4-year prison term for former Franklin County sheriff after assaulting 2 inmates

Little Rock, Arkansas — According to prosecutors, after a federal jury convicted a former Arkansas sheriff of assaulting two jail inmates, he was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday.

A 51-year-old, Anthony Boen, former Franklin County sheriff, 51, was sentenced in a Fort Smith federal court after his conviction on two counts of depriving inmates of civil rights in 2018.

Boen was also sentenced to two years of supervised release after completing his prison term and fined $4,800.

According to trial evidence, Boen had punched a detainee in the head multiple times as the shackled detainee sat on the floor in December 2018. A few minutes later Boen went to the detainee’s cell and punched him again before spitting on him. The month before, Boen slammed a detainee into the floor and tore at his hair during interrogation, according to trial evidence.

According to testimony, when the events were investigated, Boen pressured deputies who witnessed the assaults not to give truthful accounts of them to investigators.

Russell Wood, Boen’s attorney had sought a prison sentence of no more than two years.