A jury found two former juvenile-lockup jailers in Batesville innocent of violating inmates’ civil rights by pepper-spraying them for minor infractions.
Will Ray, 27, and Thomas Farris, 48, were jointly accused of conspiring with others at the county-run White River Regional Juvenile Detention Center in the northeast part of the state to violate 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.
Their trial began Dec. 10 in U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson’s federal courtroom in Little Rock. Testimony ended Monday. The jurors — nine men and one woman, all from the Batesville division of the Eastern District of Arkansas — began deliberating at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Samantha Trepel and Michael J. Songer of Washington, D.C., and Pat Harris of Little Rock said 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.
Independence County policy didn’t allow pepper spray to be used for punishment, prosecutors said.
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.”
The facility, operated by Independence County, holds up to 75 youths between the ages of five and 21 who have been charged or adjudicated delinquent or are from “families in need of service,” who haven’t necessarily been accused of committing any crime.
Read Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.