CONWAY -- Three Black Lives Matter protesters were convicted of charges Thursday stemming from their September arrests, when they were forcibly taken down from an elevated masonry sign in front of the Conway Police Department.
A charge against a fourth protester was dismissed by Faulkner County District Court Judge Chris Carnahan.
Gary Adams, Portia Davis, Brookelynn Mason and Ikina Kanu were arrested Sept. 21 while protesting the February death of Lionel Morris, a Black man from Conway. Morris died while in police custody after being arrested on an accusation of shoplifting at a grocery store.
Evan Pence, Conway deputy city attorney, played video from police body camera footage of the day. Davis and Mason could be seen standing on top of the 3-foot-high brick sign while Adams stood on the ground in front of them, holding a sign that read, "No good cops in a racist system."
Other protesters stood in the landscaping surrounding the sign.
In the video, Conway police Officer Angelina Loeschner asked the two women several times to step down from the sign.
After warning they would be arrested, Loeschner reached up toward the women and Adams stepped in the way. He continued to intervene until Officer Rick Shumate pushed him to the ground.
All three protesters could be seen in the video pulling away from officers attempting to handcuff them.
In a separate video, Kanu can be seen on the sidewalk repeatedly screaming "F* the police" into a bullhorn before being arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct.
Defense attorney Michael Kaiser, with the firm of Lassiter & Cassinelli in Little Rock, argued that Kanu's words were protected political speech and that the charges should be dismissed.
Carnahan asked Pence if that was the only charge against Kanu.
"No matter how offensive it is, it's protected speech," Carnahan said. "I'm going to stand with the Constitution on this one."
With a bang of his gavel, Carnahan dismissed the case against Kanu.
Adams, who had pleaded innocent, was taken from the courtroom in handcuffs after Carnahan found him guilty of misdemeanor criminal trespass, obstructing governmental operations and refusal to submit to arrest.
Carnahan sentenced Adams to 30 days in jail and fined him $750. Adams is appealing.
After Adams was taken from the courtroom, Kaiser had private conversations with Davis and Mason, both of whom had pleaded innocent and were about to be called in front of the judge.
Both Davis and Mason changed their pleas to guilty. Carnahan fined them each $737 and found them guilty of misdemeanor criminal trespass, obstructing governmental operations and disorderly contact. The charge of refusal to submit to arrest was dropped for both Davis and Mason.
Morris died Feb. 4 after a stun gun was used on him numerous times as he ran from and struggled with officers trying to arrest him. He was suspected of shoplifting from Harp's Grocery Store at 1120 E. German Lane in Conway.
A state Crime Laboratory report dated Feb. 6 and obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette stated that the cause of Morris' death was "methamphetamine intoxication with exertion, struggle, restraint and conducted electrical weapon deployment."
In a video of the incident, two officers -- Hannah Fleming and Joshua Kear -- can be seen approaching Morris and a woman, Brandy Arnold, in an aisle of the store.
The store's manager had found an empty drone box and called police. When approaching Morris and Arnold, officers saw an unboxed drone and a box of half-eaten catfish strips in their cart, according to arrest reports.
Morris told the officers that they intended to pay for the drone, and they took it out of the box only because the box was damaged.
Arnold was handcuffed without incident, but Morris bolted and a chase ensued.
Morris can be seen struggling with Kear numerous times, even placing the officer in a chokehold and grabbing for what Conway Police Chief William Tapley said was a knife "clipped to his pocket."
Kear was able to pull the knife away and throw it out of the way.
The stun gun was used on Morris "several more times" as he kept trying to move toward a kitchen knife hanging in a nearby store display, according to the report.
Other officers arrived and subdued Morris.
In the video, Morris yells, "I can't breathe," to which an officer replies, "If you can talk, you can breathe. Chill out."
Morris repeatedly says he can't breathe, as the officer stands with a foot on Morris' back.
Tapley previously said the video shows that Morris was placed "in the recovery position," and treatment began for injuries he suffered.
Medical help was requested before Morris was detained, Tapley said. Paramedics administered CPR. The incident lasted about 6½ minutes.
After an investigation by the Arkansas State Police, the officers were cleared of any criminal wrongdoing.
Tapley then initiated a professional standards investigation. Police did not release any details or actions taken as a result of the internal investigation except to confirm that no officers had been terminated.