Arkansas Courts: Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times

Federal suit by former PuCo coroner Garland Camper dismissed

David Koon — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:00:04 -0600

A judge has dismissed the federal discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuit filed last year by former Pulaski County Coroner Garland Camper. The lawsuit had listed both county attorney Karla Burnett and County Judge Buddy Villines as ~~plaintiffs~~ defendants.

Camper resigned in April 2011, and filed his lawsuit the following February. You can read Camper's original lawsuit here.

The County's initial response to Camper's lawsuit, filed the following month, laid bare many sordid details about Camper's termination, including that Camper had once admitted to having sex with a former employee in the country morgue.

Burnett referred questions about the case to David Fuqua, the attorney who handled the case for the county. Fuqua said that he heard about the judge's order through the court's electronic system just before lunch today. "The court dismissed the federal claims and declined to exercise jurisdiction over the remaining state law claims," Fuqua said. "The court doesn't have to decide state law claims if it dismisses all the federal claims... He can't refile any claim that's been dismissed in the case, so in theory he can refile his state law claims."

Fuqua said that he could file a motion with the court to seek an order compelling Camper to pay the County's legal fees, but said he doesn't anticipate filing that motion.

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Disturbance, arrest, after former LRPD officer Josh Hastings spat on in courthouse

David Koon — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:15:02 -0600

Trouble at the Pulaski County Courthouse this morning, with a group of people in the hallway outside the 5th Division Courtroom becoming loud, followed by a woman spitting on former LRPD officer Josh Hastings as he was being led from the courtroom. Hastings had just entered a not-guilty plea to a count of manslaughter in the death of 15-year-old Bobby Moore, who was shot at the Shadow Lakes Apartment complex in West Little Rock after Hastings responded to a burglary call.

According to a Pulaski County Sheriff's Department incident report, a group that had gathered outside the door of the court room began to "be loud and use obscene language about the person in the courtroom." When Hastings was coming out, the report says, a woman police identified as Starkeshia Perkins ran over and spit on Hastings. The report says she then kept yelling obscenities at Hastings as he walked away.

Perkins was taken into custody, and later brought before the court in 5th Division. She was told not to return during Hastings' trial, and a no-contact order was issued. She was then released to deputies, who charged her with 3rd degree assault and disorderly conduct, and she was transported to the Pulaski County Detention Center. Once there, it was also discovered that she had a misdemeanor failure to appear warrant relating to traffic issues.

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Former LRPD cop Josh Hastings pleads not guilty

David Koon — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 12:53:54 -0600

Josh Hastings, the former Little Rock Police Department officer who was charged with manslaughter in January in the August 2012 shooting death of a 15-year-old boy during a burglary call at a West Little Rock apartment complex, plead not guilty to the charge today.

Hastings shot Bobby Moore as Moore and two other teens attempted to flee in a Honda Civic from the parking lot of the Shadow Lake Apartments complex at 13111 W. Markham, where Hastings had been dispatched to investigate a car burglary.

Though Hastings told investigators that he fired on the car because it was speeding toward him and he feared for his life, further investigation produced discrepancies between Hastings' account and the evidence. Hastings was arrested and charged in September 2012. From the affidavit for Hastings' arrest:

While it appears that the vehicle was driving toward Hastings at some point, all of the physical evidence is consistent with statements made by the occupants of the car, indicating that the car was stopped, or in reverse at the time Hastings fired, and not traveling toward him at a high rate of speed, as Hastings indicated in his statement.

Manslaughter is a class C felony. It can carry a sentence up to 10 years. Hastings' trial on the charge is set for June 18-20, with a pretrial hearing on May 20.

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Jason Baldwin, Mara Leveritt talk cameras in court

David Koon — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 21:20:00 -0600

Full house tonight at the Clinton School for a panel discussion featuring "Devil's Knot" author Mara Leveritt and the West Memphis Three's Jason Baldwin, sponsored by the Arkansas Times. On the agenda: a discussion of Leveritt's recent cover story, which makes the case for putting cameras in every courtroom in Arkansas to document proceedings. Times editor Lindsey Millar served as moderator for the event.

Lots more details about tonight's event — and a Kleenex-worthy surprise ending — on the jump...

Both Baldwin and Leveritt discussed how much Baldwin, Jessie Misskelley and Damien Echols owe to what Leveritt called the "extraordinary, miraculous" circumstances by which the cameras of HBO filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky were in the courtroom during the trials that convicted the three men. That footage was eventually used in the landmark documentary "Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills," which spawned a worldwide groundswell of support. Baldwin, who called Sinofsky, Berlinger and Leveritt "heroes," said that if the trials hadn't been recorded, there would have been no movement to free the West Memphis Three, Echols would have been executed, and he and Misskelley would have eventually died in prison "and found ourselves in the prison cemetery."

