On May 31, 1971, Carnell Russ, a 24-year-old Black man, was driving his family toward Monticello, Arkansas, with his wife, six children and a cousin when they were stopped in Yorktown by State Trooper Jerry Green for allegedly speeding. Trooper Green ordered Russ to follow him to the Star City jail to post a $23 bond. At the jail, Officer Charles Lee Ratliff and trainee Norman Draper met the family. An argument followed after Russ asked for a copy of the speeding ticket before paying the bond. According to Ratliff he struck Russ with his pistol during an attempted cell placement and the weapon accidentally discharged, while Trooper Green said no significant struggle occurred and that Ratliff extended his arm and shot Russ. Russ died at a Little Rock hospital the next morning.

Ratliff was arrested and later indicted by a grand jury on voluntary manslaughter; an all-white jury acquitted him in January 1972. The Russ family, assisted by the NAACP, pursued a wrongful death suit; after appeals a federal jury awarded the family $288,000 in 1979, but Ratliff had left the state and the family never received the award. Green and Draper were not criminally charged but were named in the civil case. Does anyone have additional local details or memories about the Star City stop or the legal aftermath?