Hankins will resume his duties as bailiff to Circuit Judge William Storey sfter his suspension

A woman was locked for four days in a tiny holding cell in a northern Arkansas courthouse, forgotten by the authorities and left without food or water, the local Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday.
 
The woman, Adriana Torres-Flores, 38, a longtime illegal immigrant from Mexico, slept on the floor with only a shoe for a pillow, and with nothing to drink except her own urine, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported. There was no bathroom in the cell.
 
A bailiff had apparently forgotten that he placed Ms. Torres-Flores, a mother of three, in the cell last Thursday, and simply left her in the empty courthouse, in Fayetteville, over the weekend, said the chief deputy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Department, Jay Cantrell. A snowstorm meant that there were far fewer people than usual working at the courthouse on Friday.
 
“He just flat forgot about her,” Mr. Cantrell said, adding that the bailiff, Jarrod Hankins, had been placed on administrative leave, having been on the job a few months. “It was just a horrible mistake,” Mr. Cantrell said.
 
When the bailiff opened the door of the cell on Monday, Ms. Torres-Flores was lying on the floor, the deputy said. The cell typically holds prisoners for no more than an hour, measures 9 feet by 10 feet and contains only a metal table with benches that swing out from it. It has a steel door and concrete walls.
 
“From what I understand — it sounds horrible to say — it was an oversight,” said Nathan Lewis, Ms. Torres-Flores’s lawyer. “No one is walking around there Friday, and she just got left in there over the weekend.”

FAYETTEVILLE - Nightmares plague Adriana Torres-Flores' sleep.

 
She dreams of the four days she spent imprisoned without food, water or a toilet in a small holding cell. Her sleeping cries have woken her son, Cruz Torres.

 
"I hear my mother when she is sleeping," her son said Wednesday as he stood on the small porch of the home the Torres family shares not far from the heavy traffic of Thompson Street in Springdale. Torres-Flores, a 38-year-old Mexican woman, speaks little English, so her son speaks for her.

 
In the meantime, Jarrod Hankins, the circuit court bailiff who placed Torres-Flores in the holding cell last Thursday morning and forgot her until Monday, was suspended Wednesday without pay for 30 days, according to a statement by Washington County Sheriff Tim Helder.

 
Hankins is an employee of the sheriff's office and will resume his duties as bailiff to Circuit Judge William Storey after his suspension. Storey said he supported Sheriff Tim Helder's decision. Storey chose Hankins as his bailiff after interviewing several potential candidates because of Hankins' dedication, intelligence and integrity.