Leveritt said that with Sir Peter Jackson's new documentary about the WM3 case, "West of Memphis," about to go into wide release at Christmas, and the film based on her book "Devil's Knot" being released next year, Arkansas is "in for another black eye."

"I think it's going to be: wham, wham, wham for the state of Arkansas, and we don't need it," she said. Leveritt said the state could lessen the blow by exonerating the three men and launching a new investigation into the murders, by putting cameras in the courtrooms to make sure all trials can be given proper scrutiny, and by asking judicial candidates in the future how they feel about cameras in court. "This is an opportunity for us to take the lead and show the nation we've learned something from this," Leveritt said.

Baldwin recalled for the crowd the first time he ever saw "Paradise Lost," saying that soon after the documentary aired on HBO in 1996, he was awakened at 2:30 a.m. one morning by an inmate from another barracks, who asked Baldwin if he trusted him. "Please don't let this be some kind of escape thing," Baldwin recalled thinking. "I don't want to get shot."

Baldwin said he was taken to a visitation room, where a TV and VCR had been set up. He was given a Mountain Dew, and then the film began to play. Baldwin said he hadn't know what the film was until that moment.

"It was very difficult to watch," Baldwin said. "To see my family, and the victims' families... to see myself not even knowing what's going to happen." Baldwin said that when the film was over, a friend who watched the film with him jumped up and punched him in the shoulder. "He said, 'J.B.! You're going home!' " Baldwin recalled. "Many, many years later, here I am."

Asked if he ever became jaded while waiting to be freed, Baldwin said he hadn't. "My spirit was always soaring, even though my body was going through hard times... there was no room for being jaded." Still, Baldwin briefly recalled the early days of his life in prison, when everyone thought of him as a triple child murderer instead of an innocent man. The inmates were all waiting on him, he said, resulting in "broken bones." But many eventually came to believe he was wrongfully convicted. "The day I got there," he said, "it was all curses and 'wish you were dead' and spitting and beatings." By the time he left, he said, it was all hugs and tears.

Baldwin said that he's focusing on his school work, and a new non-profit, Proclaim Justice, that works for exoneration for the wrongfully convicted. "There's a phrase that goes around. People say: 'Things happen for a reason,' " Baldwin said. "I believe that. But I also believe you can choose the reason."

Baldwin will speak before the Arkansas Bar Association at the Clinton School tomorrow at noon.

If you're interested, you can read most of the Arkansas Times' original coverage of the West Memphis Three case — including Bob Lancaster's 1994 cover story about the trials, which was the first reporting to ever cast doubt on whether the prosecutions were sound — at this link

UPDATE: This heartwarming bit of color, reported by Times' photographer Brian Chilson after the reporter had dashed away to go post:

After the talk, a crowd gathered around Jason, taking pictures, asking questions, taking more pictures, mostly trying to connect to him somehow. A man in a wide-brimmed hat stood patiently in the back, inching forward, waiting his turn. As he approached Jason, he whispered something to Jason's girlfriend, then turned to a beaming Jason, who stared incredulously back and exclaimed "DAD?!" as Charles Baldwin threw his arms around Jason and picked up the son he has not seen since the day of his release from prison that now long-ago August 11, 2011 in Jonesboro.

He set him back down as Jason held on and stared almost disbelieving before his father told him he loved him, then slowly parted ways. Jason looked on, fighting back a tear as he scratched his head and smiled.

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Arkadelphia triple homicide suspect appears in court

David Koon — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 16:36:49 -0600

Riakos Lizana, a 19-year-old accused in the murders of a man and his two stepdaughters on December 6, appeared in court today, with Clark County Circuit Judge Robert McCallum setting Lizana's arraignment for Jan. 8 and ordering him held without bond.

Police say they tied Lizana to the crime through a bloody palm print found on a bedroom door at the crime scene. Bobby "Chino" Galbraith, 40, and his two stepdaughters. 6-year-old Adiele Crutchfield and her sister Marley Crutchfield, 4, were found dead in their home by the children's mother. An infant daughter belonging to Galbraith was found unharmed in the house. Galbraith was a local tattoo artist. Police have still not suggested a motive as to why Lizana might have wanted to harm Galbraith and the children.

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Arkansas Supreme Court upholds FOI law

David Ramsey — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 13:09:53 -0600

The Arkansas Supreme Court today upheld the state’s Freedom of Information law, overturning a lower court that had ruled part of the law unconstitutional. Good news for advocates of government transparency.

The decision overturns last year's ruling from Sebastian County Circuit Judge James Cox, which had found criminal penalties for FOI violations unconstitutional. The high court’s decision keeps Arkansas’s FOI law, adopted in 1967 and one of the oldest in the country, intact.

