FORT SMITH -- A former Benton County jail inmate's lawsuit claiming excessive force wrapped up Wednesday in U.S. District Court after a deputy testified he reacted to aggression from the inmate.
James Clayton Solomon, 47, claimed jail deputies beat him at the request of two deputy U.S. marshals over a letter he wrote in April 2008 to U.S. District Judge Robert Dawson in which he said he hoped Dawson would die a slow and painful death.
Dawson had sentenced Solomon to five years in prison for violating his supervised release, and Solomon fled from Arkansas days before he was to have reported to prison to begin serving the sentence.
The violation was committing rape, for which he was sentenced in July 2008 in Washington County Circuit Court to 45 years in prison.
After his capture in Los Angeles in mid-April and his return to Arkansas, he was housed in the Benton County jail.
Former jail deputy Charles Strickland testified Wednesday that he and another deputy entered Solomon's cell Aug. 22, 2008, after Solomon taunted Strickland and challenged him to a fight, which Strickland said was a violation of jail regulations.
Strickland was part of the county's Special Emergency Response Team that had run an operation in the cellblock that day where Solomon was housed. Strickland said he and his partner went to Solomon's cell because controllers in that block told Strickland that Solomon was banging on his cell door, also a jail violation.
When controllers opened Solomon's cell, Solomon challenged Strickland to take off his helmet and pads and to fight him in the cell.
Solomon testified earlier in the trial that Strickland had taunted him constantly since his arrival at the jail in late April 2008.
The deputy with Strickland ordered Solomon to put his hands on the wall, and Strickland said he grabbed Solomon because he was moving slowly. When Solomon put his hands on the wall, Strickland said, he pushed off from the wall, swung around and tried to punch Strickland.
Strickland said he kicked Solomon twice in the thigh with his knee to try to get him under control. The two fell to the floor and continued to struggle while another deputy, whom Solomon did not sue, stunned Solomon multiple times with a Taser.
Strickland said Solomon was handcuffed and taken to a holding area. He said he never wrote a disciplinary report against Solomon for that incident.
Solomon testified he was hit with the Taser constantly during the struggle and was beaten by deputies, but that deputies initiated the aggression.
Solomon also had complained that deputies entered his cell May 22, 2008, threw a blanket over him and beat him. He said he could not identify any deputies involved in the beating.
Two deputy marshals, Susan Jones, now retired, and Corey Thomas, also were included in the lawsuit as threatening Solomon for writing the letter and urging Benton County jailers to punish him.
Eastern District of Arkansas U.S. District Judge J. Leon Holmes, who presided over the bench trial, signed an order Tuesday dismissing Jones and Thomas from the lawsuit at the request of Solomon's attorneys.
An attorney for the deputies, Jason Owens of Little Rock, argued before Holmes on a motion to dismiss the case, saying all but nine of the original 29 Benton County defendants have been dismissed from the case.
He said there was no proof presented at the trial that any of the deputies used excessive force against Solomon and violated his constitutional rights. Owens also noted that Solomon conceded during his testimony that he was a liar.
Solomon's attorney, Colin Johnson of Fayetteville, held to Solomon's claims that he was subjected to excessive force by the jailers.
He said there was no documentation or investigation of Solomon's excessive-force claims against the sheriff's office. He said the sheriff's office had a custom of abuse in the jail regardless of what the sheriff's policy said.
Holmes said he would issue a written ruling in the case.
State Desk on 05/25/2017