Former Arkansas officer arrested, charged with assault in beating of handcuffed inmate
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/01/2025 (605 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
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.
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.