Mayflower gets new chief again

The Faulkner County town of Mayflower has its third police chief in less than seven months.

Mayor Randy Holland said Wednesday that Dan Sutterfield, the chief since Jan. 10, resigned last week and was replaced the same day with Mayflower police Sgt. Billy Paul Baker.

Baker, 44, has been with the Mayflower Police Department since January. He was chief of the Vilonia Police Department from 1997-2000, Holland said.

Holland said Sutterfield’s July 1 resignation was not related to an investigation of the department and that he did not ask Sutterfield to resign.

“He [Sutterfield] told me he had some other offers and that kind of thing he wanted to do, and I said that would be fine,” Holland said.

The mayor said he did not know what Sutterfield is doing now. Sutterfield’s phone number was unavailable, and he could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Circuit Judge David Reynolds of Conway appointed Pulaski County Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley in May to investigate the Mayflower Police Department.

Jegley said Wednesday that the investigation was still under way and that no charges had been filed. He said he could not comment further.

This investigation follows a previous one that led to theDec. 14 resignation of Richard Shaw as Mayflower police chief.

Shaw is awaiting trial in Faulkner County Circuit Court on a felony charge of assisting a convicted felon in the purchase of emergency blue lights for his vehicle. Shaw has an Aug. 30 pretrial hearing.

That charge grew out of the November 2009 arrest of John Andrew Brinkley on a felony charge of impersonating a police officer in Mayflower. Brinkley also was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and with illegally purchasing a blue light. In 2007, Brinkley had pleaded guilty to a felony hot-check charge.

Despite the change in chiefs, Holland said the Mayflower Police Department is stabilizing.

“Billy Paul is really what I need in this town, because he understands a small town,” Holland said. “I feel real comfortable with the direction we’re going now.”