Ex-Oklahoma inmates: Jailers forced them to listen to ‘Baby Shark’ loop

OKLAHOMA CITY — Three former Oklahoma inmates are calling it cruel and unusual punishment.

The men filed a lawsuit in an Oklahoma City federal court on Monday, claiming that jailers at the Oklahoma County Detention Center forced them to listen to “Baby Shark” over and over at high volumes, The Oklahoman reported.

Daniel Hedrick, Joseph “Joey” Mitchell and John Basco filed the civil rights lawsuit and are seeking actual and punitive damages, the newspaper reported.

Jailers forced inmates to listen to 'Baby Shark' on a loop. Now there's a federal lawsuit. https://t.co/3PJSyrksnh
— The Oklahoman (@TheOklahoman_) November 3, 2021

The defendants are Oklahoma County commissioners, Oklahoma County Sheriff Tommie Johnson III, the jail trust and Gregory Cornell Butler Jr. and Christian Charles Miles, who are two former jailers, The Associated Press reported.

A criminal investigation in 2020 determined that at least four inmates were subjected to the punishment line in an attorney visitation room of the jail in November and December 2019. The inmates were forced to listen to the popular children’s song on a continuous loop for extended periods of time, according to the investigation. The inmates had to stand the entire time with their hands cuffed behind them and secured to a wall, according to The Oklahoman.

Attorneys called repeatedly playing “Baby Shark” a known device to torment, the newspaper reported, citing a 2019 incident in West Palm Beach, Florida, where the children’s song was blared outside to keep the homeless from sleeping in the area.

A fourth former inmate, Brandon Newell, did not join the lawsuit because he was convicted of first-degree murder a month after the Baby Shark incident and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the AP.

According to the lawsuit, Mitchell was left in the “standing stress position” or as long as three to four hours.

“The volume of the song was so loud that it was reverberating down the hallways,” the lawsuit stated.

At the time of the incidents, Sheriff P.D. Taylor was in charge of jail operations. A trust took over the jail on July 1, 2020, and Taylor left office after losing reelection to Johnson, according to The Oklahoman.

Taylor said last year that the two detention officers were suspended from any contact with inmates “as soon as I knew about it.” He said they resigned during the investigation.

“We don’t tolerate it,” Taylor said of the mistreatment.

The Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, CBS News reported.