In a video footage, Clark County deputies pull the arms of inmate O'Neal Payne through a cell door to remove handcuffs on Aug. 13, 2021. Payne filed a lawsuit against Clark County on Jan. 17, 2025 alleging excessive force, among other claims.
Public record / OPB
A former Clark County Jail inmate filed a lawsuit last week against the Southwest Washington county over allegations of excessive force, negligence and a failure to train employees.
The case stems from an Aug. 13, 2021 incident when inmate O’Neal Payne, who is Black, was lodged in the jail. The suit alleges that during a routine check of his cell for contraband and to remove garbage, deputies slammed Payne into a wall, tied a rope around his wrists and forcibly “dragged him across the ground in the jail.”
It argues that Payne’s constitutional rights to be free from excessive force and to receive adequate medical care under the 14th Amendment were violated, among other claims. His attorneys are seeking undetermined damages, attorney fees and a jury trial.
Video footage of the 2021 incident provided by the plaintiff’s attorneys shows Payne, handcuffed in his cell facing a deputy before he is shoved into a wall. Then, two more tackle him to the ground. A red tether is tied to his handcuffs.
“The video inside the cell, at the same time shows Inmate (redacted) attempting to stand up, but only making it to his knees before he is yanked backward with enough force that his foot flew up over his head,” reads a description from an internal affairs report of the incident from the Clark County Sheriff’s Office.
Footage outside the cell shows deputies using the tether to pull Payne’s arms through a food port in the door up past his elbows.
As part of an internal affairs investigation, all the deputies involved in the incident were interviewed in March 2022. During those interviews, three deputies independently stated that their coworker, Deputy Robert Hanks, exhibited unnecessary force when quickly pulling Payne’s handcuffed arms through the cell door passage to remove his handcuffs.
Individual deputies stated that they didn’t think Payne was given a chance to comply before he was pulled across the cell floor and that the use of force violated policy.
In one interview, Deputy Stephen Welborn said a person’s arms should not be pulled through the cell door past their elbows.
“When he’s handcuffed behind his back which is already difficult for some people but to have his elbows back, um, through the food flap, that’s rotating your arms in a degree not a lot of people can do,” Welborn said.
In transcripts of his interview, Hanks said Payne refused to comply with deputies when they were giving him directions. He said he worried Payne was going to assault staff in his cell and that’s why he pushed him into a wall.
The report acknowledges that corrections deputies are expected to make split-second decisions in unpredictable circumstances. But it goes on to say that “while various degrees of force exist, each deputy is expected to use only that degree of force that is reasonable under the circumstances to successfully accomplish the legitimate corrections purpose in accordance with this policy.”
The 2022 internal affairs report determined that there was one violation of the sheriff’s office’s use of force policy.
A spokesperson for Clark County declined to comment, saying they don’t provide statements on pending litigation.
Payne’s attorney, Alicia LeDuc Montgomery, was also not immediately available to comment. In a press release on Wednesday, LeDuc Montgomery wrote, “The actions of the jail deputies were not only excessive but also indicative of a broader failure to adequately train personnel, and constituted negligence on the part of Clark County leadership.”