Deputies tie handcuffed man to rope, drag him across jail cell floor in WA, lawsuit says

TACOMA – A man who was detained at a Washington county jail has scars from when he was tied to a rope and dragged across his cell floor by corrections deputies, according to a new federal lawsuit.

O’Neal Payne was handcuffed behind his back by three deputies who first entered his cell at the Clark County Jail in Vancouver on Aug. 13, 2021, to collect his food trays, the lawsuit says.

One of them, Robert Hanks, lunged at Payne as he spoke with another deputy, then pushed Payne toward his bunk and slammed him “face-first into a corner of the cell,” according to a complaint, which says this was captured on surveillance footage.

Shortly afterward, the deputies tackled Payne “face down to the ground” before two other deputies arrived with a red rope, the complaint says.

The deputies tied Payne’s handcuffs to the rope and then “quickly left,” according to the complaint.

Then they yanked the rope “without warning” and started pulling it through a slot in the cell door, the complaint says. Hanks is accused of directing them to do so.

The deputies dragged Payne across the floor, according to the complaint.

The deputies are seen pulling the rope from outside the cell in footage released by the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, KGW reported. At one point, Payne’s hands are seen being pulled through the door slot.

Afterward, the deputies removed Payne’s handcuffs and pulled the rope out of his cell, the footage shows.

Payne was left with “lacerations to his wrists and hands, rug burn, deep bruising on his knee, permanent scarring on his wrists, and mental and emotional distress,” according to the complaint.

Now, he’s suing for excessive force, failure to train the deputies and negligence. The lawsuit was filed against Clark County, former sheriff Chuck Atkins, Hanks, and the other deputies: Alex Cruse, Janelle Goetz, Brock Hood and Stephan Welborn.

“Dragging a handcuffed Black man around the jail floor with a rope is inhumane and a vile abuse of power,” Alicia LeDuc Montgomery, one of the attorneys representing the case, said in a Tuesday news release.

Clark County declined McClatchy News’ request for comment, as it doesn’t comment on pending litigation, county spokeswoman Joni McAnally said. The sheriff’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

After the incident, the sheriff’s office found Hanks used excessive force and violated policy during an internal investigation, according to a report provided to McClatchy News by Payne’s legal counsel. The other deputies were cleared of wrongdoing, the report shows.

The Pierce County Sheriff’s Office also initiated a criminal investigation into Hanks and referred the case to the Vancouver City Attorney’s Office, which ultimately chose not to charge Hanks, the Columbian reported.

The internal affairs report says that at the start of the Aug. 13, 2021, incident, Payne was “uncooperative and verbally aggressive.”

It notes that during a review of the use of force, reports written by Hanks after the incident “lacked detail and did not appear to accurately reflect the amount of force seen in the video.”

All of the deputies were then interviewed about what happened, the internal affairs report shows.

The first interview mentioned in the report is with Welborn, who brought the rope to Payne’s cell with Goetz as Hanks and the two other deputies were inside his cell, according to the lawsuit.

In his interview, he said he’d finished serving meals and a headcount when Goetz went to get a “tether” and told him they were having an “issue with an inmate,” the report says.

The tether, or rope, is a restraint tool, according to the report.

When asked what he thought of the use of the rope after seeing the video, according to the report, Welborn said the “pull of the tether was a little unnecessary.”

Then, he was asked whether it was necessary for Payne’s arms to “be pulled so far through the food port.”

Welborn said: “Um, when he’s handcuff behind his back, which is already difficult for some people, but to have his elbows back, um, through the food flap, that’s rotating your arms in a degree not a lot of people can do,” according to the report.

He also reportedly said that Hanks, based on the video, appeared to be the main person pulling the rope backward.

In Goetz’s interview, she said she felt Hanks used excessive force, according to the report.

When Hood was interviewed, he reportedly acknowledged it was unnecessary for that many people to be pulling the rope and that “more force was used than necessary.

Cruse also said the use of force was unnecessary and violated policy, the report says.

In an interview, Hanks was asked about his initial use of force against Payne when he entered his cell.

Hanks said that Payne was “unpredictable” and he planned to “put him against the wall,” according to the report, then denied intending to shove him backwards toward his bunk.

Afterward, he’s accused of saying that he wouldn’t have used the rope if Payne was “compliant.”

The report found the decision to use the rope was appropriate, but there should’ve been instructions given to Payne before he was pulled backward.

Hanks used excessive force while pulling the rope and “clearly took control of the situation,” the report says.

Payne was awaiting trial and sentencing when he was dragged by the rope, according to the lawsuit.

In January 2022, Payne was sentenced to nearly three years in prison after he was convicted of trying to solicit two teen girls for sex acts at a mall, the Columbian reported.

He represented himself in the case and maintained he was innocent, according to the newspaper.

With his lawsuit, he seeks an unspecified amount in damages.

“This lawsuit seeks to hold accountable those responsible for this inhumane treatment and to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future,” Jordan Taylor, another attorney representing Payne, said in a statement.