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Appeals court orders resentencing for Randeep Mann

Lindsey Millar — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 12:58:50 -0600

Randeep Mann, the Russellville doctor convicted of responsibility for a bomb that nearly killed Trent Pierce of West Memphis, the chairman of the state Medical Board, should be resentenced, a federal appeals court ruled today.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that Mann, who had been sentenced to life, shouldn't have received an enhanced sentence based on allegations he ordered the assault of an inmate. That detail, which never came up in Mann's trial, shouldn't have been referenced in a pre-sentencing report, the court said.

The court also said that Mann's two weapons convictions amounted to double jeopardy and ordered one of them tossed.

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Arkansas Game and Fish Commission vs the US

Cheree Franco — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 10:04:53 -0600

Yesterday the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGAFC) ended a four year court battle against the federal government, with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in AGAFC’s favor. AGAFC claimed that for roughly seven years, temporary flooding of the Black River Wildlife Management Area, a 23,000-acre wildlife preserve, caused hardwood damage. The flooding was from a Missouri dam controlled by the Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps argued that by releasing the water, it was acting in the common good, to provide relief to farmers, and it should not be forced to investigate the impact of this action on every downstream property-owner.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed with an earlier federal court that had awarded AGAFC $5.8 million in damages, to cover lost timber and reforestation charges. Both the lower court and the Supreme Court decided the AGAFC is protected under the Fifth Amendment, which states that private property shouldn’t be taken for public use without just compensation. This judgment remanded the decision of a federal appeals court, which reversed the original ruling.

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The Wacky Ark. Supreme Court Decision Edition

Lindsey Millar — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:38:22 -0600

A surprise Arkansas Supreme Court ruling that could jeopardize 30 years of court battles and legislative wrangling and the legislature’s path to Medicaid expansion and how new projections from DHS might play a role — covered on this week's podcast. Plus endorsements of fresh eggs and John Jeremiah Sullivan's "Pulphead."

Stream below.

Download

Subscribe via iTunes.

[audio-1]

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Education groups offer fiery criticism of Supreme Court ruling

Lindsey Millar — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 14:56:45 -0600

Before gathering in Little Rock this afternoon for a two-day summit on improving education, educational organizations released a statement condemning the Arkansas Supreme Court's ruling in Kimbrell v. McClesky, which throws equitable education in Arkansas into doubt.

Notably, Donna Morey, president of the Arkansas Education Association, indicated that her group would be lobbying the legislature to follow the majority's suggestion to expressly provide a mechanism for redistributing excess funds. Gov. Beebe and others have suggested that such tinkering would set a bad precedent and invite further court challenges, which might undo years of work on equity and adequacy.

“The Arkansas Education Association believes in Great Public Schools for All Students. The decision by the Arkansas Supreme Court, Nov. 29, 2012, affects public school funding significantly. The AEA believes that the decision does not reflect the intent of the Arkansas General Assembly concerning adequacy and equity for all the students in Arkansas' public schools.”

“It will be necessary for the legislature to modify the statutes to clearly define the funding structures for schools, and the AEA will be an active partner in changing the appropriate laws.”

More statements from participants in this weekend's Opportunity to Learn Campaign on the jump.

“This ruling creates a dangerous precedent,” said Rich Huddleston, executive director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. “This opens the door for future Governors and Legislators to backtrack and undermine Arkansas’ commitment to education quality and equity.”

“In recent years, Arkansas has been hailed as a leader in our education reform efforts,” said Arkansas Public Policy Panel Executive Director Bill Kopsky, “but we could soon find ourselves back at the bottom unless the state quickly comes up with a new way to ensure an equitable funding structure for our schools.”

Lavina Grandon of the Rural Community Alliance said, “Rural Community Alliance supports the principle of equal and adequate funding for public education. Insofar as disparities of property wealth among communities would create an inequitable and inadequate funding system, RCA believes the Supreme Court is correct in upholding the Uniform Rate of Tax through the ad valorem property tax collected by the counties and distributed through the state back to the counties and districts on a substantially equal basis. The state legislature and the people of Arkansas must not renege on their obligation to provide an equal and adequate education to all of the state's children.”

John Jackson, President of the Schott Foundation for Public Education that supports Opportunity to Learn Campaigns across the country, said, "The Arkansas Supreme Court’s decision yesterday in Kimbrell v. McKlesky makes Arkansas, a state that has been a leader in the region, into a laggard. At a time when states and leaders across the country are working to provide additional resources to protect every student's right to an opportunity to learn, the decision pushes the state back to a time and place where separate and unequal districts and opportunities once again rule the day. This will have a devastating impact on the future educational, economic and social growth of Arkansas.”

