Lonoke Arkansas

Deer season seen as need to postpone trial
IN SHORT: A motion was filed in Lonoke Circuit Court in behalf of Bobby Cox Jr. to delay his trial to let jurors hunt.
Lonoke County Prosecutor Lona McCastlain says using the upcoming deer season as the basis for postponing the trial of a local bail bondsman is original, but she hopes the judge doesn’t go along with it.
“In my nine years as prosecutor, I have never had that used as a reason to postpone a trial, never,” McCastlain said. “I had a Washington Post reporter call me about it yesterday. Can you believe that?”
Defense attorney John Wes-ley Hall filed a motion in circuit court this week on behalf of Bobby Cox Jr. requesting a delay in the trial because hunters held on a jury past the opening of deer season might quickly vote guilty for that reason alone.
“You never want to hold jurors against their will,” Hall said. “They might hold it against everybody.”
Cox is scheduled for trial Nov. 8 with other defendants.
According to Hall’s calculations using figures from the state Game and Fish Commission, a full 10 percent of Arkansas’ population could be planning hunting trips for when the season opens Nov. 11. And because Lonoke County is rural, it’s likely that its percentage of deer hunters is higher, Hall said.
McCastlain calls the motion an excuse to delay the trial, which she expects to start on schedule despite the motion, which special Judge John Cole is expected to rule on Thursday, Sept. 21.
McCastlain claims Cox and others were part of a continuing criminal enterprise, which she dubbed the “Organization,” operating in the county. The defendants have filed motions saying McCastlain hasn’t adequately demonstrated what the “organization” did.
Arkansas has about 2.8 million residents and, according to the Game and Fish Commission, 273,128 big-game hunters. When the number of convicted felons and the number of children are considered, the number of hunters could make up 15 percent or more of Arkansas’ population, Hall said.
Lonoke County has about 60,000 residents and 6,735 of them have licenses to hunt big game, according to U.S. Census and state Game and Fish Commission figures. “If you put it against registered voters, there’s no telling what the percentage would be,” he said.
McCastlain last month filed 78 counts, in various combinations, against the town’s mayor, former police chief and four others alleging they were part of a criminal enterprise. Five of the defendants face felonies, while Lonoke Mayor Thomas Privett faces a single misdemeanor complaint.
Hall said he would like hunters in the pool because the state is expected to call a number of ex-felons, work-release inmates and “snitches.”
“If I had a drug case, I wouldn’t want them (hunters) on the jury,” Hall said.
Hall said he would be concerned that the trial would last more than a month and that hunters would miss all of the deer season, which closes in much of the state either Dec. 3 or Dec. 10, depending on the region.
“Suppose you’re stuck here until after Dec. 10, that’s the whole deer season,” Hall said.
McCastlain said the potential juror’s feelings on possibly missing deer season will come out during voirdaire (jury selection).
“We’ll figure out who’s willing to sit and who’s not during voirdaire,” she said.
The defendants were initially charged last winter and were named again in revised counts this summer. Because of concern about whether speedy trial provisions will soon expire, the judge set a trial for the fall.
Besides Cox and Privett, others charged are former Police Chief Jay Campbell, Campbell’s wife Kelly, police dispatcher Amy Staley and bail bondsman Larry Norwood.
The bulk of McCastlain’s charges claim the defendants worked together to obtain drugs, money and jewelry. They also conspired to obtain construction, labor or sex from state prisoners, the court documents said. Cole said Privett and Staley can have separate trials.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.

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Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty, or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light, or look the world in the face .... Marcus Antonius

I AM Some Folks "KARMA" and A MODERATOR @ FRN

Judge denies request to delay hearing for deer season

LONOKE, Ark. - A special judge Thursday denied a request to delay a Lonoke County corruption trial because of Arkansas' upcoming and highly popular deer season.
More than 10 percent of Arkansas residents hold big-game licenses and attorney John Wesley Hall is concerned his client, bail bondsman Bobby Cox, might not receive a fair trial if many of the jurors are upset because they aren't in the deer woods.
Deer season opens Nov. 11. Cox trial is scheduled for Nov. 8, along with several other defendants.
Special Judge John Cole, a retired circuit judge appointed to hear the case, set another hearing Oct. 23. Lawyers could have met Oct. 11, but Hall said the judge told him "he would be out squirrel hunting."
In ruling against a delay, Cole said he enjoys hunting but that residents would be willing to serve on a jury if necessary.
"There is a time when people have to give up the pleasures that they seek in order to do their duty to the community," Cole said.
Cole also ordered Prosecutor Lona McCastlain to further explain the 38-page document that spells out the charges against the defendants, providing that information to the defense by Sept. 29.
The defendants were initially charged last winter and were named again in revised counts this summer. McCastlain filed the 78 counts, in various combinations, against the town's mayor, former police chief, Cox and three others alleging they were part of a criminal enterprise she dubbed the "Organization." Five of the defendants face felonies, while Lonoke Mayor Thomas Privett faces a single misdemeanor complaint.
The defendants have previously filed motions saying McCastlain hasn't adequately demonstrated the acts attributed to the "Organization."
Hall said, despite 4,000 pages in pretrial filings by McCastlain, the prosecutor has been vague in identifying how the defendants acted in confidence and what bad acts they allegedly engaged in.
At the pretrial hearing in October, Hall said he hopes to have a jury questionnaire prepared. One of the questions will be whether potential jurors have vacation plans between Nov. 8 and Jan. 1, he said.
"They need to know if it may run past the end of the season," Hall said Thursday. "The jury needs to know that they may be held there for two months with a break for Thanksgiving and possibly a break for Christmas."
Arkansas' deer season closes in much of the state either Dec. 3 or Dec. 10, depending on the region.
McCastlain did not immediately return a call for comment Thursday.

