As federal prosecutors wound down their case Thursday against two former juvenile-lockup jailers accused of violating inmates' civil rights in a Batesville facility, a jury finally learned how the alleged abuses came to light.
Eric Pickle, a former jailer at the White River Regional Juvenile Detention Facility, testified that in 2013, the middle of his second stint there, he began noticing a disturbing increase in uses of force against detainees -- youths up to age 21 who had been sent there from across the state after being adjudicated as delinquent or found by a judge to need services to help them overcome problems at home.
Pickle, now a parole officer in Sharp County, said he began reviewing videos of the incidents that were recorded by cameras in the cells and hallways, and comparing them with reports the officers wrote to document their reasons for using force. He said he came to realize that there was "a definite pattern" of inappropriate uses of force followed by falsified reports, all carried out in an atmosphere where there was a "lack of review."
Pickle said he discussed his concerns with Peggy Kendrick, the captain in charge of the facility, and Lt. Dennis Fuller, but nothing changed except that Kendrick transferred him from a night shift to day shift, where she could keep a close eye on him.
After Kendrick discovered that he was making copies of videos and saving suspicious reports on a flash drive, and taking them to the FBI, he said he was placed on administrative leave with pay for six months and barred from the facility. Then, after a county judge expressed concern that Pickle was still being paid but wasn't working, he was fired. He said he sued to get his job back, but ended up being offered a better job with the county.
Pickle testified that he saw jailers use pepper spray, stun guns and a restraint chair as punishment, which is never supposed to be the purpose of using force. It is authorized to prevent a detainee from harming himself or others or to ensure compliance with a lawful command.
Kendrick, 42, and Fuller, 41, pleaded guilty last year to violating inmates' civil rights, and Fuller testified for a full day earlier this week.
The two former jailers on trial in the Little Rock courtroom of U.S. District Judge Billy Roy Wilson are Will Ray, 27, and Thomas Farris, 48, who jointly face a charge of conspiring to violate the inmates' civil rights and each faces a separate civil-rights charge. Another former jailer, Jason Benton, pleaded guilty in April to depriving inmates of their rights and falsifying records.
Pickle told jurors that one night, during a parking lot conversation at shift change, "I told Mr. Farris there was a train coming," referring to a federal investigation. He said Farris was a friend, and he tried to warn him that what Kendrick was telling the officers to do wasn't right. But he said Farris only remarked, "You know how Peggy is," and then said, "I've got a family to feed, and I've got a job to do."
Defense attorneys -- Bill Bristow of Jonesboro and Barrett Moore of Batesville for Ray, and Nicki Nicolo and Tamera Deaver, both of North Little Rock, for Farris -- contend that the lightly trained, inexperienced officers were simply following Kendrick's orders and believed they had to be strict disciplinarians to prevent violent inmates from rising up suddenly and attacking jailers or other detainees.
Bristow has tried to persuade the judge to allow him to introduce a video that he says brings home that point and is crucial to Ray's defense. He said that when Ray was hired as a jailer for just over $8 an hour, he was shown the video of a very recent incident at the facility, which frightened him.
Wilson allowed Bristow to play the dramatic video on courtroom monitors after jurors left for the day Wednesday.
It showed an inmate arguing at the opened door of his cell with a female jailer, flailing his arms, and then begin striking her. As she tried to contain him, he became angrier and took out a sharp piece of plastic that had been whittled into a shank, and chased the guard into the control room -- a large space with computer monitors in the center of a circle of cells that altogether contained about 50 inmates.
In that video, other jailers were seen scrambling to get out of the way, and being knocked out of the way, as the inmate persisted in chasing the jailer across the control room and then hitting and stabbing her repeatedly as she crouched down, with nowhere to flee.
Wilson earlier sided with prosecutors in ruling that the video wasn't admissible, but he said Wednesday that he would reconsider after viewing it. He hadn't decided Thursday whether to show it to jurors.
Bristow says the horror of the video was on Ray's mind as he went about his duties and influenced his actions. Because it demonstrates Ray's state of mind, the defense attorney contends it is relevant to his case.
Defense attorneys are scheduled to begin presenting their cases today, after the government formally rests.
The prosecution's last witness, former jailer Sarah Gay, was on the witness stand at day's end Thursday. She told jurors that she worked at the Batesville facility in 2012 and 2013, but left "because Peggy Kendrick was a psycho and completely insane."
She told attorney Michael Songer of the Department of Justice that she saw detainees routinely subjected to excessive force, such as pepper spray, for "mostly just talking back ... having temper tantrums -- just stupid, piddly stuff."
She said detainees were routinely punished for nonviolent behavior that she considered normal for "angry teenagers with pent-up hormones."
Gay said she once had to use pepper-spray on a female detainee who "tried to tackle me," but the girl quickly complied by dropping to the ground with her hands behind her back.
Noting that jailers were taught to decontaminate pepper-sprayed detainees immediately when they complied, Gay said that as she went to the door to take the girl to the shower just outside the door, "Will Ray told me to let her cook," a phrase meaning to allow the chemical to sink in and burn.
Gay testified that she ignored the advice, which "just seemed ludicrous."
Metro on 12/14/2018