Indicted Arkansas cop wiped his phone to destroy evidence of brutal assault on Black suspect: FBI

An Arkansas sheriff's deputy indicted following a viral video of him brutally assaulting a Black suspect wiped his department-issued phone to destroy evidence of the interaction, according to an FBI search warrant affidavit obtained by The Daily Beast and revealed on Monday.

"Then-Crawford County Sheriff’s Deputy Levi Garrett White 'performed a factory reset that erased all data' on his department-issued iPhone 11 Pro Max after he brutally assaulted a shackled Randal Ray Worcester, states the affidavit. White deleted a series of incriminating text messages roughly 90 minutes before department brass arrived to pick it up two weeks after the incident, it claims," reported Justin Rohrlich. "The feds say White, 32, was worried the bystander’s video, which showed him punching Worcester in the head and slamming his skull into the pavement, would 'ruin his life and cost him his job.' On the evening of the incident, White allegedly texted a former colleague from his personal phone, 'I’ll fight back with someone trying to do that stupid shit every time. I don’t care.'"

Worcester, who is Black, was a suspect after a gas station attendant called in a report of a person threatening him with a knife. Bystanders said he appeared to be in "mental distress," and he surrendered a folding knife to officers before the assault began. The video recorded by a bystander showed White and a fellow deputy, Zach King, terrorizing Worcester in front of a Mulberry, Arkansas convenience store. Worcester was held on the ground and punched repeatedly in the head.

A third officer on the scene, Thell Riddle, was on the scene but did not join in the beating, per the FBI affidavit.

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"On Sept. 8, Dawa and another officer showed up to 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 back out 'in a matter of seconds with the cell phone in his hand,' it says. He said the battery was dead and that he didn’t have a charger," said the report. The FBI retrieved the phone four days later, only to find it was reset to factory settings.

King and White were fired after the video became public, and were subsequently indicted on federal civil rights charges for using excessive force, which comes with up to 10 years in prison if they are convicted.