LITTLE ROCK -- A jury deliberated for a second day Tuesday in a lawsuit alleging two sheriff's deputies used excessive force during a 2011 encounter with a then-16-year-old boy and his mother on a street in their hometown of Dover.
The jury opened deliberations Monday and resumed work Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Little Rock. They are considering a lawsuit filed in 2012 by Eva and Ron Robinson and their son Matthew.
The Robinsons allege Dover deputy Steven Payton overreacted after he drove past the mother and son while they were on a nighttime dog walk and stopped to question them. The family's attorney, Pat James, said Payton called for backup and one responding officer unnecessarily used a stun gun on the teenager while the two were restrained and arrested.
Payton testified that as he drove by, he saw what appeared to him to be a large man approaching a small woman, and slowed down to make sure she wasn't in danger. Eva Robinson had started out on the walk without her son, who was crossing the street to join her.
Payton said he saw the "man" appear to put something in his pocket, reach down and throw something, and said the circumstances of the situation aroused suspicion. According to Payton, Matthew Robinson and his mother were defiant and uncooperative during the encounter.
In closing arguments, James said the officers were "amped up" and "out of control." He asked jurors to order payments of about $64,000 in medical bills for Matthew Robinson and $1 million in punitive damages to him and his mother.
"Whatever you do is not enough," James said to the jury. "They have lost their innocence."
Defense attorneys Keith Wren and Burt Newell said the Robinsons were the ones out of control.
"If you live in a civilized society, now and then you've got to put up with some minimal intrusions by police, and if you just use your common sense, it's over in a matter of minutes," Wren said.
State Desk on 10/07/2015