Former Arkansas officer arrested, charged with assault in beating of
handcuffed inmate
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[January 23, 2025]
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A former Arkansas police officer who was
caught on video beating a handcuffed inmate in the back of his patrol
car last year has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault.
Former Jonesboro Police Officer Joseph Tucker Harris, 29, was arrested
on Tuesday on charges of felony charges of aggravated assault, filing a
false report, and misdemeanor third-degree battery. Harris was released
from a county detention center on $15,000 bond. |
In this image taken from video provided by the Jonesboro, Ark., Police
Department, Jonesboro police officer Joseph Harris, right, uses his fist
to strike Billy Lee Coram, who is handcuffed in the back seat of a
police car, Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, in Jonesboro, Ark. (Jonesboro Police
Department via AP, File) |
|
Harris was fired in August after after he was caught on his
patrol car camera punching, elbowing and slamming a car door
against the head of detainee Billy Lee Coram, who was being
transferred from a local hospital back to jail in Craighead
County.
A phone number was not listed for Harris, and it was not clear
if he had an attorney in the case. An attorney who represents
Harris in a federal lawsuit filed by Coram did not respond to an
email late Wednesday afternoon.
The federal lawsuit Coram filed against Harris, the city of
Jonesboro and Jonesboro's police chief over the beating is
scheduled to go to trial in May 2026. Coram's lawsuit claims his
constitutional rights were violated.
In a roughly 12-minute video, Coram is wearing a hospital gown
and choking himself with a seatbelt wrapped around his neck as
the car is moving. After the car pulls over, Harris opens the
door and punches and elbows Coram several times in the face as
he unwinds the belt.
Harris later slams the car door against Coram’s head. According
to 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 around
his neck to try and gag himself to dislodge the fentanyl he
believed was still in his system, the lawsuit said.
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