The woman who filmed cops brutally beating a man later told FBI agents she was "frozen in shock" because the beating was "so violent."
An Arkansas sheriff's deputy filmed brutally beating a man pleaded guilty to federal civil rights offenses on Friday.
Levi White, 34, is now in the custody of the U.S. Marshal Service, according to the court docket. He faces up to 10 years in prison after changing his plea three weeks before his federal trial.
The charge stems from an incident on Aug. 21, 2022, when White tracked down 27-year-old Randal Worcester at a local gas station in Mulberry, a town located approximately 125 miles west of Little Rock on the state's border with Oklahoma.
Law enforcement officers wanted to speak with Worcester amid allegations he threatened a gas station attendant earlier in the day. White was joined by a fellow Crawford County Sheriff's Office deputy, Zachary King, and Officer Thell Riddle of the Mulberry Police Department.
In an application for a search warrant seeking White's cell phone, agents with the FBI allege that Riddle's dash cam recorded the three men speaking with Worcester for a little over three minutes without incident.
The dash cam video then shows Worcester stand up quickly and tackle White after he allegedly tried to grab him by the neck, according to the warrant.
What happened next is not recorded on the dash cam video as the three men are on the ground, but a bystander had begun to film the incident from their phone around this same time, according to the warrant.
The FBI described the events recorded on that cell phone video in their search warrant:
The video begins with RW lying stretched out on the ground with all three officers on top of him: King on his legs, Riddle on his midsection, and White on his head. The video shows that while R.W. lays on the ground, White kneed R.W. and punched R.W. multiple times in his head area, then lifted R.W’s head and slammed it into the ground. After the head slam White again delivered multiple strikes with his hand to R.W.’s head area. The cell phone video also captured multiple knee strikes by King to R.W.’s lower body region as R.W. was laying on the ground. king then stood up and moved around R.W. to the other side of his body, then kicked and kneed R.W. in the back and punched R.W. in his section. The video shows that Riddle did not strike R.W.
The cell phone video taken that day was posted to social media, where it quickly racked up millions of views.
It did not take long for the video to also grab the attention of both state and federal agencies, who opened up investigations into the incident within 24 hours.
In January 2023, a grand jury indicted both White and King on a charge of deprivation of rights under color of law in 2023, saying that the two "struck R.W. multiple times while R.W. was lying on the ground" in violation of his "right to be free from the use of unreasonable force by a law enforcement officer."
Riddle was investigated for his alleged part in the incident and was not charged.
King, like White, entered a guilty plea to a federal civil rights offense on Friday ahead of his trial.
White now faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000 while King faces a maximum sentence of one year in prison, one year of supervised release and a fine of up to $100,000.
“The videos from this incident are a shocking display of the violent deprivation of civil rights committed by these officers,” said U.S. Attorney Clay Fowlkes for the Western District of Arkansas. “No person in police custody should ever feel threatened or should ever experience violence at the hands of those who are sworn to protect the public. We will continue to vigorously pursue justice in cases involving the violation of civil rights in the Western District of Arkansas.”
Alicia D. Corder, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Little Rock Field Office, also released a statement on Friday, which said, “Disgraceful actions, like those of the two Crawford County sheriff’s deputies, negatively impact all members of Arkansas law enforcement. A gun and a badge do not give someone the right to ignore the Constitution. The FBI’s ArkTrust Task Force will continue to work to restore the public’s trust in law enforcement by investigating officers who violate the civil rights of citizens in our community.”
Lawyers for Worcester, King and White did not return requests for comment. The two men were initially suspended and then fired from their jobs in the wake of the incident.
Worcester is suing both men and said in his lawsuits that he is a victim of police brutality.
Worcester was charged in connection to the August 2022 incident with second-degree battery, resisting arrest, possessing an instrument of crime, obstructing governmental operations, making a terroristic threat in the first degree and disorderly conduct. He entered a plea of not guilty to all these charges and his next hearing is scheduled for June.