Molly Hunter, an attorney and Director of Education Justice with the National Education Law Center said, “Arkansans have been clear that they want both higher achievement and quality education for all students. These goals require fair funding, the very thing that this opinion strikes down.”

Sherece West, President & CEO of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, said, “The Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation believes that all Arkansans fare better when no one is left behind and when everyone shares in quality education, economic progress, and general community well-being. In recent years, Arkansas has made great progress to improve educational outcomes for all children. The Arkansas Supreme Court’s decision in Kimbrell v. McKlesky challenges our ability as a state to provide our children with an equitable and adequate education. Arkansas has a responsibility to put in place policies that do right by all of our children.”

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Ark. Supreme Court strikes blow to equitable school funding

Lindsey Millar — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 14:07:00 -0600

Whoa. In a 4-3 split decision, the Arkansas Supreme Court today ruled that school districts can keep property tax revenue even when it exceeds funding levels required by law. The decision potentially ends equity funding of state school districts, something that the courts and state legislature fought for (and over) for 15 years with the Lake View case.

The immediate effect of the ruling is that two school districts — Eureka Springs and Fountain Lake — don't have to turn monies collected through property taxes above the state minimum over to the state to be redistributed. The broader consequence is likely that no districts will be required to turn over their excess funds to the state, ~~which means that richer districts will have more money per student than poorer districts, unless the legislature steps in next year to make up the gap.~~ UPDATE: I clarified this below.

You can get a feel for what a big deal this is by Chief Justice Jim Hannah's dissent.

“The majority nullifies ten years of difficult and painstaking work diligently undertaken by the General Assembly, the Department of Education, the Attorney General, and the Governor, to provide this state with a constitutional school-funding system. The state’s carefully crafted constitutional system of state-funded public education is obliterated by the majority’s decision.”

UPDATE: The Beebe administration and the attorney general plan to petition the Arkansas Supreme Court to rehear the case, which is the only judicial recourse they have, according to Matt DeCample, spokesman for Gov. Beebe.

The decision is all about precedent, lawmakers and policy experts who I've talked to this afternoon said. At issue is the intersection of Arkansas Amendment 74, passed by voters in 1996, which requires school districts to levy a uniform rate of tax of 25 mills to be used towards the maintenance and operation of schools, and the General Assembly's statutory creation of the idea of foundation funding that's required to fund a "general, suitable, and efficient system of free public schools." Foundation funding is a reaction to the second Lake View court case and came into being in 2009.

Every year, the legislature determines a new foundation-funding amount per student. The latest figure is $6,267 (it was $6,023 when this lawsuit was filed in the 2010-2011 school year). If a school district's 25 mills don't add up to $6,023 — if say, in a poorer district with mostly low property values, 25 mills only adds up to $3,000 per student — the state will make up the difference. What today's Supreme Court decision undoes is the converse of the previous example: When a district's 25 mills add up to more than foundation-funding — say 25 mills from a district with high property values means $9,000 per pupil — the state has been redistributing the money to other districts. It and General Revenue have made up foundation-funding shortfalls in districts with lower property values.

I haven't gotten a clear estimate of what the immediate financial impact of decision is, but it certainly won't mean the governor needs to resubmit his education budget, according to DeCample. What the dissenting justices, Beebe and others are worried about is that the decision has the potential to undue 15 years of grueling work on equity during Lake View I and Lakeview II. If schools with higher property tax can keep their 25 mills revenue above foundation-funding levels, that would create inequity, they argue.

A complicating factor, at least in my mind, is that Amendment 74 sets 25 mills as a baseline. Districts can levy more millage. Some wealthy districts tax as many as 37 mills. The disparity between those districts and poorer ones grows smaller once poorer districts receive National School Lunch Act funds, but it's still an issue. In fact, many have predicted that a lawsuit over inequity could be on the horizon even before this ruling.

The other issue that particularly troubles the Beebe administration, according to DeCample, is this passage from the majority opinion:

"Should the General Assembly wish to provide a mechanism or procedure by which excess funds may be distributed to other districts, it is certainly within its purview to do so—no time machine required."

The governor's worried about that the prospect of statutorily remedying a constitutional amendment puts in place a precedent that some future administration or legislature might seize upon to undo Amendment 74's key role in equity funding.

Shew. Got all that?

UPDATE II: I forget to include links to the separate dissents by Justice Robert Brown and Special Justice George Ellis.

Here's a link to Andrew DeMillo's reporting with the AP, which quotes Education Commissioner Tom Kimbrell saying:

"It's the foundation on which we've based so many decisions over the last 10 to 12 years on how we fund education, what we expect our schools to do, what we expect of our General Assembly. There have been so many things done based upon this premise. It surprises me and I think it just changes the game."

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Arkansas Supreme Court face questions about employees

David Ramsey — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 15:29:00 -0600

Arkansas News Bureau reports today on haggling over a controversy likely to arise in the coming legislative session.

