The Associated Press
Jonesboro, Arkansas (AP) -- The Craighead County sheriff said Tuesday he expects to finish an investigation this week concerning law enforcement officials accused of beating a Brookland man they arrested.
Sheriff Jack McCann’s internal investigation stems from the March 31 arrest of Terry O’Neil, 48, and involves four deputies, six jailers, two state police officers and a Brookland police officer.
McCann said he may complete his inquiry Wednesday.
“We will get this taken care of quickly,” he said.
The state police is conducting its own investigation.
Four Craighead County jailers and Brookland patrol officer Aaron Murphy were suspended with pay Monday in connection with the alleged beating.
O’Neil told authorities that law officers shocked him several times with an electrical stun gun and punched him at his home. He said several jailers kicked him at the jail. Officers also assaulted and shocked his girlfriend, Dana McDaniel, 41, of Brookland, he said.
“Whatever the outcome of the investigation, he didn’t deserve that,” McCann said.
The sheriff’s office and state police investigators have interviewed about 25 witnesses and had more to talk with Tuesday.
“This has shut us down. We can’t take care of our other business,” McCann said. “The morale of our office and the detention center is really bad right now ... We have a lot of good people, and we’re very serious and dedicated to our job, and something like this pops up and it just hurts everybody.”
McCann did not name the four jailers he suspended. Brookland Police Chief Mark Rusher said he suspended Murphy.
Police records indicate O’Neil was charged with disorderly conduct, possessing drug paraphernalia and resisting arrest. O’Neil was released on his own recognizance. Police charged McDaniel with resisting arrest. She posted a $2,000 bond.
McCann said O’Neil and McDaniel initially made contact with the Brookland patrol officer the night of March 31. Murphy was talking to two people while sitting in his patrol car when O’Neil and McDaniel pulled up in their car. What was said is under investigation, McCann said. Murphy called for assistance, and that’s when the other officers arrived.
O’Neil said Murphy told him he, two deputies and a state trooper were going to search their home for drugs. McDaniel told Murphy he couldn’t search the house without a warrant and as she walked toward the house Murphy and others knocked her down and shocked her at least twice with the stun device, she said. O’Neil tried to help her, he said, but police began to beat him.
The two were taken to jail where, O’Neil said, several jailers kicked him in the head.
“They were laughing about it,” O’Neil said. “They kept asking what they would do next. It felt like a bomb went off in my head. They really scrambled me up. After the 10th or 15th kick, I felt something pop, and I thought I had lost my eye. I thought they were trying to kill me.”
O’Neil’s injuries were severe enough that jailers sent him to a local hospital, where he spent the night. Police released O’Neil from their custody the next day, when he was still in the hospital.
O’Neil has served prison sentences on five drug-related convictions in Arkansas. In August, he was released from prison after serving a year and eight months.