Former Arkansas Representative Convicted After Violent Arrest Caught on Video

(AP) – FORT SMITH, Arkansas. (AP) — A former Arkansas police officer who pleaded guilty to violating the civil rights of a man he repeatedly punched during a violent arrest captured on video in 2022 will be serving time in a federal medical facility.

U.S. District Judge Susan O. Hickey on Wednesday sentenced former Crawford County Sheriff Levi White to 63 months, with credit for time served, and ordered him confined to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners of the United States, according to court documents.

Hickey recommended that White receive medical health counseling and treatment while confined at the facility in Springfield, Missouri, and be placed on supervised release for two years.

White pleaded guilty in April to one count of felony deprivation of rights under color of law during the Aug. 21, 2022, arrest of Randal Worcester in front of a convenience store.

White and another former deputy, Zackary King, were charged by federal prosecutors last year in connection with the arrest. A bystander used a cellphone to record the arrest in the small town of Mulberry, about 140 miles northwest of Little Rock, near the Oklahoma border. Video of the arrest was widely shared online.

King, who also pleaded guilty, was scheduled to be sentenced Thursday.

An attorney for White did not respond to a message late Wednesday afternoon.

A third officer captured on 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 showed King and White attacking Worcester while Riddle held him back. White also slammed Worcester’s head into the sidewalk.

Police said Worcester was being questioned for threatening a convenience store employee in the small nearby town of Alma when he approached one of the officers and punched him in the head before being arrested. Worcester is scheduled to go to trial in February on charges related to the arrest, including resisting arrest and second-degree assault.

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 criminal proceedings related to the arrest are ongoing.