Correction: Saline County Sheriff Bruce Pennington was arrested June 29 at a Benton restaurant and bar. This story erroneously reported the date of Pennington’s arrest.
BENTON - Saline County Sheriff Bruce Pennington admitted himself into a treatment facility after his arrest on alcohol-related charges earlier this summer, he told reporters at his plea hearing Monday, where a judge fined him $3,000 plus court costs after he pleaded guilty to the charges.
The three-term sheriff, who is up for re-election next year, didn’t speak during the four-minute proceeding before Little Rock District Judge Alice Lightle, who was specially appointed to the case, but he did read from a prepared statement before a crowd of reporters afterward.
Pennington apologized to Saline County residents, his family and co-workers for initially denying some of the actions police accused him of during his July 29 arrest. He said he has since viewed dashboard-camera footage from that night, which was released after Monday’s hearing, and said he is “totally shocked and embarrassed” by his behavior.
Benton police arrested Pennington and charged him with public intoxication and refusal to submit to arrest just after 8 p.m. that night after the officers were called to Denton’s Trotline, a local restaurant and bar, on a report of an intoxicated man getting into a vehicle. When the officers arrived, Pennington was sitting in the driver’s seat of a white 2008 GMC Yukon. As the officers approached him, Pennington became loud, boisterous and told officers to leave him alone, that they didn’t have any reason to be dealing with him.
The second charge was upgraded last week to resisting arrest on the basis of review of the footage that showed the sheriff attempting to hit an officer.
“Because of my condition on the night of July 29, 2013, and frankly the denial of that condition in subsequent days, I did not have a true understanding of my personal problem,” Pennington said Monday with his wife, Barbara, standing by his side. “In the first week of August I entered into an in-patient treatment facility to address my personal issues. I will continue to address my human flaws for the rest of my life.”
Pennington’s hands were shaking as he read from the sheet of paper, and after his statement - which ended with him asking for forgiveness and the chance to regain the public’s trust - he quickly rushed back into the courtroom.
His attorneys, William Watt and Mark Hampton, followed behind him as bailiffs shut the doors, not allowing anyone else back inside.
Specially appointed prosecutor Cody Hiland of Conway also spoke after the plea hearing. Like the sheriff, Hiland called the footage of Pennington’s arrest an embarrassment. It shows the sheriff pushing officers, balling up his fists, taking an aggressive stance, refusing to be put in handcuffs, refusing to get into the police car and refusing to cooperate during a breath test. Later he threw a “tantrum” on the floor at the Benton Police Department, according to reports.
“It was an embarrassment to law enforcement,” Hiland said. “It was an embarrassment to the citizens of Saline County. … The office of the sheriff is an office of public trust. The sheriff’s actions certainly violated that trust. We work hard to try to earn the respect of our people we serve and they were not served with the actions of Sheriff Pennington.”
Lightle fined Pennington the maximum $2,500 for the resisting arrest charge, plus $145 in court costs and placed him on unsupervised probation for one year. She also fined him $500 for a public intoxication charge, plus $145 in court costs. He has until Friday to pay the fees.
Pennington had said at a news conference two days after his arrest that he doesn’t have an alcohol problem. He didn’t specify Monday the type of treatment facility he entered or whether he is continuing treatment there.
He has said before that he will not resign his position, even though hundreds of residents are calling for him to do so on social media websites and by starting a petition on Change.org to push him out of office. The online petition is closed with 363 signatures.
Some residents who attended the hearing Monday said they didn’t think his apology was heartfelt.
“He’s sorry he got caught,” said local resident Linda Ives, a regular critic of Pennington.Ives asked the Saline County Quorum Court to issue a no-confidence vote in the sheriff, but the court didn’t respond to her request.
It’s not the first time Pennington has been accused of alcohol-related offenses. In 1996, when Pennington worked for the Arkansas State Police, a co-worker claimed he saw Pennington drinking on the job. The sheriff denies that claim and said it was never substantiated.
But the next year the agency disciplined him after an investigation into his borrowing money from subordinates and others with whom the agency has a relationship. The director found Pennington to be “less than truthful,” and found “overwhelming evidence that both his professional and personal conduct brought discredit to the agency,” according to March 1997 documents.
Pennington resigned from the state police in November of that year.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 08/27/2013