LITTLE ROCK — A judge Monday disqualified former Harlem Globetrotter Fred Smith from the May Democratic primary, ruling he was ineligible when he filed to run for office.
Smith, a former state legislator, was a convicted felon when he filed as a Democrat for the House seat in District 50, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Mary McGowan ruled.
Smith said he would appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court.
In a six-page decision, McGowan disagreed with Smith’s argument that he was eligible to file because he was never actually sentenced on a felony theft charge that forced him to leave the Legislature last year.
Two weeks after he filed, Chicot County Circuit Judge Sam Pope ordered the prosecution and conviction of Smith dismissed because he successfully complied with all the terms of his suspended imposition of sentence.
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McGowan said she was “persuaded that Fred Smith had to present an expunction order or an order of the dismissal of the Chicot County criminal offense at the time of the filing.”
“As he did not do so, and there was no expunction entered until March 14, 2012, this court finds that Fred Smith was ineligible on March 1, 2012,” the judge said.
“Regardless of what (McGowan) came up with in the ruling, I’m still eligible on the ballot for now,” Smith said. “(Pope) cleared me from a probation. That’s all it was.”
Smith’s attorney, state Sen. David Burnett, D-Osceola, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment Monday.
Benton Smith, attorney for the Democratic Party, who argued at a hearing last week that Smith was not eligible to be on the May 22 ballot, said he was pleased with the judge’s ruling Monday.
“This is a matter that’s about the Democratic Party of Arkansas and the requirements to be on its primary ballot, and the qualifications for someone to seek its nomination to hold office here in Arkansas,” he said.
The lawyer also said he was not surprised that there will mostly likely be an appeal.
“Obviously he has the right to appeal the judge’s decision,” he said. “We’ll see what gets filed.”
Fred Smith was elected to the District 50 seat in 2010 but resigned early in the 2011 legislative session after he was found guilty in Chicot County Circuit Court of theft of property delivered by mistake. The judge suspended imposition of sentence for a year.
On March 1, the last day of the political filing period, he filed to run for the seat as a Democrat. Days later, the state Democrat party filed a lawsuit seeking to remove his name from the ballot.
On March 14, Circuit County Judge Sam Pope ordered that Fred Smith’s prosecution and conviction be dismissed because he had successfully complied with all the terms of his suspended imposition of sentence.
The Democratic Party sued to disqualify Fred Smith from running after Secretary of State Mark Martin’s office declined the party’s request to drop his name from the ballot.
McGowan noted Monday that ballots with Fred Smith’s name on them already had been sent, and she ordered that no votes for him be counted or certified in the May primary.
Democrat Hudson Hallum was elected to represent District 50 after Fred Smith resigned and is running for re-election. No Republican filed for the seat.