Working4You: Missing Evidence? Van Buren County says arrest video was deleted after glitch in system
VAN BUREN COUNTY, Ark – After a year of investigations on the Van Buren County Sheriff's Office, Working4You is finally putting eyes on a highly followed and controversial arrest in Van Buren County.
In January of 2024, Ronnie Dollar was arrested outside the Sheriff's Office for disorderly conduct.
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The initial report says Dollar was aggressive and chaotic, but others claimed the former Chief Deputy acted wrongly during the arrest.
Working4You asked for video of the arrest but was told the incident was 'under investigation.'
The video was eventually obtained in December of 2024, but a portion of it was missing.
'The only thing that the sheriff's office claims was preserved was the video footage outside, which is bad enough as it is, but it still leaves questions about how it got up to that point,' said former Van Buren County Sheriff's Office employee Casey Cresswell.
Working4You obtained two videos, one taken from inside the lobby, and the other taken from outside the department.
In the video recorded in the lobby, we see Ronnie Dollar pace around for about a minute and a half, and just a woman comes up to the window, the video cuts to black.
We miss the entire conversation leading up to the arrest.
'What you miss is the aggressor is the one behind the badge, not the one getting jailed and accused of these false charges,' said Cresswell.
Cresswell says she was working the day of the arrest and claims there is a different version of the video that was deliberately deleted in an attempt to protect Adams.
In the months following the arrest, Dollar and his attorney Kent Tester filed a civil lawsuit against Van Buren County Sheriff Eric Koonce, his former Chief Deputy Derek Adams, and investigator Lt. Chasta Harrison.
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The lawsuit claims the three violated Dollar's due process and deliberately deleted evidence.
A letter sent to Sheriff Eric Koonce in March 2024, shows Tester asking the department to preserve 'all audio and video evidence related to the incident.'
A month later, Tester got word from the deputy prosecutor's office, the email reads as follows:
'The attachment is screenshots from Sheriff Koonce's cell phone; he took screenshots from the original video, but it was clipped. The original no longer exists.' – Phillip W. Ellis, T.A.
The sheriff's office told Working 4 You the missing video was caused by a glitch in the system.
'When the footage was downloaded to the disk, the video in the lobby wasn't checked as we were unaware of any issues. After it was discovered, it was too late to redownload the footage as our cameras only hold footage for 25 days,' said Lt. Chasta Harrison.
Cresswell worked at the Van Buren County Sheriff's Office for about a year, and says she never witnessed any recording issues with the security cameras.
'I have never seen a glitch happen to where the video footage wasn't recorded properly,' said Cresswell. 'In live time, the cameras they did have installed, they would lag bad in live time.'
Ronnie Dollar's attorney claims Dollar was assaulted by law enforcement during the arrest and said had the entire video been recovered the answer would be easy.
Working4You reached out to the sheriff and Lt. Harrison for additional comment. They said they could not speak on any ongoing or open investigations.
KARK 4 News has not been able to get ahold of Derek Adams.
'They need to be completely cleaned out or retrained. I really don't think they belong in law enforcement at all. They probably just need to be decertified and find a different career path for all those that are involved,' Cresswell said.
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Ronnie Dollar and his attorney Kent Tester have requested a jury trial in the Eastern District of Arkansas. The trial is scheduled for May.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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