Judd Deere, spokesman for Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, mentioned to me today that Lloyd Warford will be the deputy attorney general in charge of the office’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. He succeeds Jeanette Hamilton, who remains on the attorney general’s staff.
Warford is a former public defender, staff attorney at the Department of Human Services and prosecutor. His time at DHS preceded Rutledge’s time in the same office several years later.
Warford may be familiar to Arkansas Times readers for a tangential role in the West Memphis Three case. He submitted an affidavit that testified to prejudicial remarks a juror made to him in the original trial that led to a death penalty for Damien Echols. His affidavit was among the materials gathered by the long but finally successful effort to win freedom for the WM3 in a West Memphis murder case.
Two other divisions of the office are being led by “senior attorneys,” Deere said, while the office considers new permanent chiefs. These are public protection, or consumer protection, and the community relations/crime victims division.