LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A former Arkansas police officer who was caught on video beating a handcuffed inmate behind his patrol automobile final yr has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault.
Former Jonesboro Police Officer Joseph Tucker Harris, 29, was arrested on Tuesday on expenses of felony expenses of aggravated assault, submitting a false report, and misdemeanor third-degree battery. Harris was launched from a county detention heart on $15,000 bond.
Harris was fired in August after after he was caught on his patrol car camera punching, elbowing and slamming a automobile door towards the pinnacle of detainee Billy Lee Coram, who was being transferred from a neighborhood hospital again to jail in Craighead County.
A cellphone quantity was not listed for Harris, and it was not clear if he had an lawyer within the case. An lawyer who represents Harris in a federal lawsuit filed by Coram didn’t reply to an e-mail late Wednesday afternoon.
The federal lawsuit Coram filed towards Harris, the town of Jonesboro and Jonesboro’s police chief over the beating is scheduled to go to trial in Could 2026. Coram’s lawsuit claims his constitutional rights have been violated.
In a roughly 12-minute video, Coram is sporting a hospital robe and choking himself with a seatbelt wrapped round his neck because the automobile is shifting. After the automobile pulls over, Harris opens the door and punches and elbows Coram a number of instances within the face as he unwinds the belt.
Harris later slams the automobile door towards Coram’s head. Based on the federal lawsuit, Coram had been taken to the hospital after ingesting a baggie of fentanyl and had run away from the hospital when he panicked. He had wrapped the seatbelt round his neck to attempt to gag himself to dislodge the fentanyl he believed was nonetheless in his system, the lawsuit mentioned.
Copyright 2025 The Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials will not be printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.