FORT SMITH -- James Clayton Solomon testified in a federal court civil trial Monday he regretted writing a letter to U.S. District Judge Robert Dawson because he was afraid it would lead to recriminations.
The letter he wrote in April 2008 said he hoped Dawson would die a slow and painful death.
His fear came true, he said, when he asked drivers where they were taking him while being transported to jail after being arrested as a fugitive.
Solomon said they laughed and said, "'You're going to hell, boy. You're going to Benton County.'"
Solomon said he was beaten twice by groups of deputies while in the jail. He said two deputy U.S. marshals -- Susan Jones, now retired, and Corey Thomas -- had asked the Benton County deputies to give Solomon special treatment.
The threats and beatings violated his constitutional rights, Solomon claimed. He filed suit against the sheriff's deputies and deputy marshals in 2010 seeking damages.
The marshals and deputies have denied the allegations.
Solomon testified Monday before U.S. District Judge J. Leon Holmes from the Eastern District of Arkansas, who will decide the case instead of a jury. The trial is expected to last most of the week.
Solomon, 47, appeared in court in a white Arkansas Department of Correction uniform. His hands were cuffed and attached to a waist chain, and his legs were manacled. Two uniformed corrections officers sat with Solomon in court.
Solomon said he wrote the letter to Dawson in early April 2008 as he was about to flee the state. He was free on bond with orders to report to a federal prison within days to begin serving a five-year prison term for violating federal supervised release rules. He also was to go on trial that month on a rape charge in Washington County that eventually landed him in prison for 45 years.
After being arrested in Los Angeles, Solomon was transferred to Oklahoma City, where Jones and another officer were to drive him back to Fort Smith. He said when he got into the vehicle, he saw a copy of his letter to Dawson on a clipboard in the front seat.
He said he recalled Jones scolding him on the drive to Fort Smith for writing the letter to Dawson and telling him he was going to pay for writing that letter.
Later, in Fort Smith, Thomas punched him in the stomach in a courthouse hall, Solomon said.
He also said Thomas told him, "'I've got someplace to send you where they'll take care of you real well.'"
In the Benton County jail, he was under 23-hour lockdown, was kept away from other inmates, was fed a meager diet and was constantly taunted by jailers, in addition to the beatings, Solomon said.
The first beating, he said, was May 17, 2008, when he said he was given a "blanket party." He said an undetermined number of deputies entered his cell while he was sleeping, threw a blanket over him so he could not identify them, took him to a different room and beat him before returning him to his cell.
He said he filed a grievance report at the jail the next day but he believes it was destroyed.
The second beating was Aug. 22, 2008, he said, when members of the Special Emergency Response Team entered his cell, where they beat and stunned him multiple times with a Taser. The team, he said, was conducting a sweep of the jail wing during which he said several other inmates were attacked by officers.
Photographs taken the next day by his lawyer's assistant showed red marks on his neck, behind an ear and on his head. There also were several red spots on his torso that Solomon identified as Taser burns.
Five of the 10 Benton County deputies being sued were in the courtroom Monday, but Solomon couldn't identify them when asked to point them out.
Solomon said he wrote a letter to Keith Ferguson, the sheriff at the time, about the attack. He said he met with the sheriff and an investigator shortly after the attack and said Ferguson assured him he would investigate.
Six months later, Solomon said, he received a letter from Ferguson in which the sheriff said he determined the incident never occurred.
NW News on 05/23/2017