LITTLE ROCK — A man accused of cutting a Little Rock police officer with a crack pipe last week faces an additional charge after authorities learned he lied to them about his identity, a police spokesman said Tuesday.
Harlon Lamont Finney, 42, was charged with criminal impersonation after police say he identified himself as Darrell Boyd, his half brother, and was booked into the Pulaski County jail under that identity March 14, police spokesman Lt. Terry Hastings said.
Finney had been arrested about 8 p.m. that day after officers approached a car playing loud music in the parking lot of Chapel Ridge apartments at 9400 Stagecoach Road, according to an arrest report.
Officers told the driver of the car, later identified as Finney, to show them his hands, but he didn’t immediately comply. The driver then “reached over and cut the left forearm of an officer with a crack pipe,” the report said.
Afterward, Finney gave Boyd’s name and address instead of his own when officers were filling out his arrest report on charges of seconddegree battery, public intoxication, loitering and refusal to submit to arrest, police said. The arrest was then published Sunday in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on the basis of the arrest report.
That day, Boyd took his photo identification and the newspaper article into the Little Rock police headquarters to point out the error, and officers filed the impersonation charge against Finney, according to an arrest report.
On Tuesday, Hastings said police were aware of the error and were working to fix it.
“Those charges are still attached to [Boyd’s] name but will be swapped out,” Hastings said. “Darrell Boyd will be cleared of all charges.”
Finney, who was still listed under Boyd’s name at the Pulaski County jail, was being held Tuesday in lieu of $20,000 bond, jail records show. Pulaski County sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Carl Minden confirmed Finney’s identity late Tuesday.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 03/21/2012