Government finishes calling witnesses in Franklin County sheriff trial

The jury trial for Franklin County Sheriff Anthony Boen is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. Monday at the Judge Isaac C. Parker Federal Building in Fort Smith. 
(NWA Democrat-Gazette/Thomas Saccente)
The jury trial for Franklin County Sheriff Anthony Boen is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. Monday at the Judge Isaac C. Parker Federal Building in Fort Smith. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Thomas Saccente)

FORT SMITH -- A use-of-force trial for a River Valley sheriff has moved into its next phase.

The federal government rested its case against Sheriff Anthony Boen, 51, in U.S. District Court on Thursday afternoon. Boen's attorneys, Russell Wood and Paul Prater, began presenting their case immediately afterward, calling on witnesses who were then cross-examined by one of the government's lawyers, Brandon Carter.

Boen pleaded not guilty to three federal charges of deprivation of rights under color of law on Dec. 17, 2019. His indictment accuses him of using unreasonable force against detainees three separate times from September 2017 to December 2018, all of which resulted in "bodily injury."

Jurors spent a majority of Thursday's court session hearing testimonies from and cross examinations of the government's four remaining witnesses. One was Travis Ball, a former employee of the Franklin County Sheriff's Office. Ball said Wednesday he witnessed Boen hit an inmate who had been shackled to a bench in the county jail in the face on Dec. 3, 2018.

Ball testified before this happened, he and a few others, including Boen, were en route to the Fort Smith restaurant Bricktown Brewery for a dinner. Boen received a phone call just as the group arrived and afterward told Ball a jailer reported an inmate, Zachery Greene of Ozark, had bitten another inmate. However, this wasn't an emergency, so the group proceeded to have dinner, during which both Boen and Ball drank alcohol.

The group afterward stopped by a liquor store in Ozark before going to the Sheriff's Office, according to Ball. Ball followed Boen and another member of the group, Chris Roberson of the company Justice Solutions, to a place in the facility called "the shower room," where they found Green lying on a mattress with his head propped up on a metal door.

Ball said the shower room, which doesn't actually have a shower, is used to detain people by shackling them to a metal bench bolted to the floor. In addition, the security camera in the hall to the room only captures a fraction of the room's interior, with almost all of it being out of view.

Ball said he saw Boen speak to Green, after which Boen took a cup of water Green had and threw it in Green's face. Boen then struck Green with a closed fist on the right side of Green's face more than once, although Green remained on the mattress.

Ball, who said he hadn't noticed any injuries on Green beforehand, saw afterward Green appeared to have blood on his face. He later left the Sheriff's Office with the group for Boen's residence, where more drinking ensued. He approached the FBI and began cooperating with their investigation into Boen some time later.

Wood questioned Ball during his cross examination Thursday about an oath Ball had taken as a law enforcement officer to uphold the U.S. Constitution. Wood pointed out the federal government could have charged Ball with failure to protect had he seen an officer use excessive force on an inmate and did nothing and inquired as to whether Ball made a decision to be a witness in this case rather than a defendant. Ball later clarified no such arrangement with the FBI took place.

Wood also brought up how Ball never reported the incident to the Arkansas State Police, who could have investigated it, before meeting with the FBI. Ball revealed during the cross examination he told many people about his desire to be sheriff before the Green incident, including Boen, and was aware of Boen's popularity during past election cycles.

Dakota Cowens, who worked for the Sheriff's Office during the Green incident as a jailer and dispatcher, recounted how, on the night of the incident, he ran into the shower room after hearing a commotion from the jail's dispatch/booking room to find an inmate hitting Green. He saw after pulling the inmate off Green that Green had a cut on his lip.

Cowens said Boen arrived later in the evening with others, although he didn't mention Ball. He said he saw Boen and Roberson walk into the shower room via the security camera and heard arguing and two slapping sounds from the dispatch/booking room.

Cowens said during his cross examination from Wood that some time later, he saw Green had a bloody lip.

Dalton Miller, a current Sheriff's Office employee who was a patrol deputy at the time, testified being in the "deputy room" of the jail when Boen approached him and asked to talk to him in the hall.

When they got to the shower room, Miller said Boen grabbed one of his sleeves and positioned him so his body obscured the doorway from the security camera. Boen then asked Miller if he could trust him, and after Miller replied in the affirmative, Boen leaned into the room and hit Green in the face three to four times. Miller said Green, who had been sitting with a minor laceration on his lip and blood on his nose from the earlier altercation with another inmate, didn't hit back.

Miller said while Wood was cross examining him Ball wasn't with him in the shower room when this took place. However, he believed Ball was on the jail premises.

Jurors also heard from Matthew Ferguson, a special agent with the FBI, who provided details about the agency's investigation into Boen.

The trial will continue at 8:30 a.m. today.

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The Franklin County Jail

Franklin County finished construction on a new $7.9 million jail in Ozark with 104 beds in 2020. The previous jail was built in 1974 and was determined by the 5th Judicial District Criminal Detention Facilities Review Committee not to meet minimum state jail standards. Crowding had been a problem with it over the years.

Source: Franklin County Judge Rickey Bowman

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