FORT SMITH, Ark. (AP) — A former Arkansas law enforcement officer who pleaded guilty to violating the civil rights of a man he repeatedly punched during a violent arrest caught on video in 2022 will be serving time in a federal prisons medical facility.
U.S. District Judge Susan O. Hickey on Wednesday sentenced former Crawford County sheriff’s Deputy Levi White to 63 months, with credit for time served, and ordered that he be confined at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners, according to court documents.
Hickey recommended that White receive medical health counseling and treatment while confined at the facility in Springfield, Missouri, and be put on two years of supervised release.
White in April pleaded guilty to a felony count of deprivation of rights under color of law during the Aug. 21, 2022, arrest of Randal Worcester outside a convenience store.
White and another former deputy, Zackary King, were charged by federal prosecutors last year for the arrest. A bystander used a cellphone to record the arrest in the small town of Mulberry, about 140 miles (220 kilometers) northwest of Little Rock, near the border with Oklahoma. Video of the arrest was shared widely online.
King, who also pleaded guilty, was scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday.
An attorney for White did not respond to a message late Wednesday afternoon.
A third officer caught in the video, Mulberry Police Officer Thell Riddle, was not charged in the federal case. King and White were fired by the Crawford County sheriff. The video depicted King and White striking Worcester as Riddle held him down. White also slammed Worcester’s head onto the pavement.
Police have said Worcester was being questioned for threatening a clerk at a convenience store in the nearby small town of Alma when he tackled one of the deputies and punched him in the head before the arrest. Worcester is set to go to trial in February on charges related to the arrest, including resisting arrest and second-degree battery.
Worcester filed a lawsuit in 2022 against the three officers, the city of Mulberry and Crawford County over the arrest. But that case has been put on hold while the criminal cases related to the arrest are ongoing.
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