By The Arkadelphian

A former Clark County Detention Center employee was sentenced Tuesday to the jail where he once worked.

James Clay Atkins, 35, pled guilty Tuesday in Clark County Circuit Court to filing a false police report in a January incident in which Atkins claimed a camouflaged man shot at him at his residence on Highway 51 South. 

In a negotiated plea agreement with deputy prosecutor Greg Vardaman, Atkins was sentenced to 60 days in the Clark County jail and 60 months’ probation and ordered to pay $4,430.82 in restitution. Atkins was represented by Janice Williams of the public defender’s office.

On January 6, Atkins requested an ambulance and police, alleging that he heard glass breaking outside his residence and found a man he recognized from a previous encounter on January 5.

Atkins claimed that the man damaged his vehicle and physically assaulted him. Atkins said that when he returned fire, the man fled eastward. 

Arkansas State Police led the investigation because of Atkins’ employment as a Clark County jailer. ASP detectives concluded that Atkins had fabricated the January 6 incident and charged Atkins with filing a false police report, a class D felony.

Atkins was terminated from the Clark County Detention Center on January 12.