Trial near in suit alleging Arkansas officers' threats, assaults

FORT SMITH -- A trial is scheduled to begin Monday in federal court over a man's accusations that he was threatened by federal deputy marshals and was beaten by sheriff's deputies in the Benton County jail in 2008.

James Clayton Solomon, 47, sued the officials in August 2010 accusing them of violating his constitutional rights. The bench trial before U.S. District Judge J. Leon Holmes from the Eastern District of Arkansas is expected to last most of the week.

Solomon is serving a 45-year state prison sentence on convictions of rape and failure to appear. He accuses U.S. deputy marshal Susan Jones, now retired, of threatening to retaliate against him for writing a letter to U.S. District Judge Robert Dawson in which Solomon said he wished Dawson would die a slow and painful death.

Solomon also accused deputy marshal Cory Thomas of telling Benton County jailers that Solomon needed "special treatment" in the jail and of punching him in the lower back while Solomon was in custody.

Solomon says he was beaten twice in the jail, once May 19, 2008, by unidentified deputies who threw a blanket over him, and again Aug. 22, 2008, during a Special Emergency Response Team operation in the jail.

He accused the deputies, who are named as defendants with Jones and Thomas, of beating him, stunning him twice with Tasers and hitting him in the neck with a baton.

Solomon says he was deprived of his constitutional rights and "was beaten and tasered, and suffered injuries including, but not limited to, injuries to his knee caps, contusions, back pain, shoulder injuries, Taser burns and other physical injuries, as well as extreme anxiety, paranoia, nightmares, fear for his safety and other emotional distress," according to a court document drawn up by his attorney Colin Johnson of Fayetteville.

Named as defendants by Solomon were Keith Ferguson, the Benton County sheriff at the time; Capt. Hunter Petray; deputies Gene Roland, Chad Wales, Chris Lockhart, James Duncan, Juan Hernandez and Charles Strickland; Sgt. Larry Vaughn; Lt. Paul Carter and Maj. Gene Drake.

According to a pretrial disclosure sheet filed for Solomon, Jones made the threats as Solomon was being transported to Fort Smith from Oklahoma City, where he had been transferred after being arrested in California as a fugitive.

A warrant was issued for Solomon's arrest in February 2008 when he failed to report to the federal probation office in Fort Smith. He had been freed on bond a month earlier after Dawson sentenced him to prison for five years for violating his supervised release on a 1999 federal conviction in Oklahoma for conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine.

Solomon was supposed to report to federal prison April 2, 2008, to begin serving the five-year federal prison term.

The supervised release violation was filed after he was charged in June 2007 in Washington County Circuit Court with raping a woman at his Bodies for Christ Training Center in Springdale, for which he was scheduled to go on trial in Fayetteville in mid-February 2008.

Solomon didn't remain at large for long. A parking ticket led to his arrest April 10, 2008, in Los Angeles. In fleeing Arkansas, Solomon had bought a car from a man but neglected to change the ownership to his name. After getting several parking tickets in Los Angeles, the car was impounded, and the previous owner was notified because the car was still in his name.

The man notified the Marshals Service. Los Angeles authorities set up surveillance and arrested Solomon.

Solomon says in the lawsuit that on the way to Fort Smith, Jones showed him a copy of the letter Solomon had sent to Dawson and told him he would pay for what he wrote. Jones and Thomas told him that he was being "sent to hell" where he would have some sense knocked into him.

He says he heard Thomas and Jones tell a Benton County deputy to be sure Solomon got the "house specialty."

In a pretrial disclosure sheet filed by the government, Jones and a contract guard transported Solomon to Fort Smith. The government denied that Jones showed Solomon the letter. It also denied that Solomon was threatened or that anyone was asked to abuse him.

The document said Thomas was involved in the investigation to locate Solomon after he absconded but did not strike Solomon, threaten him or ask anyone to abuse him.

Attorneys for the Benton County officers wrote in their pretrial disclosure sheet that the Special Emergency Response Team was called to the jail Aug. 22, 2008, to deal with ongoing problems in the housing area where Solomon was held. They denied that deputies beat Solomon.

By the end of the operation, Solomon was yelling and kicking his door, according to the disclosure sheet. Deputies went inside to talk to him and told him to place his hands on the wall, the sheet says.

Solomon pushed off the wall and the two deputies wrestled with him to get control, the sheet says. They ordered Solomon to stop resisting but he wouldn't, according to the disclosure sheet.

Another deputy arrived and, after warning Solomon, stunned him twice with a Taser, the disclosure sheet says. Other deputies arrived and were able to handcuff and shackle Solomon, the sheet says.

Three of the deputies Solomon accused of beating him -- Lockhart, Hernandez and Vaughn -- were not present during the struggle, according to the disclosure sheet.

State Desk on 05/21/2017

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