CONWAY -- Months after Faulkner County sheriff's deputies were videotaped arresting one of two men after a high-speed chase marked by repeated gunfire, the sheriff's office on Wednesday released the tape that has led to a federal investigation.
The two-part videotape, taken by a Mayflower police officer who had joined the May 4 chase from Mayflower to Conway, shows gunshots being fired at one or more sheriff's vehicles and a deputy dragging the driver from the car once it stopped and repeatedly kicking him.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette obtained the videotape through requests filed under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act on Tuesday and Wednesday. County Attorney David Hogue released the video on behalf of Sheriff Matt Rice.
The video shows the arrest of driver Harvey Martin III, 46, but does not show the capture of Christopher Cummings, 29, who police have said was the one who shot at deputies. The Democrat-Gazette learned Wednesday that in July the prosecution dropped charges that were filed against Martin as a result of the chase.
The FBI advised Andy Shock, who was then the sheriff, of its investigation in a July 21 letter, which also was released to the Democrat-Gazette under the Freedom of Information Act.
It said the FBI, the U.S. attorney's office and the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division "have initiated a Full Civil Rights Color of Law Investigation into the incidents involving a traffic stop and arrests of Harvey Martin and Christopher Cummings."
Shock has said both men were treated at a hospital for scrapes and bruises and released.
In the videotape of the chase, an officer can be heard saying, "He's still shooting at us." At another point, an officer says the suspects are driving on the wrong side of Interstate 40 as they approached Conway.
After the men's car stops in a Conway neighborhood, an officer wearing a T-shirt and camouflage pants instead of a deputy uniform approaches the car and drags Martin out, the video shows. That deputy, identified by authorities as Eugene Watlington, then begins stomping on Martin. Other officers punch Martin and begin to restrain Martin, who is on the ground.
Seconds later, after Watlington had moved slightly away, Watlington turned back, separated two officers who had been restraining Martin and stuck his leg in between them to kick Martin repeatedly.
Audio from the tape is hard to hear clearly because of garble and police sirens, but it sounds as if officers at times are telling Martin to give them his hand or hands.
"Get your hands up," an officer says.
"That's the driver ... the one that was shooting," someone says.
Authorities have since said the shooter was the passenger, Cummings.
Four deputies -- Watlington, Bill Kenney, Martin "Sonny" Clifford and Darrel Freeman -- were suspended after the arrests. After an internal investigation, Shock, now a state Parole Board member, fired Watlington for excessive force but allowed the other deputies to return to work after concluding they had "acted within their scope of the use of force policy."
Last month, Rice, who became sheriff in September, fired Clifford over an unrelated driving-while-intoxicated arrest.
Originally, Martin of Conway was charged with felony fleeing in a vehicle causing danger, reckless driving, resisting arrest and other traffic-related offenses. But the prosecution dropped those charges in July after authorities learned that Cummings purportedly had forced Martin to flee at gunpoint, Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland said Wednesday.
Cummings of North Little Rock is awaiting trial on charges of attempted capital murder, felony resisting arrest, misdemeanor fleeing, misdemeanor littering, drug-related charges and possession of a firearm by certain person.
Bullets struck patrol vehicles but not the officers, and authorities have said police did not return fire.
Rice said Wednesday that his office has continued to cooperate with the FBI in its "color of law" investigation. He said he has helped the FBI arrange interviews with some of his deputies. Rice said he does not know independently whether the case has gone to a grand jury.
In such an investigation, the FBI evaluates whether officers have violated a person's civil rights. The FBI's website says that in 2012, "color of law" cases fell into five broad areas: excessive force; sexual assaults; false arrest and fabrication of evidence; deprivation of property; and failure to keep from harm.
Asked Wednesday about the status of the investigation, FBI spokesman Debra Green said "No comment" in an email.
Justice Department spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle and others in the federal agency have not returned emails or phone messages seeking comment.
Kenney's arrest of Cummings was not caught on video.
Shock has said he suspended Kenney for a time because a Conway police officer also on the scene "said he [Kenney] ran up and ... kicked him [Cummings] in the head" before deputies had handcuffed Cummings. Shock said Cummings had a 9mm pistol that he had fired at police during the chase.
Rice said that since the May encounter, the sheriff's office has had all of its officers participate in "use-of-force training."
"I believe we have done everything we can do, everything possible" administratively, since then, Rice said.
The FBI letter requested copies of "any and all records or documents maintained by your Department which pertain to this incident." Among those, it said, were statements by incident reports, complaints, crime scene and other pertinent photographs, audio and videotapes, including 911 tapes, and medical records of Martin and Cummings.
The May chase began after deputies stopped the two men's car near Interstate 40 in Mayflower after having that vehicle and another one under surveillance. The men pulled over but then fled, authorities said.
Hiland's office reviewed the arrests and concluded no felony charges were warranted against the deputies.
Conway City Attorney Chuck Clawson could not be reached by phone late Wednesday for comment about the status of any misdemeanor investigation. Clawson had asked that a special prosecutor be appointed.
A Section on 01/14/2016