A legislative audit last month raised questions about 15 Arkansas Supreme Court jobs that are paid for with attorney license fees instead of being authorized by the General Assembly via the state budget process, as required by the state Constitution. At a legislative budget hearing last week, Supreme Court Justice Jim Hannah avoided commenting on the audit in depth, but implied that the practice was authorized by a decades-old amendment to the Constitution and upheld by a prior Supreme Court decision. He called the audit’s raising of the issue “unusual.” Frank Arey, attorney for the Division of Legislative Audit, has suggested that a lawsuit might eventually resolve the dispute. Of course, who would likely decide that suit? The Arkansas Supreme Court.

In any case, it sounds like the legislature will act to clear things up before it gets to that.

After the meeting, Sen. Larry Teague, D-Nashville, who will be co-chairman of the Joint Budget Committee during the next session, said he expects some legislative action to be taken.

“I am fine with them spending the money and I don’t want to mess with the program, but I think that it’s a legislative issue,” Teague said. “I think that the Legislature ought to appropriate the dollars and I would assume if nobody else tries to do that then I would do that in the next session.”

Sen. Johnny Key,R-Mountain Home, agreed, saying the state Supreme Court’s budget could be amended to add the 15 additional employees and legislation could be passed allowing the attorney licensing fees to be used for salaries.

“In our discussion it sounded a whole lot more complicated than that and there was talk of lawsuits and everything,” Key said. “I do think it is something we need to have a thorough conversation about amongst our members.”

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'Values' coalition sues to strike medi-pot from ballot

David Koon — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 10:55:49 -0500

The Coalition to Preserve Arkansas Values — made up of the Arkansas Faith and Ethics Council, the Family Council Action Committee, Families First Foundation and the Arkansas Family Coalition — has filed a lawsuit with the Arkansas Supreme Court, asking that the medical marijuana measure be stricken from the ballot. The Secretary of State's office approved the measure for the November ballot on August 22.

Jerry Cox, president of the Family Council Action Committee, said the measure has "little to do with compassionate care" and should be removed from the ballot.

"This ballot proposal is one hundred percent illegal under federal law," Cox said. "Marijuana is illegal because of federal statute passed by Congress. Only the federal government can change that. The Arkansas Constitution and the United States Constitution both prevent Arkansas from passing laws that blatantly defy federal law."

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Wash Co. prosecutor charges two with violating FOI Act.

David Koon — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 20:15:40 -0500

The Washington County Prosecutor's office has filed misdemeanor charges against two West Fork city officials accused of violating the state Freedom of Information law. Charged were West Fork Treasurer Kristie Drymon (who also serves as the West Fork City Water Department office manager and acting City Clerk), and Wastewater Utilities Commission chairman Virgil Blackmon.

They are accused of failing to alert the media and public about a West Fork Water Commission meeting on Jan. 11, at which the commission reportedly discussed who might fill a vacant seat. According to the Washington County Observer, after the meeting was held, Chairman Blackmon told the paper that he didn't feel "comfortable" revealing the candidates discussed at the ostensibly public meeting.

Drymon and Blackmon will be arraigned on April 17 in Prairie Grove. Each faces up to 30 days in jail or a $500 fine.

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No jail time for men charged with assaulting Gould mayor

Lindsey Millar — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 16:59:26 -0500

The two men charged with assaulting Gould Mayor Earnest Nash last July will not face jail time, according to the Gould Citizens Advisory Council. Don Smith saw his felony assault charge reduced to misdemeanor battery and faces 12 months of unsupervised probation. His brother Decarlos Smith saw his charges dismissed altogether.

The Smiths are related Rosieanna Smith-Lee, a member of the Gould city council, which has been battling with Mayor Nash for several years. In an interview with the Times last year, Nash said Smith-Lee and her fellow city council member Sonja Farley and Harry Hall were present at the time of the attack.

Formed almost a decade ago, the civic group Gould Citizens Advisory Council received national attention last year after the Gould city council passed ordinances restricting the GCAC from meeting within city limits and prohibiting the creation of new civic organizations without council approval. The council also passed an ordinance prohibiting the mayor from meeting with any citizen group without council approval. The unconstitutional ordinances were later overturned.

“The message seems to be, if you try to resolve political disputes with violence, then the most you can
expect is a slap on the wrist. I just don’t understand that,” said GCAC president Curtis Mangrum of the sentencing of the Smiths in a statement, which you can read in full on the jump.

(Gould, ARK, April 2, 2011) – The Gould Citizens Advisory Council is outraged and in dismay at what
happened at the Lincoln County Courthouse today.

