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August 12th, 2021 
Awake Goy 
Accused of beating detainees who
were not resisting or fighting back, an Arkansas sheriff was recently convicted
on two counts of deprivation of rights under color of law.
On November 21, 2018, Franklin
County Sheriff Anthony Boen pushed a detainee identified as “B.E.” onto the
floor and grabbed his hair or beard during an interrogation. Two weeks later on
December 3, 2018, Sheriff Boen struck a detainee identified as “Z.G.” multiple
times in the head while the detainee was shackled to a bench inside the
Franklin County Jail and was not resisting.
Both detainees suffered bodily
injury as a result of Boen’s actions.
In November 2019, Boen was indicted
on three
counts of deprivation of rights under color of law. On Monday, a federal
jury convicted the sheriff on two counts of deprivation of rights under color
of law.
“The defendant abused his power as
the top law enforcement officer in Franklin County, Arkansas, by assaulting
people in his custody,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the
Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a press
release. “The Justice Department will continue to vigorously prosecute
officers who abuse their authority to make clear that no one is above the law.”
“Anthony Boen swore an oath to
support the United States Constitution and the State of Arkansas Constitution,”
stated Acting U.S. Attorney David Clay Fowlkes of the Western District of
Arkansas. “His actions clearly violated not only the civil rights of these
individuals but also the trust of the people of Franklin County. Cases
like this are very important to our office because they involve the most
personal and basic of civil rights: the rights to be protected and unharmed
while in the custody of law enforcement officers.”
“The vast majority of law
enforcement officers in the United States steadfastly protect and serve their
communities,” asserted Special Agent in Charge James Dawson of the FBI Little
Rock Field Office. “When officers charged with enforcing the law break their
oaths and violate the rights of others, they gravely injure the public’s trust
in law enforcement.”
Boen’s sentencing is expected to
happen in about four
months. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison followed
by two years of supervised release.
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