Former Jonesboro officer gets 30 days after video shows him beating handcuffed inmate
By Adam Roberts
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JONESBORO, Ark. (KHBS, KHOG) — A former Jonesboro police officer caught on video beating a handcuffed inmate will spend 30 days in jail.
Joseph Tucker Harris, 29, pleaded guilty to third-degree battery and filing a false report with a law enforcement agency.
In exchange, prosecutors dropped a charge of aggravated assault in the case. Harris was sentenced to spend 30 days in jail and 90 days under monitored home confinement. He will then be on probation for four years.
Video from the back of Harris’ patrol car in August 2024 showed him punching and elbowing the victim in the face. It also showed him slamming the car door on his head.
The Jonesboro police chief watched the video about the county sheriff’s office told him about the incident. He fired Harris after viewing the footage.
“In the moment, I thought he was going to kill me. I’ve dealt with a lot of cops, but never one as vicious as Officer Harris,” Billy Lee Coram said in a statement released by his attorneys in 2024. “He was stone cold; he didn’t say nothing and was just hell-bent on punishing me.”
Harris was transferring Coram from the hospital back to the county jail.
Harris’ record Harris had worked for the Jonesboro Police Department for five years before the beating.
He was suspended in 2022 for using excessive force during an arrest at a nightclub.
He was a defendant in a wrongful death lawsuit filed in June 2024 over the death of an inmate in the Craighead County Detention Center.
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