Chief of Bull Shoals Police Department Arrested for Use of Excessive Force

WASHINGTON—The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arkansas, and the FBI announced today that Daniel Sutterfield, 35, chief of the Bull Shoals Police Department, was arrested yesterday on charges related to his use of excessive force in the arrest of a Bull Shoals resident and a related false report. The complaint and complaint affidavit were unsealed today after Sutterfield’s initial appearance in court this morning before Magistrate Judge James R. Marshewski at the U.S. District Court in Harrison, Arkansas.

In the two-count complaint, Sutterfield was charged with one count of deprivation of rights and one count of falsifying a report. The complaint charges that on July 9, 2013, Sutterfield used excessive force in the arrest of a Bull Shoals resident and then directed an officer to write a false and misleading report regarding the incident in order to cover up and justify the use of excessive force.

If convicted, Sutterfield faces a statutory maximum punishment of 10 years in prison for the civil rights charge involving excessive force and a statutory maximum punishment of 20 years in prison for the falsification charge. If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the court after review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal record (if any), the defedant’s role in the offense, and the characteristics of the violations. The sentence will not exceed the statutory maximum and in most cases will be less than the maximum.

This case is being investigated by the FBI. It is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Cindy Chung from the Civil Rights Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyra Jenner from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Arkansas.

A federal complaint is a written statement of the essential facts of the offenses charged and must be made under oath before a magistrate judge. The charges set forth in a complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.