Judge, 65, quits; faced inquiry on complaint

Lawrence County’s longtime district judge, recently re-elected, is resigning in the face of a disciplinary probe, the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission said Wednesday.

The commission has dismissed the complaint against Judge Larry Hayes because of his resignation, which takes effect Jan. 1, along with his promise to never seek another judgeship.

His departure from the bench ends the commission’s jurisdiction over him and keeps details of the complaint filed against him last year from being disclosed. His resignation cites his age and health issues, the commission reported.

In his four-sentence resignation letter Wednesday to Gov. Mike Beebe, Hayes mistakenly refers to himself as the Sharp County district judge. No one answered the phone Wednesday afternoon at the Hayes home in Walnut Ridge.

The 65-year-old Hayes, who marked his 33rd year as a lawyer this month, beat challenger Clay Sloan 1,054-906 in May. Hayes is a former prosecutor and city attorney. His wife, Carolyn Hayes, is the Walnut Ridge clerk/treasurer and was Lawrence County circuit clerk from 1983 to 1998.

According to the most recent figures available, 3,536 misdemeanor cases and 6,249 traffic cases were filed in the branches Hayes presided over in Black Rock, Hoxie and Walnut Ridge. He was paid a base salary of $64,740 by statute.

In September 1997, Hayes was cited by the judicial disciplinary commission for his involvement in a traffic casein his court. Hayes reported a driver who ran a stop sign to police, directed the driver be cited for reckless driving, then issued a $100 fine when the driver pleaded guilty in his court.

In June 1995, Hayes faced down three men posing as U.S. marshals, with bogus badges, who had been waiting for him at the courthouse.

The men went into his chambers to deliver a written demand that he appear before a “supreme court” in Kansas.

They appeared to be attempting to intervene in a criminal-trespass trial over which the judge was presiding. They threw down the papers and fled when Hayes told them to leave.

The defendants in the case were supporters of Gordon Kahl, the anti-federal government Posse Comitatus leader killed in a 1983 shootout with law enforcement in Smithville in which Lawrence County Sheriff Gene Matthews also was killed.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 8 on 09/29/2012

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