Monticello Live

Chief of Police Eddy Deaton addressed the City Council Thursday evening on warrant issues the department is having due to mix-ups in District Court. He told the Council that over the past few years people were being arrested on warrants for fines that they had already paid.

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Front door congestion and crowding issues came to a frustrating head in May of 2011 when Mayor Allen Maxwell and the MEDC decided that enough is enough. The MEDC and the District Court share a building, and therefore share the same entrances. It had been decided that Court access would occur through the doors at the back of the building, and MEDC would use the doors at the front. However, parking issues and over-crowding resulted in court traffic using and being shuffled to the front corridor, especially during closed-court sessions.

Flaring frustrations resulted in the Mayor having a confrontation with a bailiff, and Judge Ken Harper found himself with pending criminal charges after the way he chose to deal with MEDC Executive Director Nita McDaniel.

District Judge Ken Harper was reprimanded and censured by the state judicial discipline commission after DWI charge.

According to AshleyCountyLedger.com, Tenth Judicial District Circuit Judge Don Glover granted a change of venue motion for Mark David Johnson, who is accused of two counts of capital murder, one count of attempted capital murder, and one count aggravated assault.

The charges stem from a double fatality accident on Highway 52 in North Crossett on Oct. 6, 2010.

Click here for AshleyCountyLedger.com‘s full report in the case.

There will be no jury duty, today, in the Drew County Circuit Court.

Usually that announcement is made because a plea bargain has been reached.  That is not the case, this time.

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At Monday’s session of Quorum Court, Drew County judge Damon Lampkin swore in Steve Morrison to fulfill the position of member Ron Echols.

Governor Mike Beebe appointed Morrison.

After decades of experience as both a defense attorney and a prosecutor, attorney John Frank Gibson found himself sitting in a different position in a Drew County Courtroom, Wednesday, as he was a member of the jury panel.

Although Gibson was a potential juror, he was not selected to serve on the jury.

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Monticello’s District Court has been extremely busy, during the past few weeks.  The district court is in session everyTuesday and Wednesday (except for months that have 5).

On a recent Tuesday afternoon, a total of 668 individual cases went before the judge, during what is called a “plea day”, when cases are divided between those who plead “guilty” and “not guilty”.

On a Wednesday session, earlier this month, Judge Kenneth Harper was called as a witness.  In June, there was an altercation, which led to the arrest of one of that day’s defendants.  Since Judge Harper was presiding, he was called as a witness.  Judge Harper is shown here, being sworn in by Hamburg District Judge Reid Harrod, who served as judge for the case.

Mike Stewart, a Monticello agent of Bob Cole Bail Bond Inc., stood before Drew County Circuit Judge Bynum Gibson earlier this week, and was reprimanded for various actions, including lack of preparation in cases where Stewart’s clients came before the court, such as not knowing how much bond had actually been paid, by some clients.

Stewart was also told to make his “best efforts to insure that bonded persons appear in court, and are on time”, and to bring full, proper documentation of his bonding activity that are on that day’s court docket.  Judge Gibson added, “I want it to be done professionally, with no mistakes made.”

One specific topic of discussion was when Judge Gibson asked if he had provided ”bail bonds on credit” or if “partial payment” had been accepted.

Judge Gibson made note in the court’s record that the Circuit Judges were signing an order requiring “any commercial bail bond be paid in full, before any bond is issued.  No credit shall be extended.”  (more…)

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