FORT SMITH, Ark. (AP) – A fired northwest Arkansas police officer was sentenced to four years’ probation after pleading guilty to felony battery for kneeing an inmate in the face.
Christopher Munoz Brownlow, 33, also faces various fines and fees in addition to the second-degree battery charge for attacking an inmate at the Logan County jail last year, according to court records. The former police officer in Paris, Arkansas, entered his guilty plea Friday in Logan County Circuit Court.
An inmate in a cell became “irate” and began yelling and kicking the door when Brownlow was dropping off inmates at the Logan County jail on Sept. 14, 2019, a probable cause affidavit says. A detention officer asked for the inmate to be restrained. But when Brownlow and another officer arrived at the cell, they found the man calm, lying on his cot, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Wednesday.
Brownlow told the inmate he would be restrained even though the man told the officers he would calm down, according to the affidavit. After that, Brownlow kneed the man in the left side of his face “in a diving motion,” the affidavit says.
The inmate suffered several fractures around his eye and another in his jaw and had to undergo surgery to insert a titanium plate and screws in his face, according to the affidavit.
Brownlow’s sentence includes nearly $2,000 in fines and fees in addition to monthly payments of $50 and $10 administration fee, starting on Nov. 20.
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