A service of the Associated Press(AP)

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Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty, or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light, or look the world in the face .... Marcus Antonius

I AM Some Folks "KARMA" and A MODERATOR @ FRN

I had heard about this... We all thought we had heard it all before but something new comes up everyday. Only in America

I say let him go hunting and invite Chaney along to chaperone.

should it not be someone with better aim?

The problem with this case is that the Prosecutor is up for re-election this November - who knows what will happen if she doesn't win

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Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty, or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light, or look the world in the face .... Marcus Antonius

I AM Some Folks "KARMA" and A MODERATOR @ FRN

If she does not win they still have a very strong case against Bobby Cox. He told the owner of the company you work for that he did it. He said he bought the chemicals and bonded the guy out so that the guy would divulge the location of a $50,000 skip he had and was running out of time on.

The Morning News
Local News for Northwest Arkansas

Bondsman's Case Separated From Lonoke Corruption Suspects

BY The Associated Press
LONOKE -- A bail bondsman in a Lonoke County corruption case will be tried separately from the other defendants.

Larry Norwood also won't be prosecuted on the count of engaging in a "continuing criminal organization" as originally charged, Prosecutor Lona McCastlain said Friday after Norwood's attorneys argued that the alleged violation didn't fit the definition of the crime.

Special Circuit Judge John Cole set a May 1 trial date for Norwood on a single felony drug charge -- conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine.

The trial date for former Lonoke Police Chief Jay Campbell, his wife Kelly, and bondsman Bobby Junior Cox remains Feb. 20.

Former Lonoke Mayor Thomas Privett and former Lonoke Police Department dispatcher Amy Staley also face charges in the investigation. Privett is to stand trial Jan. 17 on a misdemeanor theft charge. Staley faces counts of engaging in a continuing criminal organization and third-degree sexual assault. Her trial date is Jan. 18.

Friday, the judge said he would rule later on a request by Jay Campbell's lawyer, Patrick Benca, to suppress evidence found at the Campbells' home.

Benca argued that the affidavit requesting to search the home for certain items didn't include information that would give the court reason to believe the items would be in the home.

Chief Deputy Prosecutor Stuart Cearley said the court was allowed to assume the officer was seeking the warrant in good faith.

The prosecutor last summer filed dozens of charges, in various combinations, against the five defendants.

The charges against the former police chief include engaging in a criminal organization or enterprise, conspiring to make methamphetamine, hindering apprehension or prosecution, filing a false report with law enforcement, obtaining a controlled substance by fraud, theft of property, falsifying business records and theft of services.

His wife was charged with illegally obtaining drugs, money and personal property and having sex with prisoners. The bondsmen were accused of taking part in a conspiracy to make methamphetamine and using it to frame someone else who had jumped bail.

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Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty, or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light, or look the world in the face .... Marcus Antonius

I AM Some Folks "KARMA" and A MODERATOR @ FRN

Trial of ex-Lonoke police chief, two others delayed until Feb. 27
BY MICHELLE HILLEN

Posted on Saturday, February 17, 2007

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CABOT — The trial of former Lonoke Police Chief Jay Campbell, his wife and a bail bondsman in a wide-ranging case alleging illegal drugs, illicit sex and abuse of an jail inmatelabor program has been pushed back a week and will start Feb. 27, special Circuit Judge John Cole decided Friday.

In granting the delay, as requested by defense attorneys, the judge rejected their accompanying motion to disqualify Lonoke County Prosecuting Attorney Lona McCastlain from the case.

Patrick Benca, who represents Jay Campbell, and Mark Hampton, who represents Kelly Harrison Campbell, accused McCastlain of prosecutorial misconduct, saying she was not objective and had withheld important evidence from them until this week.

The attorneys argued during a hearing before Cole that they needed more time to examine 1, 400 pages of documents forwarded by McCastlain. They said the material included evidence that could either favor the defense or discredit prosecution witnesses.

“The defense has diligently attempted to prepare and wade through all the discovery, but the defense has been consistently sandbagged in trial preparation,” Benca and Hampton stated in their motion. “Instead of investigating their case, filing charges, providing discovery, and proceeding to trial, the state is still investigating and still providing mass discovery, a year after charges were first filed.”

Though he agreed to a continuance, Cole said, “I’m a little chagrined at continuing this case again,” adding that the public deserved some sort of resolution.

