Man Files Suit Against Lonoke County Jail Officials
By: Import User
Updated: January 7, 2009
A man who was in the Lonoke County jail on a misdemeanor conviction claims in a federal lawsuit that he was put in a cell with convicted felons who beat and sexually assaulted him.
The suit was filed behalf of a 37-year-old Carlisle man by attorney Barbara Elmore of Lonoke, a former prosecutor.
The suit says the man was arrested in August on a warrant for failing to perform community service on a misdemeanor conviction and was held for the next 41 days in an overcrowded cell with convicted felons.
The man told authorities looking into the case that his eyes were blackened, his ribs were broken, he was sexually assaulted, and he was strangled to the point of unconsciousness.
Sheriff Jim Roberson -- a defendant in the lawsuit -- says he finds it hard to believe that all the abuse claimed could have occurred without jailers knowing or intervening.