Two people who were charged with assaulting the Mayor of Gould will see little to no consequences
for their actions. Don Smith had his felony assault charge reduced to misdemeanor battery and faces 12
months of unsupervised probation. His brother Decarlos Smith had his charges dismissed altogether.
The defendants were charged with assaulting Mayor Earnest Nash last fall, including allegedly beating
him with a pistol. They are relatives of Rosieanna Smith-Lee who currently serves on the Gould City
Council, and who has been in open conflict with Mayor Nash since her election in 2010.

“The message seems to be, if you try to resolve political disputes with violence, then the most you can
expect is a slap on the wrist. I just don’t understand that,” said GCAC president Curtis Mangrum.
This case has been plagued with irregularities since the assault on the Mayor took place last year. It
took weeks to arrest the assailants despite the fact that the assault took place in broad daylight with
several witnesses, many of which were never even interviewed by the police. The fact that the assailants
are relatives of the mayor’s political rivals was overlooked by the investigation, and the possibility that
this was an act of political intimidation through coercive force has not been explored.

GCAC has been bringing residents in the Gould community together for almost a decade. We have been
trying to get more people involved in the political process because we believe that in this country, all
citizens have the right to participate in the decision making process for their community. The actions by
the mayor’s assailants—and the fact that they are barely being held accountable—put all of that at risk.

If we allow individuals to commit violence against elected officials with impunity, then our democracy
could deteriorate into a frightening system where brute force is the law of the land.

“GCAC will continue our work to bring residents together to build a better Gould, and we can only hope
that we have seen the worst of the turmoil in our city so that we can start to move forward again,” said
Mangrum.

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Court rules sex contact law unconstitutional

Leslie Newell Peacock — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:28:45 -0500

In a 4-3 decision, the State Supreme Court dismissed the sexual assault convictions of former Elkins teacher David Paschal, 38, and said a state law that criminalizes sexual contact between teachers and students who are over 18 years old is unconstitutional. "Regardless of how we feel about Paschal’s conduct, which could correctly be referred to as reprehensible, we cannot abandon our duty to uphold the rule of law when a case presents distasteful facts," Chief Justice Jim Hannah wrote in the majority opinion.

Paschal was convicted of four counts of second-degree sexual assault and one count of bribing a witness at a jury trial last year. He was sentenced serve 30 years in prison. One of Paschal's former students testified at that trial that she engaged in a months-long consensual sexual relationship with Paschal when she was 18 and still a student at Elkins.

Read the opinion here.

Hannah, ~~Associate Justice Robert L. Brown~~ Justice Paul E. Danielson, Associate Justice Courtney Hudson Goodson and Associate Justice Donald L. Corbin made up the majority. Associate Justice Karen Baker, Associate Justice Jim Gunter and ~~Justice Paul E. Danielson~~ Associate Justice Robert L. Brown dissented.

Writing for the majority about the state's case, Hannah argued:

The State misapprehends the issue when it asserts that there is no fundamental right for a public high school teacher to have sex with an eighteen-year-old high school student enrolled in that school. The issue is whether the statute, as applied in this case, infringes on Paschal’s fundamental right to engage in private, consensual, noncommercial acts of sexual intimacy with an adult. We hold that it does.

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Judge refuses to reinstate charges against man beaten by officer

David Koon — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 10:09:46 -0500

Little Rock attorney Keith Hall sends along late word that Sherwood judge Milas Hale ruled on Tuesday that criminal charges will not be reinstated against Hall's client Chris Erwin, the man seen getting pummeled on a sidewalk in front of Ferneau restaurant by Little Rock police Lieutenant David Hudson, in the widely-circulated video shot just before Halloween last year.

Erwin, who was beaten by Hudson after Hudson told him to leave a private party at the bar, was charged with resisting arrest, criminal trespass, and disorderly conduct. Judge Hale had dismissed the criminal counts against Erwin in February, but prosecutors asked him to reconsider.

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Court rules use-of-force records open

Leslie Newell Peacock — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:03:43 -0600

The state Supreme Court ruled today that the use-of-force records prepared by the officer involved in altercation with a man outside Ferneau Restaurant records are a matter of public record, affirming the Pulaski Circuit Court ruling in the case. (The Times reported on the altercation here and here and on the circuit court hearing here.)

Judge Wendell Griffen had previously ordered the Little Rock Police Department to turn over "use of force" documents concerning Lt. David Hudson to attorneys for Chris Erwin. While working as a private security guard at Ferneau, Hudson was filmed on video repeatedly hitting Erwin, a customer, in the face.

The city earlier had contended it had provided Erwin's lawyer all it was required to provide under the Freedom of Information Act and that the use-of-force records were exempt from the state Freedom of Information Act because they were part of an internal affairs inquiry.

Read the Supreme court ruling here.

The Supreme Court ruled that the use-of-force records were prepared not as a result of an investigation into the officer's job performance, but as routine reports all officers are required to make and which may or may not be considered in subsequent job evaluations.

