The Arkansas State Police is investigating after a Highway Patrol corporal was accused of writing a traffic citation to spite a small Crittenden County police department in northeast Arkansas.
Jericho Police Chief Roy Hill filed a complaint with state police May 10 stating that Cpl. Mickey Strayhorn had stopped an on-duty officer and cited the officer for speeding and failure to wear a seat belt. Hill said Jericho police had cited Strayhorn's son for speeding and that Strayhorn stopped the officer and issued a warning citation in retaliation.
The Highway Patrol is a division of the state police.
The state police released the complaint under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
State police spokesman Bill Sadler said Friday that Strayhorn, 51, has remained on duty since the investigation began. Sadler declined to comment further.
"Until the investigation is formally closed, it would be inappropriate to respond to questions," he said.
The complaint states that Hill learned May 9 that Manuel Borjorn, one of the Jericho Police Department's four officers, had been pulled over while on duty by a state police trooper and issued a warning citation for driving more than 15 mph over the posted speed limit.
The trooper, identified as Strayhorn, also cited Borjorn for driving without a seat belt. Another officer in the vehicle was not cited.
Two weeks earlier, Jericho police had cited Strayhorn's son for speeding. It was the second time since Feb. 29 that Jericho police had ticketed Strayhorn's son for exceeding the speed limit.
The first citation was dismissed through a "courtesy request" from the Crittenden County sheriff's office, according to the complaint, but not the second.
"As a result of my officers issuing a citation to the trooper's son, it is my total belief that Trooper Strayhorn was retaliating against my officers ... Trooper Strayhorn made a direct point to come to Jericho to do what he did," Hill wrote in the complaint. "He came into Jericho headed northbound and turned around in Jericho and went back southbound where he spotted and stopped my officers. Trooper Strayhorn then went back northbound through Jericho after the stop. Again that let me know he was targeting my officers."
Strayhorn, who became a state police trooper in 1992, is assigned to Troop D in Forrest City. As a highway officer, his patrol area includes neighboring Crittenden County. Jericho, a town of about 114 residents, is along Arkansas 77 between Clarkedale and Marion.
Arkansas law requires vehicle drivers and front-seat passengers to wear seat belts. No exemption is listed for law enforcement officers. Strayhorn noted that during the traffic stop, according to the complaint.
"I gave you a warning, OK? You got to wear your seat belt. None of us are exempt," he reportedly told Borjorn, a three-year veteran of the department. "Speeding is a serious thing. You know that, the way you all operate up there, right?"
Hill, who has been Jericho's police chief for six years, declined in an interview to say whether Borjorn was speeding and not wearing a seat belt. Hill said Jericho police are conducting an investigation into the traffic stop.
"I'm going to let them continue to do the investigation," he said. "In regard to that, you walk outside and you look at any police department and state police department. You look and tell me if they're wearing their seat belts."
The Little Rock Police Department, the largest in Arkansas, requires its officers to wear seat belts, in accordance with state law.
"We are supposed to, by policy, wear seat belts while we're in a city vehicle," department spokesman Richard Hilgeman said. "We are trained in our driving school to wear our seat belts, and we're trained to get out of the vehicle and get the seat belt off quickly."
Hilgeman, a nine-year veteran of the department, said he couldn't recall an instance of a Little Rock police officer being pulled over by another law enforcement agency.
"I don't know if it's happened here, necessarily, in quite some time," he said. "I do know there have been officers in other states that's happened to."
Jericho police seek to have the traffic citation removed from Borjorn's record. The department also seeks criminal charges against Strayhorn for "abuse of power and authority," the complaint states.
Hill said he plans to file an additional complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice. He said the traffic stop violated Borjorn's civil rights. Hill declined to elaborate.
The dispute is not the first in Jericho over traffic enforcement. In August 2009, a Jericho police officer shot an assistant fire chief in municipal court during an altercation over a traffic ticket. Willie Frazier, police chief at the time, suspended patrols for several weeks after the shooting, saying the town needed time to "cool off."
Hill said the conflict with state police is the first with another agency since he became chief in 2010.
"We get along with everybody," he said. "Since we've been there, we've made great, excellent working relationships with the state, the county -- I mean everybody."
Metro on 05/23/2016
