NOTE: Court suits change when new motions or other filings are made. The information on the four suit that have been filed stemming from complaints regarding conditions in the Baxter County Detention Center were up to date as of January 13.
Four lawsuits have been filed in federal court by individuals based on alleged conditions at the Baxter County Detention Center.
One of the suits was filed in December, one in November and one each in August and September.
A fifth federal suit was filed in late December by the estate of a man who was taken from the jail to Baxter Health in January last year where he died. A link to a story on the wrongful death suit filed by the estate of Larry Charles Babin, Jr., can be found here LINK.
The other suits were filed by 63-year-old William E. Smith, 34-year-old Dusty Rhoades, 38-year-old Cody Hastings and 29-year-old Tyler Sutterfield.
William Smith – Smith was arrested in mid-July last year after he was alleged to have made threats to kill a number of people. Smith was charged with three counts of aggravated assault of a family or household member, being a felon in possession of a firearm and violation of a protective order.
Smith’s federal suit alleges that excessive force was used against him when he was arrested resulting in several injuries. He also alleges ill treatment at the jail, including not having his medical needs met, not being provided with a mattress and having his mail tampered with.
He alleges the lack of a mattress and pillow has caused him “great pain and suffering.”
In his complaint, Smith outlines a large number of wrongs that have allegedly been committed against him by law enforcement, jail staffs, courts and those who have been involved in his arrests in Baxter County and other areas.
In one grievance, Smith objected to the food served at the jail. “We feed enemy combatants better meals,” he wrote.
As part of his lawsuit, Smith is also asking the court to transfer him to the Boone County Detention Center to prevent what he calls “further infringement” of his rights at the Baxter County jail.
In his filings, Smith mentions other similar type suits that he has filed in Stone County as well as in the States of Ohio and West Virginia. Court records show those suits contain many of his current complaints against the Baxter County jail.
At the initial stages of his Baxter County criminal case, Smith chose to represent himself but has since switched to an attorney from the Public Defender’s office.
Dusty Rhoades – Rhoades has three active criminal cases open on him in Baxter County. Two were filed in March and one in August.
The charges he faces include third degree assault, second degree battery, theft by receiving, theft of property, breaking or entering, impairing the operation of a vital public facility and false imprisonment.
In his most recent case filed August 14, Rhoades was charged with attacking a fellow inmate and breaking his jaw.
He also faces charges stemming from the theft of a truck and with going through vehicles at a local park and taking items from at least one of them.
Rhoades had a psychological examination in Springdale on January 8. The exam was requested to determine if Rhoades is fit to proceed in his cases and if he is capable of understanding the criminality of his acts.
After checking into the county jail, Rhoades claims his early requests to meet with mental health professionals “were ignored or deemed frivolous.”
He alleges that the lack of proper mental health screening, would likely end up having him assigned to a regular living pod “where tensions are high, often resulting in assaults.” Members of the jail staff, Rhoades claims, “are indifferent” to such conditions.
Rhoades also claims his grievances filed with jail staff were never answered “correctly” and there was no appeal beyond the jail administrator.
An affidavit filed in the case by the custodian of records at the jail refutes that statement, claiming any detainee who is not satisfied with the Jail Administrator’s response to a grievance can file an appeal to the sheriff within 48 hours of the receipt of the response from the administrator.
According to the affidavit, between the time Rhoades was booked into the jail on April 8 last year and the time his complaint was filed in late September, he had filed approximately 22 grievances or requests.
The documents deal with work assignments, library issues, clothing and entertainment requests.
In the affidavit, it is claimed that Rhoades never submitted any grievances regarding the alleged denial of mental health care or unconstitutional conditions of confinement, which are the issues he raises in his filing with the federal court.
In answering the suit, the defendants contend that Rhoades did not exhaust his administrative remedies to appeal decisions on his grievances, although those remedies were available to him. The exhaustion of administrative remedies is required under the Prison Litigation Reform Act before taking the matter to federal court.
The defendants are asking that Rhoades suit be dismissed.
Cody James Hastings – The suit filed by Hastings alleges that from the time he entered the Baxter County Detention Center on August 31 last year, jail staff began what was described in the complaint as a “clandestine custom, practice or habit of applied punishments beginning with a no mattress policy.”
The suit further alleges that “any verbal expression or protest of any kind dealing with what Hastings terms the “inhumane” conditions at the jail’s segregation unit would be met with retaliation or trumped-up misdemeanor charges.”
Hastings claims that “the conditions in the segregation unit were appalling and gross and would shock the conscience of this court.”
He claims that the threat of punishment for speaking out about the problems he saw at the jail, violated his First Amendment right to express himself.
Hasting’s lawsuit claims he was once made to sleep on the floor next to a toilet which he termed “sadistic.”
He also claims he had been placed in a cell across from a mentally disturbed inmate who “flung feces, spit and food” at him. He said his “pleas to be moved went unanswered for two weeks.”
Hastings is seeking $25,000 in compensatory damages and asks that a jury decide on punitive damages. He also asks the court to enjoin the jail and jail staff from using what he calls, “the current no mattress policy” as punishment.
Hastings has been in jail since he was arrested and charged with attacking his ex-girlfriend. A Baxter County sheriff’s deputy responded to a 911 call reporting a physical domestic disturbance at a resident along County Road 310.
While the deputy talked with the victim, Hastings was reported to have started yelling at the woman and then rushed at her.
The deputy is reported to have ordered Hastings to stay back and that Hastings replied he would “do whatever I want.”
Hastings was described as “highly agitated” and appearing to be under the influence of some type of narcotic.
During the argument, the victim said Hastings grabbed her by the throat for a few seconds. The deputy noted a “faint bruise” on her neck.
The victim said she had been in a relationship with Hastings but they had broken up and he had moved to Missouri.
Tyler Sutterfield – The main claim in the lawsuit filed by Tyler Sutterfield focused on “inadequate medical care” at the jail. Sutterfield claims he awoke one morning and was unable to open his left eye and was experiencing what he described as numbness in the entire left side of his face.
He said he feared he had had a stroke.
Sutterfield said it was not “until after I kept complaining” that he was eventually referred to the Baxter Health emergency room. He alleges he was diagnosed with nerve damage in the facial region.
Sutterfield claims jail staff “left me to lay on a steel bunk with no mattress” and that when he was first booked into the facility, he slept “on a concrete floor.”
The lawsuit claims that the jail maintained “a policy of pain as punishment.”
Sutterfield is seeking $25,000 in compensatory damages and asks that punitive damages be set by a jury.
Sutterfield was in the Baxter County Detention Center on charges in three active criminal cases, including drug possession and theft of property.
He is now serving a six-year prison sentence handed down on November 6, 2024, and is housed at the Ouachita River Corrections Unit in Malvern.
A mailing sent by the federal court to Sutterfield was recently returned because he had changed addresses but had not notified the court of his new address. There is a note in his federal suit giving him until January 29 to provide a new address or face dismissal of the action. A number of documents were sent to his address at the jail but had not caught up with him.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI