Playing ‘Baby Shark’ on repeat as punishment gets jailers charged, Oklahoma DA says

Jail officers accused of forcing inmates to listen to the children’s song “Baby Shark” on repeat have been charged in Oklahoma, officials say.

Detention officers in the Oklahoma City jail handcuffed inmates to a wall and loudly played the song over and over for up to two hours, according to the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office. The officers subjected inmates to the “cruel and inhuman” treatment on several occasions in late 2019, officials say.

Christopher Hendershott, Christian Miles and Gregory Butler are charged with misdemeanor cruelty to a prisoner and conspiracy. Miles and Butler played the music, and Hendershott, who was their supervisor, is accused of failing to stop the mistreatment, according to court documents filed this week.

“It was unfortunate that I could not find a felony statute to fit this fact scenario,” Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater told The Oklahoman. “I would have preferred filing a felony on this behavior.”

Sheriff P.D. Taylor said Miles and Butler resigned during an internal investigation, and Hendershott retired, the newspaper reported.

Surveillance video shows the detention officers removing inmates from their jail cells and handcuffing them in a room where defendants meet with attorneys, according to court documents. Other times, they handcuffed inmates to a wall and forced them to stand, prosecutors say.

Miles told investigators he and Butler used the tactic as a way to punish inmates because they felt the detention center wasn’t correcting behavior, documents show.

None of the inmates appeared combative in the surveillance videos, officials say.

Investigators say the music put “undue emotional distress on the inmates who were most likely already suffering from physical stressors.”

A jail trust took over operations of the detention center in July.

This story was originally published October 6, 2020 at 12:43 PM with the headline "Playing ‘Baby Shark’ on repeat as punishment gets jailers charged, Oklahoma DA says."