LITTLE ROCK — A complaint filed this week by Perry County residents who say they were intimidated and harassed in the lead-up to the May 20 primary seeks the removal of the sheriff and criminal charges against him and five other public officials.
The sheriff's office mishandled two sexual-assault cases for political gain and retaliated against a local business that was thought to be supporting the sheriff's opponent, and a district judge and law enforcement officers abused their powers to support Sheriff Scott Montgomery, 14 Perry County residents allege in a complaint filed Monday under a set of rarely used election laws.
Montgomery on Wednesday vigorously denied he nor his staff did anything illegal or unethical to triumph in the Democratic primary, which he won handily against a former sheriff's office chief deputy, Jerry Best. The first-term sheriff faces an independent candidate in November.
Best is not a party to the complaint, but he said after hearing numerous stories alleging wrongdoing, he asked attorney Cheryl Barnard to look into it. Barnard, who filed the complaint on behalf of the Perry County residents, is the wife of another former sheriff's deputy, Tom Barnard, who is a supporter of Best. Cheryl Barnard said each of the complainants supported Best's campaign in some fashion, but none were paid.
Sheriff 's investigator Ray Byrd, who is accused of political bias in his handling two sexual-assault cases, said the accusations in the complaint are "baldfaced lies."
"I done my job exactly per the department standards andthe Arkansas statutes," Byrd said Wednesday. "It's all political." Besides the sheriff, Perry County District Judge Elizabeth Wise, Chief Deputy Mike Surette, Deputy Bob Barker and Perryville police officer Daniel Warren are named in the complaint filed with a Pulaski County circuit judge. Pulaski and Perry counties are in the same judicial district, the 6th.
The six could face misdemeanor or felony charges and the sheriff's nomination could be revoked under the election laws. Some of the allegations are already being investigated by the Arkansas State Police. It is unclear which elements of the alleged election impropriety are being reviewed by investigators.
The complaint asks CircuitJudge Chris Piazza of Little Rock to convene a grand jury to investigate the allegations. The judge had not made a decision as of Wednesday. He was out of town and unavailable for comment.
The complaint alleges, among other things:
The sheriff stopped taking his fleet of patrol cars to a local mechanic when he learned his family was supporting Best.
Wise had her law clerk make calls on behalf of Montgomery if he agreed to fire unnamed sheriff's employees.
Wise signed an arrest warrant against a woman whose family was supporting the sheriff's opponent even though the statute of limitations had passed.
Wise did not return a call seeking comment, but Montgomery denied every accusation.
The complainants are seeking the grand jury probe under an obscure 39-year-old part of the Election Code, Arkansas Code 7-5-807, which deals with "election illegalities." The law allows a circuit judge to convene a grand jury to investigate allegations of election improprieties at the request of at least 10 "reputable citizens" of the county.
The judge must rule that there is "good ground" to believe the allegations are true before impaneling a grand jury, which can issue indictments to bring the allegations to trial.
Under that section of laws, a circuit judge can strip a candidate of his nomination if the judge finds election law was violated.
"Should it be proved to the satisfaction of the trial judge ... that a successful candidate has been guilty of violating the Political Practices Act or any of the laws regulating ... elections, the circuit court shall enter the findings as part of the judgment, irrespective of the determination of the issues in other suits filed under thissubchapter or the verdict of the jury in a criminal prosecution," the law states. That would lead to the candidate being stripped of his nomination.
The law, passed in 1969, has never been tested by the Arkansas Supreme Court or the state Court of Appeals, and it appears to have been invoked only rarely.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette could find only two instances in the past 20 years when circuit judges were asked to convene a grand jury to investigate allegations of election wrongdoing, and both times the judge refused:
October 2002: Mississippi County Circuit Judge David Goodson declined to impanel grand jurors regarding claims of voting irregularities in West Memphis School Board elections. The judge wouldn't give a reason for his decision, but noted the accusations were being investigated by the prosecuting attorney's office.
May 1988: Little River County Circuit Judge Ted Capeheart refuted election fraud claims in a state representative race after a hearing featuring testimony by county workers accused of wrongdoing. Capeheart said a grand jury investigation would be a waste of taxpayer money and that the complaint calling for the probe was "sour grapes" brought by "sorehead losers."
Larry Jegley, prosecuting attorney for the 6th Judicial District, echoed others in saying the laws that allow the grand-jury probe are rarely used, and the process is somewhat unclear. Barnard said she could find virtually no case law to guide her in preparation of this case.
Jegley said he's unsure what role he would play in grand jury proceeding and questioned the need for a grand jury, because law enforcement already is reviewing some of the allegations.
Jay Barth, a political science professor at Hendrix College in Conway, said he's never seen a case like this move forward and is interested to see what happens.
"I do think there is an extraordinary element of this thing getting this far," he said. "And it raises a lot of questions because of its novelty as a legal action."
Information for this article was contributed by John Lynch at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Arkansas, Pages 11, 17 on 06/12/2008