Jury deliberations are set to begin at 9 a.m. today in a federal trial in which two former juvenile-lockup jailers in Batesville are accused of violating inmates' civil rights by pepper-spraying them for minor infractions.
U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson sent jurors home late Monday afternoon after one of the former jailers, Will Ray, finished testifying as the only defense witness and after attorneys presented closing arguments.
Ray, 27, and Thomas Farris, 48, are jointly accused of conspiring with others at the county-run White River Regional Juvenile Detention Center to violate the detainees' rights to due process, as guaranteed under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and their Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Samantha Trepel and Michael J. Songer of Washington, D.C., and Pat Harris of Little Rock say the jailers "tortured" youths in the facility by using pepper spray on them for minor infractions such as sleeping, failing to stand up or sit down, or writing on their cell walls with toothpaste. They say the jailers then let the youths "cook" by making them wait several minutes to wash the chemical off despite it burning their eyes and skin and making it hard for them to breathe.
County policy didn't allow pepper spray to be used for punishment, prosecutors say. But the former jailers -- represented by attorneys Bill Bristow of Jonesboro, Barrett Moore of Batesville, and Nicki Nicolo and Tamera Deaver of North Little Rock -- said they were simply following the orders of their captain, Peggy Kendrick, who has pleaded guilty to violating inmates' civil rights and is awaiting sentencing.
Jailers were authorized to use force on any youths posing an immediate physical threat to himself or others, destroying property, or failing to obey a "lawful command."
Videos from cameras inside and outside detainees' cells -- copied and turned over to the FBI by another former jailer, Eric Pickle -- were played repeatedly during the trial, for which testimony began a week ago in Wilson's Little Rock courtroom.
The videos showed the following:
• On Oct. 14, 2013, Kendrick entered the cell of a 16-year-old girl who was detained on a Families in Need of Services petition. The captain sprayed the girl in the face as she stood next to her bunk, talking to another female jailer. Ray stood by with a stun gun. Prosecutors said the girl had angered Kendrick by failing to remove the words "F*** You" that she had written on her cell wall in toothpaste. Ray was also accused of pointing the stun gun at the girl two hours later, after she laughed at the guards and tapped out a musical tune on her cell wall with her fists; of threatening to use the device on the girl while she was in the shower; and of standing by as Kendrick strapped her into a restraint chair for two hours, without letting her use the bathroom.
• On Nov. 6, 2013, the jailers' lieutenant, Dennis Fuller, pepper-sprayed a 14-year-old boy who was on medication and had been sleeping on his bunk, as Ray forced the boy to sit up and held his face toward the pepper spray and Farris stood guard at the cell door. Fuller, who has pleaded guilty to violating the inmate's rights, testified that he later wrote a false report saying the boy had tried to fight Ray. Prosecutors say the boy had angered Kendrick by fondling himself in his cell and inserting part of a broomstick in his rectum the previous night. Ray said Kendrick declared the boy suicidal after she learned of his actions and that she ordered the jailers to place him in a suicide gown, but he resisted and was sprayed for violating the command.
• On Nov. 13, 2013, Fuller, accompanied by Ray and Farris, again sprayed the 14-year-old boy for standing in his cell and knocking on a glass window on the door. The video showed the boy backing away from the door and putting his hands up as the jailers entered his cell. After he was sprayed, the boy was left to "cook" for one minute, though Ray testified that jailers were waiting to ensure the pepper spray had taken effect and that the boy was complying with orders to stop knocking on the window.
• On Nov. 21, 2013, Fuller, Ray, Farris and Kendrick opened the 14-year-old boy's cell door, took another boy out of the cell and then surrounded the doorway as Kendrick talked to him, allegedly taunting him into saying something that would justify being sprayed. Fuller waited outside with a can of pepper spray, then rushed in and sprayed him while the others stood by.
• On Nov. 21, 2013, Farris and Ray entered the cell of a 17-year-old boy who was standing at his cell door, looking out the window, and Farris sprayed the boy in the face as he leaned against his bunk at the back of the cell. Ray and Farris then wrestled the boy to the ground and left the cell to let the boy "cook" for about three minutes.
Fuller testified that Kendrick always told the jailers that when they wrote required reports after every use of force, they were supposed to "make them look good" by using key phrases such as saying a youth "took an aggressive stance" and approached a jailer "with clenched fists."
"The defendants would have you believe they didn't think they were doing anything wrong," Trepel told jurors. But, she said, "this defies common sense."
She reminded jurors of the testimony of two other jailers who said they refused to follow Kendrick's orders to pepper-spray detainees for minor infractions.
"There are situations in which force is necessary," Trepel said, "but before an officer uses force, you must have a just reason."
Bristow told jurors to consider Ray's state of mind, which included fear after seeing a video of a female guard being stabbed repeatedly by an inmate with a sharpened broomstick shortly before Ray was hired, and knowing that Kendrick had approved taking in an inmate "who had gouged the eye out" of a detention officer in Dermott.
Whatever Ray did, Bristow said, "was to maintain order and discipline in the facility," and not to be malicious or sadistic. Bristow emphasized that Ray was "following the boss's orders," just like people in the military are required to do.
Nicolo reminded jurors that the boy who was 14 when pepper-sprayed testified last week that Farris was always nice to him. She also told jurors to remember that in the second Nov. 21 incident, the 17-year-old boy whom Farris sprayed had threatened to kill other inmates and detention officers and refused to submit to a search after he left class, where he could have grabbed a pencil.
Ray and Farris "knew what was wrong and what was right, and they chose to do the wrong thing," Harris said, citing testimony that they were rewarded with being placed on the day shift, alongside Kendrick.
A Section on 12/18/2018