LITTLE ROCK — Mix-ups, miscommunication and errors continued to surface in the Phillips County judicial system last week as authorities worked to clear up a docket of years old cases left languishing in circuit court because of unserved fugitive warrants.
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Court officials discovered that one man, expected to appear for a hearing, had been released from jail by the sheriff without being notified of his court date. Another man had been jailed on a warrant issued for his father. Still another had been arrested on a warrant issued for a man with a similar name.
The errors surfaced during hearings last week in which a judge pressed prosecutors and law-enforcement officers to answer for missing case files and misdirected court documents.
Helena-West Helena Police Chief Uless Wallace and 1st Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Fletcher Long appeared in court Wednesday and promised to locate the files and make sure that copies of certain documents are filed with the court on time.
Sheriff Ronnie White, whom Circuit Judge Richard Proctor had also requested to appear Wednesday, did not show up during the hearing. White didn’t return phone messages left Friday at his office or on his personal cell phone.
The consequences of years-long dysfunction in the Phillips County justice system were evident during hearings in which prosecutors dropped nearly 200 felony cases, saying they couldn’t prosecute the cases as they stood because law-enforcement officers hadn’t served the fugitive warrants.
In some of the dropped cases, the unserved warrants were more than a decade old, court records show.
The prosecutors’ actions, which cut in half the number of fugitive cases in the county’s circuit court, came after the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette published several articles over the past two months about the consequences of a sheriff’s office policy of not entering failure-to-appear warrants into state and national crime databases.
The newspaper found that at least a third of the county’s most serious fugitive cases faced dismissal because the warrants weren’t served. The cases involved fugitive warrants issued in Class Y felonies, the state’s most serious offenses, which carry terms of 10 years to life imprisonment.
Some of the cases identified by the newspaper were among those dropped en masse last week. Others remain on the circuit court’s fugitive docket. Deputy prosecutor Todd Murray has said he is reviewing the docket to see if any other cases have too many problems to continue with prosecution.
NO COURT DATE
On Tuesday, Proctor said in open court that he wanted the sheriff to appear in court to explain a few matters. Foremost was a case involving Dalvin Harrison, who was allowed to bond out of the Phillips County jail without being told what his court date was.
Prosecutors noticed the problem Tuesday when Harrison’s name came up on the docket.
He had been released, but his court date was not listed on his bond paperwork.
When Murray asked that Proctor issue a fugitive warrant for Harrison, the judge said: “What proof do we have that the defendant was given a court date? I don’t have any proof of anything. I think they have to have some sort of notice to be here.”
The judge then asked that an order be prepared regarding the bond paperwork.
“I’d also like to know who approved that bond,” Proctor said.
“Sheriff Ronnie White,” Murray responded.
“Would you ask the sheriff to come, too,” the judge said.
Although Proctor didn’t issue a written order, the request was made in open court and was clearly heard by prosecutors, court staff members and the bailiff. A reporter could not determine Friday whether White received notice of the judge’s request for his appearance.
WARRANT MIX-UPS
The missing court date wasn’t the only miscue revealed during the hearing. In another instance, the court took up a case in which the sheriff’s office had recently served a fugitive warrant.
Court papers show that James Mayfield of the Phillips County sheriff’s office served the warrant, issued Nov. 15, 2010, “by personal service” on June 7. The failure-to-appear warrant had been issued in a case involving charges of attempted murder and reckless burning, court records show.
Proctor asked, as is routine, if the inmate before him was named Patrick Roddy as indicated on the warrant.
“I think it was my father on those charges,” the man responded.
The warrant was for a man born in 1963. The man standing before the judge was 22.
“Mr. Roddy, you appear to be the wrong person picked up by the authorities,” Proctor said.
He then ordered Patrick Roddy Jr.’s immediate release.
In another case, officials served a fugitive warrant for “Willie Smith.” But they arrested William Smith, a man five years younger than the man sought for failing to appear in court.
On Tuesday, William Smith appeared in court to answer the warrant. And the mix-up almost went unnoticed until his attorney arrived and cleared up the matter by showing the differing birthdays.
“That’s my client,” attorney James Valley told thejudge, “but that’s not Willie.”
Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Michael Ladd then made a motion of nolle prosequi - a declaration that he didn’t intend to pursue the 17-yearold case, while leaving open the possibility of refiling it within a year.
The judge granted the motion. The Willie Smith named in the warrant never stepped forward.
DOCKET CLEARING
Willie Smith’s fugitive case was one of at least 35 that the Democrat-Gazette identified as facing dismissal because law-enforcement officials had failed to serve fugitive warrants in a timely manner.
Also among the newspaper’s findings were two men whom Helena-West Helena police - if they had known about fugitive warrants for the two - had at least 50 combined opportunities to arrest, court records show.
The men had been stopped for traffic offenses, arrested on misdemeanors or appeared in Helena-West Helena District Court, all while their circuit court cases languished.
The cases against Derrick Rose, 28, and Antoine Culler, 26, have since been dropped because the warrants weren’t served.
Culler’s case was one of the nearly 200 Murray dropped Wednesday.
The day before, Rose - who had served time in federal prison while there were two fugitive warrants out for his arrest - had his cases dismissed during a court hearing.
“He did federal time for over a year. This is a case ripe for dismissal,” Rose’s attorney E. Dion Wilson said before making motions for Rose’s two fugitive cases to be dismissed over violation of the state’s speedy-trial rules.
Ladd, who prosecutes cases for the 1st Judicial District’s Drug Task Force, conceded.
“Based on recent revelations, I’m not prepared to stand here and argue against that,” he told Proctor.
Proctor then granted Wilson’s motions, dismissing the cases.
“Motion to dismiss for Rule 28 violation granted due to recent revelations about unserved warrants,” the judge ruled.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 06/24/2012