Trial of ex-juvenile officers will not be moved

LITTLE ROCK — A federal judge has denied a request to move the trial of two former Arkansas juvenile detention officers charged with conspiring to assault at least four juvenile inmates.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that Judge Billy Roy Wilson on Tuesday turned down the request by attorneys for Will Ray and Thomas Farris to move the Dec. 11 trial from Little Rock to Batesville, where the alleged assaults took place.

Wilson wrote that with less than three weeks before the trial he was unable to find an available courtroom.

Ray and Farris have both pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiring to assault the juveniles at the White River Juvenile Detention Center in Batesville.

They’re accused of pepper spraying, choking, shoving and grabbing the teens when none were posing a threat. between 12 cents and 15 cents per saved kilowatt hour for projects. Benefits include long-term better, more efficient lighting, elimination of material purchases and maintenance time on old or outdated lighting, upgraded lighting paid for through incentives, and long-term energy cost savings.

“Upgrades like this not only improve the aesthetics of our campus, they also make our staff more efficient in how we use our time and maintenance funds,” Nehus said. “We work diligently to find ways to partner with organizations like Entergy who have the best interest in mind for schools and other public facilities. We deeply appreciate and applaud their efforts to offer these types of programs and incentives. We are also pleased to report that our cost savings are greater than we had forecast in the initial survey, and we are confident that we will pay off the financing provided by Excel to cover the upgrades earlier than planned.”