HUNTSVILLE, Ark. — A jury ruled against a former Huntsville student resource officer (SRO) for using excessive force and tasing a 17-year-old student on July 24.
Although former Huntsville High School SRO Lynn Whittle was already found guilty of third-degree battery in 2023, a trial began on July 22 to determine damages after Freeman filed a federal lawsuit.
According to court documents, a federal jury ruled in favor of Justin Freeman, now 18. In total, the jury awarded Freeman $68,000 in damages. The lawsuit originally asked Whittle to pay over $450,000 in damages.
"The point of this was not just to compensate Justin, certainly, he's entitled to that," Freeman's Attorney Patrick McPhail said. "We wanted to bring this case to try to prevent things like this from happening in the future ...We think it can make a difference and in the way that law enforcement treats everyone, certainly students in school, deserve to be protected."
Freeman was reportedly brought to the SRO's office during school on Feb. 9, 2022, after a dispute about which class he was supposed to attend.
While in the office, former Huntsville High School SRO Lynn Whittle is accused of threatening to take Freeman to the courthouse when he refused to speak until his father arrived.
Whittle then "grabbed [Freeman] by the throat, pushed his head back against the wall, and lifted Freeman from his chair by his throat ... Whittle proceeded to forcefully slam him to the ground, striking his head on a ledge in the process," according to the lawsuit.
After that, the lawsuit said Whittle tased Freeman and handcuffed him while the prongs were still embedded in his hip.
On Wednesday, documents say the jury in the Western District of Arkansas found that evidence showed:
- Whittle used excessive force against Freeman
- Whittle arrested Freeman without probable cause
- Whittle's actions against Freeman constituted battery
- Whittle's actions were the direct cause of damages sustained by Freeman
- Whittle's conduct violated Freeman's Fourth Amendment rights
- Whittle was aware that his conduct would result in Freeman's injury or intentionally pursued the conduct to cause injury to Freeman
McPhail said his client wanted to relay to the jury his respect for law enforcement.
"We want to show our law enforcement officers, who are putting their lives on the line for us every day, the utmost respect," McPhail said. "We don't want folks like Mr. Whittle and his actions in this case to reflect poorly on them."
Whittle's attorney Colin Heaton provided the following statement:
"My client maintains his actions were lawful, but appreciates the court and jury and will live with the verdict."
The Simon Law Firm, which represented Freeman, gave the following statement to 5NEWS:
“This is vindication. Our client, a high school student, was publicly accused of being an unruly juvenile and starting an altercation with the defendant, a Sheriff’s Deputy.”
“He was being questioned by the defendant at school regarding an argument with a teacher, but declined to submit to questioning and called his guardian to come up to the school. As a minor, he had every right to refuse to answer questions from law enforcement until his guardian arrived. But the defendant didn’t want to wait. So, he arrested our client without probable cause, choking and tasering him in the process.”
McPhail said that although this situation has had an impact on Freeman, he said his client is looking forward to moving on from the situation.
"He testified that he's certainly not holding other police as guilty parties, just because of what Mr. Whittle did," McPhail said. "But he knows that there's certainly others out there that are like this, that we want to make sure that we're sending the message that this can't happen."
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