Court: Sign stealing ends re-election bid

Theft is ‘dishonest,’ ‘infamous’ in state

— Greenwood Mayor Kenneth Edwards cannot seek re-election because he was convicted of stealing three campaign signs in 2009, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

“This is a very broad stroke in Arkansas as to who can hold public office,” said attorney Coby Logan, who appealed the Sept. 28 ruling that barred Edwards from seeking re-election. “It will have some rippling effects as to who can hold public office.”

Logan was disappointedthat the court didn’t consider the extenuating circumstances involved in Edwards’ 2009 conviction for misdemeanor theft of property.

“According to the Supreme Court, that’s enough to hold someone from public office for life,” Logan said.

Tuesday’s ruling affirmed a decision by the Sebastian County Circuit Court that barred Edwards from seeking re-election because his theft of property conviction constitutes an “infamous crime.”

Article F, Section 9 of the Arkansas Constitution states that “no person hereafterconvicted of embezzlement of public money, bribery, forgery or other infamous crime, shall be eligible to the General Assembly or capable of holding any office of trust or profit in this State.”

The Circuit Court also ordered that Edwards’ name be left on the ballot but that any votes cast for him not be counted. Edwards was running against Del Gabbard and Bill McAlister.

Attorney C. Brian Meadors filed the suit on behalf of former Greenwood Mayor Garry Campbell. Meadors said Tuesday he was pleased butnot surprised by the ruling.

“An infamous crime is a crime that involves dishonesty, and there is a hundred years of precedent that says theft involves dishonesty,” Meadors said.

Meadors said he would have to file a different petition to have Edwards removed from office.

Edwards didn’t return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday.

He maintains he didn’t commit a crime because city law empowers him to remove signs from public rights of way. The Supreme Court, however, said Tuesday that it could notconsider the circumstances of Edwards’ crime, only the conviction.

“Edwards is a public official who perpetrated a theft while in office and who now seeks to be re-elected to the same position of public trust,” justices wrote in the ruling. “By his action, he has impugned the integrity of that office.”

Logan said Tuesday’s ruling sets precedent in finding that circumstances of thecrime were not to be considered. The question posed was whether consideration should be given to the seriousness of the crime, Logan said.

The U.S Supreme Court has found that severity of punishment should be the basis for defining what constitutes an infamous crime, he said.

The state Constitution, however, was written prior to that ruling, Logan said. Therefore an infamous crime is defined by whether it involves a deceitful or dishonest act, he said.

In its ruling Tuesday, the state justices wrote, “We hold that misdemeanor theft is a crime of dishonesty and, as such, fits readily within the classification of an ‘infamous crime.”

Logan said the Arkansas Supreme Court previously determined that misdemeanor can prevent someone from holding public office. He said that other misdemeanors, such as assault, battery and driving while intoxicated wouldn’t appear to rise to the level of infamous crime, because they don’t involve deceit or dishonesty.

Meadors said that the Supreme Court essentially decided that people should not be allowed to make excuses after being convicted of a crime.

“What the Supreme Court said today was, ‘We’re not going to look at this thing on a case-by-case basis and let people try to explain away their crime.’ They can’t try to wiggle out of the rule,” Meadors said.

To contact this reporter:

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Northwest Arkansas, Pages 9 on 10/27/2010

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