LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The top two officials for a judicial ethics panel removed themselves Tuesday from investigations involving an Arkansas judge who participated in an anti-death penalty demonstration the same day he effectively blocked executions in the state.
David Sachar, executive director of the Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission, and Emily White, the commission’s deputy director, announced they would recuse themselves from the cases involving Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen, who lay on a cot outside the governor’s mansion last month after blocking the state from using a lethal injection drug. The panel is investigating Griffen as well as his complaint against the state Supreme Court over its decision to bar him from death penalty cases. Justices, who also lifted Griffen’s order on the execution drugs, referred the judge to the commission.
The recusal decision came at the recommendation of Howard Brill, a law professor at the University of Arkansas and former interim chief justice for the state Supreme Court, who Sachar and White had sought counsel from over the disqualification issue. White said there had not been a request for the two to step away from the cases. Brill cited several issues with the two simultaneously investigating complaints against and by Griffen.
“It is my belief that both of you are caught in an unacceptable dilemma with these competing allegations,” Brill wrote in a letter dated Friday. “Although public servants should be properly cautious to avoid any hint that they are shirking their duties, unique circumstances are present in this situation.”
The commission will be responsible for hiring special counsel for the cases involving Griffen.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Griffen has said he was portraying Jesus and participating in a Good Friday vigil when he lay on the cot. He was photographed wearing an anti-death penalty button and surrounded by people holding signs opposing Arkansas’ executions. He has called the investigation into him an attempt to punish him for exercising his First Amendment rights.
“Recusal is definitely warranted for the reasons stated by Professor Howard Brill, himself a former chief justice,” Mike Laux, an attorney for Griffen, said in a statement. “While this is the prudent course of action at this time, Judge Griffen and his legal team hope the JDDC will select fair and independent replacements to Mr. Sachar and Ms. White going forward.”
Arkansas put four inmates to death last month, the state’s first executions since 2005.
Parents arrested after 9-month-old found dead in Arkansas
BATESVILLE, Ark. (AP) — The parents of a 9-month-old girl have been arrested after the child was found dead in a northeast Arkansas motel room.
Police say a 43-year-old man and a 31-year-old woman were arrested after the girl was found dead Saturday afternoon in a motel room in Batesville.
Police say paramedics told officers who arrived at the motel that the child appeared to have been dead for several hours.
The couple was arrested on warrants for possession of drug paraphernalia and endangering the welfare of a minor, but online court records do not show that formal charges had been filed as of Tuesday afternoon.
Police say the couple appeared confused and could not describe what had happened prior to the infant’s death.
Arkansas plant seeks to toss odor ordinance
RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. (AP) — A facility that converts nonedible poultry byproducts into proteins has sued an Arkansas city claiming that its property is being unfairly targeted by an odor ordinance enacted in 2015.
Premium Protein Products purchased its 36-acre plot in June 2015, a month before the ordinance in Russellville was enacted.
The law prohibits bothersome odors in the city’s limits. Violators can be sued or fined up to 1,000 for a single offense.
Premium Protein Products said the ordinance jeopardizes the plant’s commercial viability and that the city lacked the authority to impose the ordinance.
The lawsuit contends that the measure violates the Arkansas Constitution and the U.S. Constitution because it’s “arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable” and denies the company due process.
“The Ordinance will have the effect of putting PPP out of business because the Ordinance makes it impossible for PPP to operate the plant in an economically viable manner,” the lawsuit alleges.
Mayor Randy Horton said the ordinance, which is currently being revised, was created for residents who complained about odors emerging from other rendering plants that have occupied the space. He said the ordinance was drafted before the company purchased the property.
“We’ve done about all we can to work with them,” Horton said.
Horton said the ordinance’s purpose is to allow “the citizens of Russellville to be able to enjoy their property — which in some cases is even 2½ miles away from the plant.”
Well-known Arkansas restaurant destroyed in fire
SCOTT, Ark. (AP) — A well-known restaurant in central Arkansas has been destroyed in an overnight fire.
Little Rock television station KTHV reports that Cotham’s Mercantile in Scott burned down early Tuesday. Cotham’s was built in 1917 and opened as a general mercantile store for farmers in the area.
In 1984, Cotham’s opened a small restaurant area and it quickly became a favorite for local politicians, including then-Gov. Bill Clinton. A second location was later opened near the state Capitol in Little Rock.
Authorities say they’re still looking into the cause of the fire.