Ex-officer says guilty in assault of boy, 15
2 other ex-guards also face charges
A former Arkansas juvenile detention officer has pleaded guilty to two charges that stemmed from his use of pepper spray on a 15-year-old, authorities say.
Jason Benton, 43, a former guard at the White River Juvenile Detention Center in Batesville, entered the plea Wednesday in federal court, according to a news release from the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas.
Benton pleaded guilty to “deprivation of rights under color of law” and falsifying a report about the attack, the release said. His trial is part of an investigation into a pattern of abuse by guards and supervisors at the Independence County lockup.
“When law enforcement officers violate the law and the public trust, they will be prosecuted and held accountable,” U.S. Attorney Cody Hiland said in the release. “There will be no exception.”
According to his guilty plea, Benton told the teen to be quiet while the minor was locked in his cell. Benton then opened the cell door and ordered the 15-year-old to come out with his mattress, the release said. Authorities said Benton pepper-sprayed the minor from a few inches away while the boy held the mattress and tried to turn his head away.
Benton also said at the time that the teen tried to lunge at him with closed fists, which was found to be untrue.
Benton is the third former White River Juvenile Detention Center officer to plead guilty to charges stemming from assaults on detainees.
Two supervisors who
worked at the facility between 2012 and 2014 — Peggy Kendrick, 44, and Dennis Fuller, 40 — confessed in April 2017 to assaulting and needlessly punishing youths and attempting to cover it up by routinely falsifying use-offorce documents.
Two other former officers — Thomas Farris, 47, and Will Ray, 26 — were indicted along with Benton on May 5. The indictment says the three worked together to “injure, oppress, threaten and intimidate juveniles” held at the facility during the time Kendrick and Fuller were in charge.
Compliant teenagers were routinely pepper-sprayed, including a 14-year-old asleep in his bunk and a 16-year-old housed at the lockup for misbehaving rather than committing any crime, records show. Pepper-sprayed teens were then shut in their cells without undergoing decontamination in order to “let them cook,” according to court documents.
Sometimes, authorities said, teens were locked into “Max 1,” a cell that exposed them to extreme temperatures in the winter and summer months. Teenagers also were bound in emergency restraint chairs for hours “without justification.”
In return for carrying out such abuses, officers were “rewarded” with “desirable
assignments,” according to court documents.
The indictment also revealed that the conspiracy went beyond the Independence County facility. Other Arkansas juvenile-detention facilities sent youths “considered to be problems” to the White River lockup, which was known as a “tough facility” that carried out “promised ‘timeouts’” as punishment.
The document states that additional officers were involved. The U.S. attorney’s office said Wednesday that an investigation by the FBI’s Little Rock Field Division is ongoing. Benton, who will be sentenced at a later time, faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the deprivation of rights charge. The charge for falsifying a report carries a maximum penalty of 20 years and a $250,000 fine.
Farris and Ray pleaded innocent to charges of conspiring to assault and assaulting minors in federal court in May. Their trial is set to begin in August.
Two other former officers — Thomas Farris, 47, and Will Ray, 26 — were indicted along with Benton on May 5.