PINE BLUFF, AR -- A Pine Bluff mother wants justice against the man she claims mercilessly assaulted her son in April. She wants him out of a job in which he recently returned to.
Karen Walls, the mother of 14-year-old Chadarious Avery, said Roderick Shelby, chief of staff for the Sixth Judicial District Court, attacked her son while escorting him back to his room at the Jack Jones Juvenile Justice Center. Avery was returning to his room from court.
Walls said her son mumbled something under his breath that Shelby didn't like. Witnesses tell Walls that's when Shelby went after the teenager.
"My baby had two black eyes, cuts, and bruises. All the skin was off his face and his neck from where Shelby was choking him and he was hitting his head against the brick wall," said Walls.
Walls said she filed a report with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department about the incident. Sheriff Gerald Robinson then commissioned state police to conduct an investigation. It would have been a conflict of interest for the sheriff's department to conduct the investigation because Shelby was a part-time deputy.
Based on the results of the investigation and the surveillance video, Robinson relieved Shelby of his duties.
"He used excessive force," said Sheriff Robinson.
Shelby is still with the Sixth Judicial Court though. We've learned he was either placed on paid leave or suspended from April 18 to June 20. He has since returned to work. FOX 16 News went to the Jack Jones Juvenile Justice Center to see why he has returned, but Shelby's supervisor, Judge Earnest Brown, was out of the office, and his secretary said he would not discuss the matter because it involves a juvenile.
Walls plans to file suit against Judge Brown, Roderick Shelby, and another person who allegedly helped Shelby in the brawl.
We called and left a message for Roderick Shelby. He has not returned our call.