The ruling unseals the use-of-force reports~~, which I'll post after I fetch them from the police~~. Two incidents at Ferneau, including the one involving Erwin and an earlier incident, are here.

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Ellison family sues over Little Rock police shooting

David Koon — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:51:00 -0500

The sons of Eugene Ellison, 67, who was shot to death by a police officer last December in his Big Country Chateau apartment on Col. Glenn after a struggle in his home, have filed a federal lawsuit in Little Rock alleging their father's civil rights were violated. Officer Donna Lesher, Officer Tabitha McCrillis, LRPD Chief Stuart Thomas, the City of Little Rock and Big Country Chateau Apartments are named as defendants in a suit seeking damages for Ellison's estate.

Here's the full complaint. It offers a different scenario of events than past official accounts. It says that Officer Lesher, who fired the shot, was not in contact with Ellison and thus not in danger at the time she she fired from outside his apartment. Police have said she fired because he wouldn't stop swinging his cane at officers.

More details on the jump...

On Dec 9, 2010, Eugene Ellison was sitting in his apartment at Big Country Chateau with the door open when McCrillis and Lesher, who were working off-duty as security guards at the complex, entered his apartment. After Ellison told them to leave, an argument ensued that quickly turned into a physical confrontation (the lawsuit alleges that McCrillis started the physical fight by shoving Ellison). The two officers called for backup, and LRPD officers Vincent Lucio and Brad Boyce responded. When they arrived, the lawsuit says, they found McCrillis standing outside Ellison's door with her baton laying on the pavement beside her. The lawsuit says that Lucio went into the unit and saw Lesher crouched in a corner. He helped her outside, leaving Ellison inside. When Ellison turned to pick up his cane, the lawsuit alleges, Lesher — standing on the balcony with three other officers — pulled out her service pistol and fired into the apartment, striking Ellison twice in the chest. He later died. An investigation by the Little Rock Police Department cleared Lesher and McCrillis of any wrongdoing in the confrontation and the shooting.

At a press conference today at the Capitol Hotel in Little Rock, the Ellison Family's attorney, Michael J. Laux of the Chicago firm of Balkin and Eisbrouch, LLC, called the shooting a gross violation of Eugene Ellison's civil rights, and said that the investigation which cleared McCrillis and Lesher was "a by product of a culture that has taken hold" at the Little Rock Police Department in which complaints of excessive force and civil rights violations by officers are routinely swept aside. He said he has made Freedom of Information Act requests for information that will prove that pattern. Laux called the shooting of Ellison "an assault on this good city." He is currently seeking information from Little Rock residents about alleged instances of excessive force and rights violations by the LRPD, but said the lawsuit will not become a class action.

Both Troy and Spencer Ellison are veterans of the LRPD. Troy Ellison is currently a detective with the force. His brother Spencer is a former LRPD detective who has taught Criminal Justice courses at a college in Texas for the past few years. While the complaint doesn't specify a monetary amount the Ellison family is seeking, Laux did say the damages they intend to go after from the defendants will be "significant."

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No drug court broadcasts on TV, Arkansas Supreme Court rules

Lindsey Millar — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:07:23 -0500

Today, the Arkansas Supreme Court said that drug court proceedings cannot be broadcast on TV. The court reviewed the issue following a Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee ruling last year that then Circuit Judge Mary Ann Gunn of Fayetteville requested regarding national broadcast of her drug court. A NWA station had broadcast Gunn's proceedings six years prior.

The three-member panel strongly disapproved, and the Supreme Court responded by organizing a committee of Arkansas media and legal minds — Steve Barnes, Circuit Judge Gary Arnold of Benton, Little Rock City Attorney Tom Carpenter, et al — to consider Administrative Rule 6, which allows broadcasting under certain circumstances.

Gunn left the bench in June, but as Max has reported, continues to move forward with a syndicated TV show, "Last Shot with Judge Gunn." The latest from Fayetteville sources indicates that filming is focusing on the success of past drug court participants.

In today's order, the ad hoc committee weighed the pros of broadcasting (openness, the defendant's ability to object to being broadcast, the potential educational effect, etc.) versus the cons (the potential misuse, the difficulties of reviewing and overseeing the proceedings, etc.), and landed on the con side. And the Supreme Court agreed. You can read the full opinion here.

Sources had suggested that Gunn wanted to pair her success stories with footage from past, locally aired programs. Though today's opinion doesn't specifically mention rebroadcast, that would seem to be a risky move considering the court has said the proceedings should be closed.

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Judge Steele Hays dies at 86

Max Brantley — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 09:36:38 -0500

Retired Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Steele Hays died yesterday in Conway. He was 86. He sat on the state Court of Appeals and served as a circuit court judge as well.

