County Judge Gerald Robinson is seeking help from the FBI in investigating allegations of excessive force in the county jail.
Robinson delivered a letter to Prosecuting Attorney Kyle Hunter on Wednesday to make the request. The letter reads as follows:
“Due to the recent video obtained from the W.C. Dub Brassell Jefferson County Detention Center and allegations that have come to light regarding excessive force against a detainee by Lieutenant Samuel Baker, I am requesting that you ask the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate the allegations as well as the attached information that the Pine Bluff Commercial requested from the Sheriff’s Office.”
The letter was dated April 4, but a follow-up email from Robinson to Hunter dated April 6 said a person from the county judge’s office had hand-delivered the letter to Hunter that day. Attempts by The Commercial to reach Hunter for comment were unsuccessful.
Personnel files, internal investigation documents and jail surveillance videos obtained by The Commercial through multiple Freedom of Information Act requests revealed that Baker was named in a Jefferson County sheriff’s office internal investigation after being accused of punching detainee Christopher Harris at least 12 times in and around the face in a September incident.
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At the conclusion of the internal investigation, the findings were sent to the Association of Arkansas Counties’ Risk Management office for review. The legal arm of the county association concurred with the decision to fire Baker, and Baker was then terminated on Feb. 9 by Chief Deputy Stanley James. Baker then appealed the termination and was rehired by Sheriff Lafayette Woods Jr., who has declined to comment on his reason for rehiring Baker.
Robinson said that, after watching the video for the first time and reading the narrative when it was released by the newspaper as well as seeing the many responses posted on social media and listening to the comments he got in person, he decided the allegations needed to be taken seriously.
“In light of everything that has arisen and a cry out from the family for justice, I feel like we need to have an external investigation done for the public not to lose trust in our system,” said Robinson.
Several justices of the peace on the county’s Quorum Court also have weighed in, saying what they saw on the videos should not have happened and that they should have been informed when the incident occurred because of the risk of a lawsuit against the sheriff’s office.
Baker has had a troubled history while working for the county jail and at the state Department of Corrections, having been fired twice now from the jail and once from the DOC. In all of those cases, it has been alleged that he mistreated detainees and inmates.
A surveillance video that led to his 2014 firing from the jail showed what appeared to be Baker hitting a detainee who was standing with his arms at his side in the jaw and then Baker leading the detainee down a hallway with the detainee holding his face and head. A narrative of that event said Baker had struck the detainee again and jammed the detainee’s head into a brick wall.
Baker was rehired by the jail in 2018, but a video of the September 2021 incident led to his second firing with the jail. In that video, Baker appears to enter Harris’ cell and hit him repeatedly. Harris’ family said Harris suffered a broken jaw and nose, a fracture of the bone around an eye socket and a missing tooth and that he is still suffering from those injuries from the September incident.
In a 30-minute video interview Harris’ family did with The Commercial recently, members said they had been lied to by the jailers when they asked what had happened to Harris. After seeing the video of the incident, the family members said they could see that Harris had accurately told them what happened to him. The video footage shows that, during the time Baker appears to be hitting Harris, Capt. Ed Adams and Deputy James Carter appear to be observing what is going on before Adams intervenes.
After the internal investigation was completed, Adams received a three-day suspension although two of those days were dismissed, and Carter received a written warning.
Internal documents also show that Harris was not taken to receive medical care for his injuries for five days, and family members say they don’t think he would ever have been taken had it not been for Harris’ defense attorney who visited Harris and demanded he get care.
“What he [Baker] did was assault, and I feel like he should be charged with it,” said the mother of Harris Sheila Kendal. “He should have to face his charges the same way my son and anybody else’s son or any person’s daughter that’s down there.”
The family said they have not been contacted by the county but said multiple lawyers have reached out and they are considering legal action.
Robinson said that, because of the possibility of a lawsuit, he couldn’t contact the family but that he empathized with them.