Franklin County sheriff’s jury trial pushed to March

FORT SMITH — After multiple resets, the jury trial for the Franklin County sheriff, who has been accused of using unreasonable force against detainees, has been pushed into next year.

The jury trial for Anthony Boen, 50, scheduled to begin Oct. 19, has been cancelled and reset to March 8, according to an order from U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III on Friday.

Boen pleaded not guilty at his Dec. 17 arraignment on three federal charges of deprivation of rights under color of law. He was released on a $5,000 bond.

Boen’s trial was originally set for Feb. 3. A continuance was granted Jan. 16 for the trial begin June 22, with it being reset for Oct. 19 by an order signed by Holmes on June 15.

The court held a telephone conference Sept. 22 with attorneys. The court discussed difficulties making it impracticable to try the matter as scheduled without “creating due process concerns, substantially increasing the risk of mistrial due to events beyond the parties’ control, and perhaps giving rise to a miscarriage of justice.”

One of these concerns was the probable size of the jury pool summoned to voir dire.

“In order to ensure sufficient jurors remain after voir dire and are not excused for cause — cause that might arise both in light of the nature of this case and of the pandemic — a larger-than-normal pool is likely to be summoned,” the document states.

“Because of the expected length of this trial and the substantial risk that a juror may test positive during the proceedings, alternate jurors must also be selected. Simply having enough jurors present after voir dire to enable the parties to make adequate use of their peremptory challenges under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 24 likely would require ignoring all indoor social-distancing guidelines promulgated by the Centers for Disease Control and the Arkansas Department of Health.”

The jury will be drawn from Sebastian, Crawford, Franklin, Johnson, Logan, Scott, and Polk counties, the document states.

Witnesses currently detained in facilities throughout Arkansas are expected to appear at this trial as well. While it is unclear whether any witnesses, especially those who are detainees, have tested positive for covid-19, it would be difficult for the court to consider them to be available for trial if they were to test positive or are in facilities in which many detainees have tested positive.

Court personnel, attorneys, and their staff, many of whom have school-aged children, are also at increased risk from a trial, according to the document. The court also knows that certain people essential to trial have medical conditions that increase the risk covid-19 poses to them.

With the many participants in this trial, as well as the logistics of moving them in, around, and out of the courthouse and courtroom during the trial, the document states the risk that someone will accidentally become a vector for infection is “exponentially greater than it would be in a shorter trial, a trial with fewer witnesses, a trial in which fewer jurors could be seated, a bench trial, or any of the in-person civil and criminal hearings the court has conducted in the recent past.”

“The court shares the parties’ desire to bring this criminal case to a just and speedy resolution,” the document states. “Because it is forced to choose between a speedy resolution and a just resolution, however, the court — like the parties and the public — prefers justice. … The court independently finds that under these circumstances, the failure to continue this trial is likely to result in a miscarriage of justice, and the ends of justice served by continuing this hearing outweigh the best interest of the public and the defendant in a speedy trial.”

The office of the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas has said Boen could face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000 if convicted.