A woman who was 16 when she was placed in state custody because of turmoil at home was the first witness to testify Tuesday in the federal trial of two former guards at the White River juvenile jail in Batesville.
Elizabeth Lawless, now 21, of Hope testified that on one day of her 36-day stay at the facility, where she was being held on a Family In Need of Services petition, she was pepper-sprayed, strapped into a restraint chair for two hours and threatened with being "tasered" with an electroshock weapon while she was in the shower.
Lawless said the trouble began about half an hour after she awoke on the morning of Oct. 14, 2013, when a female guard entered her cell, saw a profane message she had written to her jailers on her cell wall with toothpaste, and ordered her to wash it off.
The small-framed woman with light blond hair acknowledged that she had written the phrase, "F*** You," for no apparent reason, and that she responded by telling the guard that "she could take it off herself."
In a soundless video from a camera in the girl's cell, which prosecutors played for jurors, her exchange with the female guard was followed shortly by a visit from Peggy Kendrick, the captain over the jailers, who walked into the cell and around the other guard, and sprayed the girl directly in the face without warning as she stood near her bunk. Lawless immediately covered her face with her hands and cowered, crawling onto the bunk in an apparent effort to get away from the chemical that she said burned her eyes and skin.
"It lasted a while, like three to four hours," she said of the effects of the spray, though she also said she was allowed to wash the chemical off in the shower after dragging her mat and blanket out of her cell, as ordered, and waiting for another green-and-white-striped jumpsuit to be delivered.
About two hours later, a video from outside the girl's cell showed her being surrounded by Kendrick and other jailers as she was ordered out of her cell and into the hallway. She then sat in a restraint chair that had been wheeled into the area, and was strapped in. The video then showed her being wheeled back into her cell, where she was left to sit in the chair for a couple of hours.
Lawless testified that she had to go to the bathroom but the guards wouldn't let her.
She said she was being punished for laughing at the guards, which she did intentionally to make them angry, and for pounding on the cinder-block wall of her cell to "make rhythm" with an inmate on the other side.
Kendrick pleaded guilty last year to charges that she violated the rights of detainees at the facility by pepper-spraying them, or ordering other guards to do so, and otherwise inflicting or ordering too-harsh punishment for minor infractions.
One of the guards who was shown standing in Lawless' cell with a stun gun after the girl banged on the wall was Will Ray, now 27, who, along with Thomas Farris, 48, is accused of violating several detainees' civil rights by meting out unjustified punishment multiple times between June 2012 and July 2014.
Lawless testified that Ray was the guard who threatened to use the stun gun on her when she got into the shower. She said he told her, "You know that will hurt."
Attorneys for Ray and Farris told jurors earlier in opening statements that the law in Arkansas specifically authorizes the use of force on jail detainees for not following a lawful command.
Attorney Bill Bristow of Jonesboro said Ray had just turned 21, and had no experience working in jails, when he started working at the facility on May 11, 2012, for $8.17 an hour. He said Ray, who like the other jailers wasn't a law enforcement officer and wasn't allowed to carry a gun, learned quickly that some detainees are large, "troubled" and dangerous.
The facility holds youths ages 5 to 21, some of whom are accused of committing crimes, and others, like Lawless, who are simply being held in state custody because of family problems. The detainees charged with crimes wear orange, and the others wear green and white striped jumpsuits.
Bristow said that when Ray was hired, he was shown a video of a female guard being stabbed repeatedly by an inmate wielding a sharpened broomstick and was told, "You've got to be proactive and prevent things like that from happening, for the safety of the inmates and everyone who works there."
A fight can escalate quickly in the facility, Bristow said, noting that in the process, guards can be bitten or attacked with bodily fluids. He said this is why Arkansas law states that if a detainee doesn't comply with a verbal command, "you can pepper spray them to get compliance."
As for Ray, Bristow said, "Everything he did was in accordance with his training. He thought he was doing what he was supposed to do."
Similarly, defense attorney Nicki Nicolo, who represents Farris, told jurors that prosecutors must prove Farris used unjustifiable force in order to convict him, and, "I promise you they cannot do that. ... Mr. Farris is being prosecuted for doing nothing other than his job."
Testimony resumes at 9 a.m. today in the Little Rock courtroom of U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson. Dennis Fuller, a former lieutenant under Kendrick, is expected to testify. Fuller, 41, also pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to violate inmates' civil rights.