landed in former U.S. District Judge James Moody Sr.'s courtroom.
In April 2013, the city requested that Moody Sr. throw out the lawsuit on the grounds the statute of limitations had expired before it was filed.
In Arkansas, the statute of limitations for filing a lawsuit alleging wrongful death that results from excessive force typically expires three years from the day the wrong occurs. But actions that conceal wrongdoing can alter that timeline.
Laux argued that the Little Rock Police Department concealed and misconstrued facts, therefore the statute of limitations shouldn't start until that information came to light.
Moody Sr. denied the city's request for dismissal, ruling that the statute of limitations matter should be decided by a jury. The judge then retired in March 2014, at which time the case was transferred to his son's courtroom.
In April of that year, Laux withdrew the case. He refiled it in April the next year, and it landed in Moody Jr.'s courtroom again.
As the court case crawled forward, defendants filed motions to dismiss the case and for a summary judgment, forgoing a jury trial.
The younger Moody granted the summary judgment Monday and agreed that the statute of limitations on the case ran out July 16, 2011. Plaintiffs did not demonstrate that an altered timeline should be established, the judge wrote.
Laux said in a phone interview that he will appeal the decision to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The attorney said he did not understand the judge's basis for the ruling.
The judge dismissed the case "without any detailed explanation," Laux said, and made his decision by citing an affidavit that had been part of the case since its inception.
"He put all of his eggs, so to speak, in the basket of statute of limitations," he said.
Hastings is no longer with the Police Department and has since moved to Iowa, one of the attorneys for the defendants, John Wilkerson, said in an email. Ford, Woodall and Simon are still on the force.
Spradling's death "is tragic on many levels. Tragic for Mr. Spradling's family who lost a loved one, and tragic for the officers who were faced with the choice between life and death. With the Court's decision, we hope that the family, the officers and the City can move forward," Wilkerson wrote.
Information for this article was contributed by Linda Satter of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Metro on 10/27/2017