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Officer Levi Garrett White Accused of Deleting Evidence After Viral Arrest Video

ONE Arkansas police accused last summer of brutally beating a handcuffed man—a shocking scene captured on video by a horrified bystander—deleted his department-issued phone for consumption. destroy evidence concerning him, a FBI search warrant affidavit obtained by The Daily Beast alleges.

The affidavit stated that then-Crawford County Sheriff Levi Garrett White “performed a factory reset and erased all data” on an iPhone 11 Pro Max issued to him by the department after he brutally attacked the shackled Randal Ray Worcester. White deleted a series of incriminating text messages about 90 minutes before management came to receive it two weeks after the incident, it claimed.

The feds said White, 32, was worried that the bystander’s video, which showed him punching Worcester in the head and banging his skull on the sidewalk, would “ruin his life and make him lose his life.” I lost my job.” On the night of the incident, White is said to have texted a former colleague from his personal phone, “I’m going to hit back at someone trying to do that stupid thing all the time. I don’t care.”

Levi White, after joining the Crawford County Sheriff's Office in February 2021.

Levi White, after joining the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office in February 2021.

Crawford County Sheriff’s Office

The ugly scene took place on August 21, 2022 outside a Mulberry Convenience Store, Arkansas, then footage of the interaction quickly went viral. In it, Worcester, a resident of Goose Creek, South Carolina, can be seen on the ground in the parking lot of the Kountry Xpress market, being punched in the head several times.

“Dammit, man,” the cameraman can be heard saying off-camera. “So bad.”

A second officer, identified by authorities as Deputy Zack King, can also be seen in the footage of the Worcester attack. He and White are fired in October. According to the FBI, a third officer, Thell Riddle of the Mulberry Police Department, was there but did not participate in the beating of Worcester. He is on paid leave, get certificate of appreciation from the mayor at a Christmas party two months later.

Riddle later told the federal grand jury that he was “appalled” by White’s actions, and that they “violated ‘ethical’ and ‘human courtesy’,” according to the affidavit. The oath was filed on January 19.

Immediately after beating video became public, Worcester’s stepfather, Eric Wedding, told The Daily Beast of White and King, “I hope they burn down. Enough is enough.”

Attack on Worcester

It all started with a phone call. Hours before the violent confrontation, a gas station attendant in a nearby town told police he had been threatened by a man with a knife, according to Crawford County Sheriff Jimmy Damante . Worcester, 27, who witnesses said appeared to be in “mental distress,” then rode off on his bicycle. Damante said at the time, King, White and Riddle discovered Worcester sitting on the curb outside the Kountry Xpress, where Worcester became agitated.

Dashcam video from Riddle’s cruiser shows the trio talking to Worcester for nearly four minutes. Worcester, who was white, then “quickly stood up” and White “tried to grab him by the neck,” the affidavit said. But Worcester had “escaped White…and pinned him to the ground,” it said. Riddle and King then jump in, below the dash cam’s field of view — and before the bystanders show up.

Although White later wrote an official report claiming Worcester pinned him down and punched him “several times” during the period when he did not see dashcams or bystanders’ video, Riddle later told jurors he “didn’t see” [Worcester] throw any punch at White,” according to the affidavit.

Worcester, who turned over a folding knife to White before being attacked, looked a bit confused, the affidavit read.

“Are you going to turn this into a conspiracy,” he asked. “Are you going to tell them I killed you?”

“I’m not dead, I’m standing right here,” Riddle replied.

through attorney David Powell

The bystander, who was identified only as “EL” in the affidavit, told the FBI that she pulled out her phone and started recording when she saw the “level or force” the police were using to fight back. back to Worcester.

“She further explained that she was ‘frozen to death’ because the police beat her ‘very violently’,” according to the affidavit.

Her 34-second EL video shows Riddle not attacking Worcester, it said.

That same day, Captain Michael Dawa of the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) told White that the Arkansas State Police would open an investigation into the incident. On August 22, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, a former director of the Drug Enforcement Administration, announced that the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division was opening a second investigation.

“This is not what our law enforcement community stands for,” Hutchinson said at a press conference. “It is not an appropriate response and they will be reviewed and appropriate action taken.”

Also on August 22, the FBI asked CCSO officials to recover White’s work cell phone, according to the affidavit which stated that King turned over his phone to investigators. However, when a CCSO commander called White, he didn’t pick up. Later, two agents went to White’s home and spoke to his mother, “but they couldn’t get White’s phone because he wasn’t home,” the affidavit said. On September 7, attorneys for Crawford County contacted White’s attorney to schedule a pick-up from his phone at 11 a.m. the next day, it said.