But to determine the merits of the defense attorneys’ allegations, Cole said, he would have to scour every piece of evidence they recently received. He also set Friday as the cutoff date for introducing material covered by Arkansas Rules of Evidence 404 (b ) — which is evidence of other crimes committed by defendants that can be used to show motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity or absence of mistake or accident. Cole said the only new information Mc-Castlain could introduce after Friday’s deadlines would be something substantial that she was unaware of previously.

McCastlain, for her part, denied withholding evidence.

“We continue to interview witnesses,” the prosecutor said. “As new information comes up, we provide it to [the defense ].”

The Campbells and Bobby Junior Cox, a bail bondsman, are accused of conspiring in a criminal operation for five purposes: acquiring money or items such as jewelry that could be converted to cash; acquiring controlled substances; acquiring personal services, such as labor; having illicit sexual relationships, including encounters with state inmates housed at the city jail; and arresting individuals to gain leverage and extort information, drugs or money from them.

Though he and Hampton asked for a four-month continuance, Benca said after the hearing he was satisfied with the week-long delay.

Also Friday, Cole ruled against a motion filed by Hampton to suppress evidence regarding accusations that Kelly Campbell engaged in sexual activity with the Act 309 state prisoners housed at the Lonoke city jail. (Act 309 prisoners are nonviolent state inmates who cook, clean, do laundry and other types of public work at city or county jails. )

“I just think it is highly prejudicial,” Hampton said, adding that his client denied the accusations.

He also argued that the allegations shouldn’t be brought up at trial, because Kelly Campbell was not a law enforcement officer and any sexual activity between her and state inmates was not a crime.

McCastlain said this evidence constituted part of the charges against Kelly Campbell. Among several other criminal counts, Kelly Campbell is accused of furnishing prohibited articles to inmates; McCastlain said sex was a prohibited article.

“She is giving sex to prisoners and that is not allowed,” Mc-Castlain said. “That is against the law.”

Cole said he considered the accusations of sexual activity relevant to the case against Kelly Campbell. The judge said that, in general, he would allow such evidence at trial while reserving the authority to rule on specific objections.

Cole also said he will reserve judgment on a motion to quash the potential testimony of Lonoke County Circuit Judge Lance Hanshaw. Benca said he wanted Hanshaw to testify about whether he had asked Jay Campbell, when Campbell was Lonoke police chief, to investigate whether McCastlain’s office was somehow eavesdropping on the judge’s phone conversations or conversations in the judge’s chambers.

An attorney with the state attorney general’s office, representing Hanshaw, submitted the motion to quash, saying Hanshaw should not be required to testify in court about courtroom procedure. McCastlain told the judge that Benca hoped to prejudice the jury against her by eliciting the testimony.

Cole said he couldn’t see how the matter would be relevant, but noted circumstances could change and he would rule on the proposed testimony if it comes up at trial.

Cole set one last hearing date, for Feb. 26, with jury selection to begin Feb. 27.

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Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty, or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light, or look the world in the face .... Marcus Antonius

I AM Some Folks "KARMA" and A MODERATOR @ FRN

Ms. McCastlain has won her election and seems to have no problem doing her job.

How 'bout one for the girls fellas.

In all seriousness folks, these are the types of cases that deserve watching
in all of our respective states.

Remember, on the ladder of life we are only one rung above the lawyers and the leos. How we are viewed in the public arena is how the public (above the first three rungs) views us.

All the more reason for a Standard nation wide.

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Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty, or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light, or look the world in the face .... Marcus Antonius

I AM Some Folks "KARMA" and A MODERATOR @ FRN

Jury selection begins in trial of ex-police chief, wife and bail-bondsman



Wednesday, February 28, 2007 5:36 AM CST

CABOT, Ark. - Lawyers for the defense and prosecution questioned Lonoke County residents Tuesday as they worked to pick a jury to hear corruption charges against the former Lonoke police chief, his wife and a bail bondsman.



Former chief Jay Campbell, his wife Kelly Campbell, and bondsman Bobby Junior Cox were among six people charged in a public corruption investigation. They were accused of a criminal conspiracy involving money, drugs and sex.

John Wesley Hall of Little Rock, attorney for Cox, argued before John Cole _ a retired circuit judge appointed to hear the case _ that the jury wasn't representative of the county's population, which is 6.5 percent black, because only a few blacks showed up in response to summonses for jury duty. After hearing Hall's arguments with none of the prospective jurors present, Cole rejected them and said jury selection would proceed.

No jurors were chosen Tuesday.

The trial is being held in Cabot District Court to avoid tying up the single circuit courtroom at the county courthouse in Lonoke for the month that lawyers say this trial is likely to take.

The bulk of the charges faced by the trio claim the defendants worked together to obtain drugs, money and jewelry illegally, and to obtain construction labor and sex from state prisoners.

A service of the Associated Press(AP)

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Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty, or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light, or look the world in the face .... Marcus Antonius

I AM Some Folks "KARMA" and A MODERATOR @ FRN