False-report charges requested

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office has requested that false-reporting charges be filed against an 18-year-old whose claims of abuse at the hands of sheriff's detention officers prompted a candidate for the Sheriff's Office to help bail him out of jail last month.

Kolton Brian Clark was arrested July16 on suspicion of aggravated assault and disorderly conduct after getting into two fights at an apartment complex in Phoenix. A Phoenix police report from the arrest notes the head injuries Clark suffered in the fights that landed him in the Fourth Avenue Jail.

Within days of his incarceration, Clark began telling family members that detention officers in the jail sprayed him with Mace, shot him with a Taser and beat him in one of the facility's "safe cells," which are barren, single-occupancy cells where the agency holds inmates who are considered a danger to themselves or others.

Clark's family admits he was drinking on the night of his arrest. A police report from the incident notes that he blacked out during his time with police and repeatedly asked officers why he was in jail.

Earlier this week, Clark said the assault happened shortly after he was placed in the safe cell. According to Clark, detention officers opened a slot in the cell door and sprayed the Mace, and then a group of detention officers rushed into the cell, shocked him with a stun gun and beat him.

The Sheriff's Office denies Clark's claim.

Video footage from multiple cameras tracks Clark through the entire facility and does not show an assault by deputies or other inmates. The footage shows police officers leading Clark to a sink in a detention cell and taking Clark into the safe cell, where he is stripped and left with a blanket. From about 1:15a.m. to about 10:15a.m. on July17, the tape shows, Clark banged on the cell door, slept and used the bathroom. After 10:15a.m., he was removed from the cell and dressed in standard jail attire.

The booking photo of Clark taken shortly thereafter showed the injuries that Clark claims he suffered at the hands of sheriff's deputies.

Though the alleged assault occurred nearly three weeks ago, Clark's father, Brian, had not seen the jail footage as of Thursday evening. But Brian Clark insists he is committed to finding the truth and claims that the footage, which is time-stamped, shot from multiple cameras and on a continuous loop, was altered or edited by the Sheriff's Office to cover up the assault.

"They can submit charges all they want. Kolton was tased by them; they will have to answer how he got tased in custody and why their own staff told Maricopa Medical Center that the 'shower monster' got him in custody," Brian Clark wrote in a text message on Friday. "They are covering up the fact they beat and tased him. If charges are issued we will deal with them. He is not false reporting. It happened."

Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said his office will review the allegations and make a decision within 30 days about charging him.

Brian Clark, convinced that his son's life was in jeopardy in the county jail system, reached out to Maricopa County sheriff's candidate John Rowan, who helped the family post Kolton's bail. Rowan has since cited the case, and what he describes as his efforts to save someone from Sheriff Joe Arpaio's detention officers, in at least two speeches, both delivered at a meeting of the state Democratic Party last month in Payson.

Rowan did not respond to requests for comment Friday.

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