HOW HOW WE WE SEE SEE IT IT Justifying Judge Finch’s Decision

Saturday, November 14, 2009

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Benton County Circuit Judge Jay Finch deserved to be pulled over for driving with an expired tag on his vehicle, but his decision to disregard a constable’s attempt to stop him last month is justifiable.

It would be easier to justify if Finch had gone to police.

Finch was driving from Lowell to Cave Springs during the late afternoon of Oct. 26 when Craig Milligan, a constable for Township 4, switched on his vehicle’s blue lights to stopFinch for the expired tag.

Finch did not stop. He said the vehicle trailing him, an old pickup, was unmarked. He did not recognize Milligan. Also - and this is an important point - Milligan was not in uniform.

Finch kept driving until he reached his house, where he and Milligan exchanged words.

“Why didn’t you stop?” Milligan asked him.

“Why don’t you get off my property?” Finch replied.

Milligan left, then returned a little bit later with a Cave Springs police officer. When the expired tag was pointed out to him, Finch promised not to drive the vehicle until he took care of the issue, which he did the next day.

Finch did at least two things wrong: He allowed his tag to expire. It’s a minor thing, but we hold our judges to a high standard and expect them to obey each and every law.

Second, Finch should have driven to the closest police department instead of going home. The judge admits that he made a mistake in this regard.

Stories of people impersonating police officers are unusual, but not unheard of. Probably the most famous case in Arkansas is still the “blue light rapist” who prowled northern Pulaski County in 1997. That man went so far as to wear a uniform when he stopped his victims. Gov. Mike Beebe denied clemency to him as recently as November of last year.

If Finch believed someone was trying to pull him over under false pretenses, that was something local authorities needed to know. That is even more the case since Finch is a judge. He hears cases involving juveniles, a job that often makes an enemy whatever decision he makes. If Finch feared for his safety, he wouldn’t necessarily have been safe at home when he got out of his car to confront someone who might or might not have been a law enforcement officer.

Driving to the nearest police station was not only the safest course, but the one that would have made the most sense to the public. If somebody is following you and trying to pull you over, it would cause some alarm in most people. Now we are left wondering if Finch was concerned for his safety or just did not want to stop. People who are concerned for their safety usually do not lead the people they suspect home with them.

A.L. Hollingsworth, president of the Arkansas Constable Association, said constables are required to wear their uniforms, but there may be emergency situations when a constable does not have his uniform. An expired tag does not strike us as an emergency situation; for that reason, Milligan should have resisted pursuing Finch.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 11/14/2009

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