Two former Oklahoma jail officers sued for allegedly forcing inmates to listen to “Baby Shark” for hours as punishment were put on probation for two years.
Judge Martha Oakes handed down the order Thursday after Christian Charles Miles and Gregory Cornell Butler Jr. pleaded no contest to misdemeanor cruelty to a prisoner, court records show. They were also charged with conspiracy, but prosecutors dismissed the charge.
A federal civil rights lawsuit filed by four inmates in 2021, accused Miles and Butler of using excessive force and discipline tactics described as “torture events.”
Inmates John Basco and Daniel Hedrick alleged that they were forced to stand in a stress position while listening to “Baby Shark” at different times in late 2019. The standing stress position is described in the suit as being left to stand for hours while still handcuffed. Basco died about a year after the suit was filed after he was found unresponsive in his cell. Officials later determined that he died from an accidental fentanyl overdose, according to NBC affiliate KFOR of Oklahoma City.
Another prisoner, Joseph Mitchell, said he was pulled from his cell in November 2019 and placed in a room where he was forced into a “standing stress position” for three to four hours while he was handcuffed behind his back, according to the lawsuit.
Officers then played “Baby Shark” on repeat so loud “that it was reverberating down the hallways,” it said.
“Baby Shark” exploded in popularity in 2019. That year, it entered the Billboard chart at No. 32 for the week of Jan. 12. The song’s streaming growth was credited for its landing at the spot, Billboard said.
Ja’Lee Foreman Jr., another inmate, said in the suit that he was not forced to listen to the song but was placed in a stress position and then kneed in the back and slammed into a wall by Miles. Foreman alleged that Miles spat on him as Butler laughed.
The suit said that the inmates were pre-trial detainees at the Oklahoma County jail…
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