The process for legal action has begun in response to the viral footage from early August showing a violent interaction between a former Jonesboro police officer and a Craighead County inmate.
In the video recorded by the camera in the officer’s cruiser, the inmate, Billy Lee Coram, appeared to be attempting to strangle himself in the back seat. The video shows former officer Joseph Harris opening up the door and punching Coram several times.
According to the affidavit, Coram had escaped from a hospital while he was being treated. Authorities were able to locate Coram near the hospital and return him back to the Craighead County Detention Center where the incident occurred.
In the lawsuit, screenshots of video surveillance footage show Harris allegedly lunging at Coram, attempting to punch him again after he got back to the jail.
On August 9th, one day after the exchange happened, Harris was fired from the Jonesboro Police Department in response to the video.
Mike Laux, an attorney representing Coram, noted the use of excessive force by Harris knowing the camera was filming the interaction. “That officer must have a reason to believe that his supervisors are okay with this kind of stuff, that he is going to be protected by his supervisors,” Laux said Tuesday.
Laux also points to records obtained revealing this was not the first time the Harris used excessive force. Six months after his initial hiring, Harris was suspended for 22 hours after officials reviewed footage of him throwing a man to the ground outside a Jonesboro nightclub.
Harris has also been named in a lawsuit connected with the death of Brock Austin Tyner last may.
At the time of his hiring, Harris’s records show he had no prior law enforcement experience and did not attend the basic police training course. The lawsuit in Tyner’s case alleges that the city failed to train its officers properly and that Harris and Officer Payton Perkins “acted with deliberate indifference” to Tyner’s rights.
Michael Kiel Kaisar, another attorney representing Coram, notices a pattern in Harris’s complaints. “He was a ticking time bomb that the city of Jonesboro unleashed on its citizens and exploded for the world to see on August 8 of this year,” Kaisar said.
Kaiser also notes that Coram has yet to regain his peripheral vision in his left eye and suffers from trauma associated with the incident.
Arkansas State Police and the FBI are both investigating the incident, though no official charges have been filed against the officer yet.
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