Deputy Zack King of Crawford County was fired.

Deputy Zack King of Crawford County was fired.

Crawford County Sheriff’s Office

On September 8, Dawa and another officer arrived at White’s home, where they found him waiting for them on the front porch, according to the affidavit. White went inside to get his phone and came out “within seconds with a cell phone in hand,” it said. He said the battery ran out and no charger.

Four days later, an FBI agent retrieved the phone from CCSO, where Dawa and Testerman charged it.

“When the phone is unplugged from the charger, [I] noticed that the cell phone screen lit up and appeared on the ‘hello’ screen,” the affidavit said. “Based on my training and experience, this ‘hello’ screen appears when an Apple iPhone is first set up or it has been factory reset.”

A forensic examiner was able to find that White’s phone was reset on September 8 at 9:35 a.m. CST—”an hour and a half before CCSO’s scheduled pick-up time,” according to the affidavit. take an oath.

“As a result, the FBI analyst was unable to retrieve any data from the phone, including call logs, text messages, images, or any other information that might be relevant to the call. federal investigation,” it said.

Indictment documents

On September 28, White’s contract was terminated. In a voluntary statement during his hearing, he stated that he had reset his phone to erase personal information such as credit card and banking information.

At the same time, the FBI obtained records on White’s personal iPhone, according to the affidavit. On August 20, the day before the Worcester incident, White did not send or receive any text messages and only made two calls but the next day he made or received 12 calls and 51 texts, affidavit. On August 22, he made or received 26 calls and 48 messages, the feds said.

Among them are documents that “show that White and other officers realized that White used excessive force,” according to the affidavit.

On one occasion, Riddle allegedly sent White a text message describing the incident as a “spanking incident”. He also told White, before White filed his official report, that much of the camera was covered by the hood of his cruiser.

A text from Riddle to White about

A text from Riddle to White about “butt spanking”.

United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas

In texts and calls with a childhood friend, White said he was worried about going to jail for the incident and losing his job. “We may have gone too far, but I just hit my head on the ground and had a concussion,” he said in an affidavit, according to the affidavit. “After we got him down and secured him, maybe things went too far.”

After watching the video, White allegedly admitted to the friend that the footage “looked awful” and “my punches looked horrible”, but insisted he was only “smacking him lightly to make him I stopped moving,” according to the affidavit.

The third set of messages that appear to be incriminating came from the cell phone of a deputy in Johnson County, Arkansas, who had previously worked with White. In a screenshot the deputy provided to the FBI, White said he “struggling” with Worcester for “trying to do that stupid thing.”

Police PD Mulberry Thell Riddle.

Police PD Mulberry Thell Riddle.

Mulberry City

Repeat offenders

The affidavit stated that this was not White’s first stallion race.

In 2020, the FBI claimed White lied to investigators investigating former Franklin County Sheriff Anthony Boen, who was accused of brutally beating a shackled inmate to the point of another deputy. said his bloody face was “like a ‘horror movie’, according to the affidavit.

However, White, who held the prisoner after his arrest, “told the FBI that he didn’t remember whether [the detainee] had facial injuries such as cuts, bruises or bleeding when he arrived at the prison,” the affidavit stated. “White also said he was ‘manipulative’ [the detainee] to a jail cell because [he had] ‘deadly’ as he got out of Boen’s car. However, White told a completely different story after speaking to Boen, claiming that the inmate hit his head against the wall when he was taken to the cell.

The newly sealed search warrant seeks the judge’s permission to search White’s personal cell phone for more evidence.

It also requires authorization for investigators to “press White’s fingers (including thumb) into the Mobile Phone’s Touch ID sensor or insert White’s iris or face into the device’s camera. device to attempt to unlock the device through Touch ID or Face Recognition to search for content as authorized by this command.

On January 19, Judge Mark E. Ford of the United States Courts signed the request.

Worcester was later charged with six counts in connection with the August 21 incident, including assault and resisting arrest. ONE the lawsuit he filed against White, King and Riddle are pending in federal court.

Last month, White and King were indicted on federal civil rights charges for excessive use of force. A lawyer for the couple previously told The Daily Beast that violence was “necessary” to subdue Worcester.

If found guilty, White, who could not be reached for comment on Monday, faces ten years in prison.




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