Ex-jailers at youth lockup sentenced; both admit using excessive force

Two former employees of the White River Regional Juvenile Detention Center in Batesville — one a jailer with an explosive temper, the other a supervisor who later turned on his boss and tried to help the youths he oversaw — were sentenced Thursday for violating the youths’ civil rights.

In hearings before different judges, former jailer Jason Benton, 44, was sentenced to 2½ years in federal prison, while former supervisor Dennis Fuller, 41, was given a 3-year sentence that was expected to be reduced because of his cooperation in an FBI investigation and the subsequent prosecution of others.

The men’s former captain, Peggy Kendrick, 45, who prosecutors said ran the lockup with an iron fist and ordered her jailers to inflict unnecessary pain and punishment on the youths for minor infractions, was also scheduled to be sentenced Thursday.

However, her sentencing was delayed to allow a snowed-in woman who was once a detainee at the facility to fly in from Montana to make a victim-impact statement. A new sentencing date hadn’t been set as of Thursday evening.

Benton pleaded guilty April 4, 2018, to two charges: deprivation of rights under color of law and falsifying documents. He admitted that on May 19, 2013, he used excessive force when he ordered a boy who wouldn’t be quiet to walk out of his cell with his mattress, and then sprayed the boy in the face with pepper spray as the boy was unable to shield himself.

Benton admitted that he held the boy down for several minutes in what the boy said felt like “a puddle of mace on the floor,” allowing the pepper spray to continue burning the boy’s skin. Benton admitted that he then falsified a report on the incident to justify the use of the pepper spray, falsely claiming that the boy had lunged at him.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, Benton faced 30-37 months in prison. The penalty range took into account several incidents that other jailers reported, in which prosecutors said Benton “lashed out in anger at juveniles in his custody.” It also took into account a June 2015 misdemeanor conviction for striking his 9-year-old son in the face.