Lawsuit alleges 2 deputies used excessive force.

Injured by officer who had violent past, ex-inmate says

The Pulaski County sheriff’s office and two of its former deputies have been named in a federal excessive-force lawsuit that says an inmate was permanently crippled by a deputy who, the suit says, had a history of violent behavior.

The lawsuit was filed by Kevin Foy, a Little Rock man who says the jailers severed ligaments in his arm during a forceful strip search in 2014. Foy is being represented by civil-rights attorney Morris Thompson.

According to Thompson, Foy is unable to open or use his right hand.

On Dec. 17, 2014, Foy was sitting at the River Cities Travel Center bus depot drinking when a Little Rock police officer noticed his slurred speech and glazed eyes, according to reports.

“Take me to jail. I have warrants anyway,” Foy told the officer, his arrest report says.

The Little Rock officer arrested him and turned him over to the custody of the Pulaski County jail staff.

During his jail intake, former Pulaski County Deputy Austin Callahan was inventorying Foy’s possessions — some loose change, $15 in cash — when Foy reached for the change on the table, according to the lawsuit. Callahan then accused Foy of pocketing some of the coins, which Foy denied, the suit says.

“When Foy told Callahan he had nothing, Callahan angrily told him to take off his clothes to be strip searched,” the suit says. “Foy objected to being strip searched but did not resist or fight with Callahan,” the suit says.

Callahan spun Foy around and held him against a wall with the assistance of another jail staff member, Allie Deleon, who is also named as a defendant in the suit, the filing says.

The jailers then bent Foy forward against a metal sink, where his arm was brought down against a rigid edge and sliced open, according to the lawsuit.

Neither Callahan nor Deleon were cited for any wrongdoing by the department in relation to Foy’s injury, according to personnel files obtained from the sheriff’s office.

But Callahan had been reprimanded for numerous behavioral violations since he was hired in December 2011 as a patrol deputy and was terminated in May 2016, reports say.

Deleon resigned from her position in January 2016 after accepting a position as a police officer with the North Little Rock Police Department.

Her Pulaski County personnel file showed no suspensions or violations of a violent nature.

Foy’s suit also names Pulaski County Sheriff Doc Holladay as a defendant and accuses the sheriff of knowing that Callahan “had established a pattern of very poor decision making … that made him an extreme liability to the Sheriff’s department,” yet the sheriff failed to take “appropriate corrective action.”

According to his file, the deputy was twice placed on suspension without pay in 2012 for violating the department’s standards of conduct.

In May 2012, he arrested someone on misdemeanor offenses without probable cause, then six days later, fellow deputies saw him slam a car door on someone while yelling, “F*** this b **** !” after he was instructed to release that person because no crime had been committed, according to his letter of suspension.

In July of that year, Callahan arrested a driver based on an unconfirmed warrant, agency records show. In September 2012, Callahan was cited for improperly deploying his Taser during an arrest without warning, records show.

According to Foy’s suit, Callahan’s immediate patrol supervisor had written: “Deputy Callahan is establishing a pattern of very poor decision making resulting in incompetent performance which makes him an extreme liability to this department.”

By the end of that year, in November 2012, Callahan was reassigned from the patrol division to working at the jail.

Nearly a year later, he was cited again for “yelling and cursing at an inmate behind a closed door that was asking about his medication,” reports say.

And in 2014, he was issued a letter of warning for engaging in an altercation with an inmate and grabbing him “by the neck with both hands,” records show.

On March 22, 2016, Callahan threw a handcuffed inmate to the floor, “straddled him and punched him approximately four times in the face with a closed fist,” according to the suit.

In May 2016, Chief Deputy Mike Lowery issued Callahan’s termination letter.

Loy’s federal suit was filed in the Eastern District of Arkansas and has been assigned to Chief Judge Brian Miller.

County officials were served the lawsuit earlier this month.

“All matters of discipline are reviewead on an individual basis. Facts and circumstances dictate how these matters are handled, so we’ll respond to these allegations at the proper time,” Holladay said of the lawsuit.

“We take these matters very seriously, particularly when it comes to the care of the inmates,” he said.