LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Parole Board announced Tuesday that it has granted parole to a man serving time for sexual assault despite the man’s failure to complete a programfor sex offenders while in prison.
Michael Butler, 38, was sentenced in 2003 to 10 years in prison after being convicted of assaulting a 19-year-old woman in Mississippi County. Butler has beeneligible for parole since 2005 but had been denied because of his failure to complete the 14-month program.
As part of a settlement in a lawsuit, Arkansas Department of Correction Director Larry Norris agreed inSeptember to request to the Parole Board that Butler not be required to complete the program. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in 2007, contended that Butler’s rights were violated when he wasbeaten by officers at the East Arkansas Regional Unit at Brickeys in May of that year.
Norris made the request to the Parole Board in a one-sentence letter dated Oct. 15.
“Pursuant to a Settlement Agreement and Release ... the Arkansas Department of Correction requests that you consider removing the completion of the Reduction of Sexual Victimization Program from the terms and conditions of Michael Butler’s parole eligibility,” Norris wrote.
Curtis Walker, a deputy prosecutor in Mississippi County who had urged the Parole Board to disregard the Norris request, said the Parole Board’s decision sends a “horrible message.”
“Now he’s put right back on these streets, and he’sprobably coming back to this community,” Walker said. “It’s hard to say this guy has been rehabilitated.”
Parole Board Chairman Leroy Brownlee didn’t return a call seeking comment Tuesday.
The sexual assault happened on April 7, 2002. According to a report from the Mississippi County sheriff’s office, a woman told deputies Butler took her to a county road north of Leachville, grabbed her by the throat and said “you are going to give it to me.” The woman said she ran from the car, but Butler chased her, knocked her to the ground and raped her.
Initially charged with rape, Butler pleaded guilty in 2003 to a lesser charge of seconddegree sexual assault and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
In the Reduction of Sexual Victimization Program, at the Ouachita River Unit in Malvern, inmates spend all day attending counseling sessions, meetings and classes aimed at teaching them to “recognize their impulses and getting them not to act upon them,” said Dina Tyler, a Correction Department spokesman.
Butler has enrolled five times but has never made it past the program’s first phase. Four times, he was kicked out for disciplinary problems, and another time, he voluntarilywithdrew, Tyler said.
Until this month, the Parole Board had required that Butler complete the program before being considered for parole. On Dec. 14, the board voted to grant Butler parole, specifying that he can be released as soon as March 25.
Under the conditions of his parole, the board required that he attend sex-offender counseling outside prison. He must also register as a sex offender, submit to electronic monitoring, abstain from drinking alcohol and agree to take polygraph or voice-stress analysis tests about his activities as part of the Arkansas Department of Community Corrections’ sex offender monitoring program.
Butler must also have no contact with his victim and may not date women with minor children.
Walker, the deputy prosecutor, questioned why the Parole Board believes Butler would enroll in sex offender counseling once he’s free.
“He didn’t do it in prison, so what makes you think he’ll do it when he gets out?” Walker said.
Clinton McGue of Cabot, who represented Butler in the lawsuit, said Butler felt that employees at the Ouachita River Unit were biased against him and would not allow him to complete the program. He noted that Butler has filed a second lawsuit over a beating he says he received at that prison in June 2008.
“It’s his feeling that he’s just been sort of retaliated against,” McGue said.
McGue said he believes Butler will enroll in counseling after he’s released.
A Correction Department internal investigation into the beating Butler received on May 17, 2007, as well as the beatings of several other inmates that year, led to the firing of eight officers and the suspension of eight others.
After the second beating, in June 2008, an officer was suspended without pay for three days. Since the beating, Butler has been housed at the Varner Supermax Unit.
McGue and Tyler said they don’t think that the settlement in the 2007 lawsuit puts the public at risk. They noted that, even if Butler hadn’t been granted parole, he would have completed his entire sentence in 2012.
“This allows parole officers to monitor him, as opposed to just having him discharged from prison with no one watching over him,” Tyler said.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 11 on 12/23/2009