LITTLE ROCK — A Hot Springs lawyer who had an “inappropriate” relationship with Attorney General Dustin McDaniel reached out to his office a week after a man she referred to as an “old friend” was fatally shot at her Hot Springs home, according to documents released by the attorney general’s office late Friday.

Andrea Davis later asked the attorney general and his aides to help her in a childcustody dispute with her ex-husband, the documents show.

Davis also invoked Mc-Daniel’s name when seeking a time extension in a court case, saying McDaniel was familiar with her “moral fiber.” Davis sent a copy of the request to McDaniel.

Davis, McDaniel and one of McDaniel’s lieutenants also discussed her child-custody dispute for 20 minutes on Aug. 17. That’s the same day that Garland County Circuit Judge Lynn Williams sided with Davis, issuing an arrest order for her ex-husband, Dr. Frederick Day III, and instructing law-enforcement officials to remove two children from his custody and “immediately” detain him.

The judge forwarded a copy of the order to McDaniel’s office, the records show.

The records were released a day after McDaniel’s office said the files were exempt from disclosure under the state Freedom of Information Act because they were Mc-Daniel’s “working papers.”

In an e-mailed statement that accompanied the 35 pages of travel, phone and e-mail records, attorney general spokesman Aaron Sadler maintained that the records are still exempt from the law.

“At no time should our responses to Freedom of Information Act requests be seen as any attempt to conceal information about Attorney General McDaniel’s interaction with Ms. Davis. As you know, the law provides for certain exceptions to disclosure related to our office,” Sadler wrote in the e-mail.

“That being said, in this specific instance, the AG thinks it is important to disclose communications involving himself and Ms. Davis related to the office, even though they [the records] are not subject to release. Those records are attached to this email.”

On Tuesday, McDaniel announced that he had an inappropriate relationship with Davis in 2011. McDaniel married his second wife, Bobbi McDaniel, in 2009.

McDaniel has said that he met Davis during the 2010 election campaign. He said he had limited interaction with her in 2011, some of which was inappropriate.

The relationship first came to light in an Oct. 31 filing in a Garland County Circuit Court child-custody case between Davis and her ex-husband.

This week, when the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette requested McDaniel’s phone records since the start of the relationship and correspondence between McDaniel and Davis or her ex-husband, Chief Deputy Attorney General Brad Phelps initially denied the requests, citing the working-papers exemption.

Arkansas Code Annotated 25-19-105(b)(7) states that “unpublished memoranda, working papers, correspondence of the Governor, members of the General Assembly, Supreme Court Justices, Court of Appeals Judges, and the Attorney General” are exempt from disclosure under the law.

Sadler would not say whether other records exist between Davis and McDaniel from other telephone or e-mail accounts.

“We don’t have any other comment other than what I sent you this afternoon,” Sadler said.

Sadler also declined to say whether text messages between McDaniel and Davis are among those being reviewed by a judge as part of a homicide investigation.

On Feb. 29, Maxwell Anderson was shot and killed by Davis’ brother, Matthew Davis, according to a police report.

Andrea Davis was handcuffed and questioned about the shooting but was later released.

No one has been charged in Anderson’s death.

At the time of the shooting, Davis and the attorney general’s office were preparing to face off in court.

But in a March 7 e-mail that she sent to attorney general’s office officials, including McDaniel, she said that she would be unable to file an appeal on time in that case because she had been “going through the motions” at work and was dealing with “several issues ... on a personal level.”

“To be frank, I am receiving some death threats that I am taking very serious and today is my old friends funeral (whom died at my home last Wednesday),” Davis wrote.

“This is a very bad day for me and I am asking for some humanity and understanding even though I am not going to judge you or be upset with your office, much less General McDaniel, should you say no,” Davis wrote, referring to her request that Assistant Attorney General Warren Readnour not object to her bid for more time in the matter. Her e-mail regarded an appeal of an Arkansas Veterinary Medical Examining Board decision to suspend a veterinarian.

In the e-mail accompanying the release of documents Friday, Sadler said McDaniel was copied in on the e-mail in which Davis referred to the death at her home.

“The AG did not respond to the email, nor did he ever discuss the email with her or with Mr. Readnour,” Sadler said.

On Thursday, Sadler told reporters that McDaniel “has no knowledge of the incident [shooting] itself or the status of the investigation. The [attorney general] has never spoken to Ms. Davis about the Maxx Anderson matter.”

In a 2011 letter, Davis invoked a “familiarity” with McDaniel while requesting a continuance in the veterinary case.

In a pleading letter to Readnour, Davis wrote on the day before a hearing that she had become too ill to appear and needed a continuance.

“I am cc’ing General Mc-Daniel on this only because the General has precedential familiarity with my moral fiber, which I believe he has ascertained from instances I have spent in his vicinity during various public political functions,” Davis wrote.

“I trust the General will vouch (not in any way give me a special favor) that I would not ask for this in any form or fashion to manipulate the Board for my client or to further delay unnecessarily.”

Sadler said in the e-mail accompanying the records that McDaniel never received Davis’ letter concerning the continuance.

“There was also one letter on July 13, 2011, to Mr. Readnour from Ms. Davis that indicates it was cc’ed to the AG. The AG did not actually receive a copy of this letter and never discussed the contents of it with either Ms. Davis or Mr. Readnour,” Sadler wrote.

The records released Friday afternoon revealed two phone conversations between Davis and McDaniel on the attorney general’s office phone.

Sadler said McDaniel had “no memory” of the first phone call on Feb. 22, 2011, which was placed about 4:48 p.m. and lasted eight minutes.

The second call, on Aug. 17, 2012, was placed at 1:39 p.m. and lasted 20 minutes and 20 seconds, Sadler said.

The call came after Davis sent an e-mail addressed to McDaniel with the subject line “URGENT MATTER RE: my kids.” The terse e-mail text stated “Please help me.”

Davis had attached a copy of the child-custody court order. She wanted help retrieving the children from New Jersey, where her ex-husband had taken them.

Sadler said “pursuant to the court order,” attorney general’s office Special Investigations Division Chief Jason French contacted New Jersey law-enforcement officials. French later called Davis to refer her to law-enforcement officials in New Jersey.

Also in the files released Friday was an e-mail from a friend of Anderson’s complaining of a cover-up and asking McDaniel’s office to make sure that Anderson’s killer was brought to justice.

The writer received an e-mailed form letter in response.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/22/2012