Funeral service is 10:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Conway. An obituary is on the jump. As I was talking this morning about him with Ernie Dumas, Ernie commented of his service: "He was motivated by justice as well as the law."

Retired Arkansas Supreme Court Justice Steele Hays of Conway, 86, died June 22. Hays served 14 years on the court, from 1981 to 1994. He also served on the state Court of Appeals as one of the original members appointed by Gov. Bill Clinton when the court was first created. He also served as a Pulaski County circuit court judge in the 1960s, appointed by Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller.

Hays had a distinguished career as a lawyer in Little Rock before joining the bench, and served as secretary-treasurer of the Arkansas Bar Association.

Hays was a lifelong opponent of the death penalty, although he set those views aside in considering death cases on the Supreme Court. His rulings on the Supreme Court were motivated by justice as well as the law.

Hays also served as chancellor for the Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas, and as president of the National Conference of Christians & Jews (Arkansas Chapter), Arkansas Lung Association, Youth Home Inc., Conway and Downtown Little Rock Kiwanis Clubs, as chairman of the Arkansas Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and on numerous other charitable boards.

After retiring, Hays pursued his long-standing interest in Abraham Lincoln, researching and writing many essays on Lincoln and presenting them to scores of groups around the state.

Born in Little Rock, he was the son of the late U.S. Rep. Brooks Hays and Marion Prather Hays. Hays was a graduate of the University of Arkansas and George Washington University School of Law, and was honored as a “Significant Sig” by his Sigma Chi fraternity. He was a member of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church.

He is survived by his wife, Peggy Wall Hays; three children and their spouses, Steele Hays of Roswell, Ga. (Melody), Melissa Licon of Reno, Nev. (Val) , and Sarah Facciobene of Potomac, Md. (Carmen); three stepchildren and families, Leonard Thompson of Little Rock (Wendy), Harry Thompson of Blue Ridge, Ga., and Lyde Thompson (Terry) of San Antonio, Tex; and nine grandchildren. He is also survived by his sister, Betty Brooks Bell of Sterling, Va.

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Mann ordered to pay $1 million in restitution

Gerard Matthews — Wed, 18 May 2011 16:23:54 -0500

From Arkansas Business comes news that Randeep Mann has been ordered to pay $1 million in restitution to Dr. Trent Pierce. In August of 2010, a federal jury convicted Mann of attacking Pierce using a homemade bomb.

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Justice Adkisson dies

Leslie Newell Peacock — Wed, 18 May 2011 14:32:28 -0500

The Pulaski County Bar Association has sent out a notice that Former Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Adkisson died this morning. Funeral will be at 10:30 a.m. Friday, May 20.

Adkisson was elected chief justice in 1980 and served until 1984. Prior to that he was a Pulaski County Circuit Judge and a prosecutor.

A funny note we turned up: Politics Daily reminded us in an article about Arkansas, the Hogs and politics that Adkisson printed an endorsement of 27 former Razorback lettermen in his campaign advertising in 1980.

I expect more pertinent information from those who knew the judge in comments here.

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Coal cares

Gerard Matthews — Thu, 12 May 2011 11:07:36 -0500

David Koon passed this along to me and I thought it was worth posting here. Coal Cares, a new website aimed at poking fun at Missouri-based coal company Peabody Energy, has drawn that attention of some mainstream news outlets. The site spoofs the coal company, offering free inhalers to families living within 200 miles of a coal plant. The site also offers printable games for kids including "Asthmaze," where tykes are instructed to help a choking child find his inhaler.

On a serious note, for those wondering about the status of the Turk plant in Hempstead County, I asked the Sierra Club's Glen Hooks about the latest on the plant. The SC also has a good rundown of the history of legal battles over Turk on their website. From Hooks:

In this long and tortured path of litigation, we were in US district court a few months ago and won. That is on appeal to the 8th circuit. Judge Wilson, during a U.S. District Court case — posed or “certified” three questions to the Arkansas Supreme Court, basically asking whether or not SWEPCO could go through the whole PSC process and get their license yanked and then revert to a merchant plant status. Those have been fully briefed now. There will be oral arguments on those questions May 19. It’s really important what happens there because we’ve made the argument, and the hunting club has made it too, that SWEPCO can’t go through the whole PSC process and then go to a merchant plant. So the SC will decide that question. If they decide that SWEPCO cannot do that, I don’t see how they’ll be able to go on any more.

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Special justice for SWEPCO case

Max Brantley — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 12:13:32 -0500

Gov. Mike Beebe today appointed Deborah Knox of Mountain Home to serve as a special associate justice on the Supreme Court case in which a hunting club and others are challenging the SWEPCO power plant under construction in Hempstead County. Justice Courtney Henry disqualified from the case.

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