US judge clears Arkansas police officers in backseat suicide

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A federal judge has ruled in a civil rights case that two Arkansas police officers didn’t violate the civil rights of a 21-year-old man who killed himself in 2012 while handcuffed in a police car.

U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker of Little Rock on Wednesday dismissed claims that Chavis Carter was the victim of unreasonable search and seizure. Baker found that Carter was detained after lying to Jonesboro police officers Keith Baggett and Ronald Marsh about his identity while riding in a pickup truck with its lights off at night. The officers did not find a gun on Carter.

Chavis’ mother, Teresa Rudd, argued the city of Jonesboro and its police chief at the time didn’t adequately train Baggett and Marsh, who she said detained her son without cause.