Two from Conway face lawsuits in judicial races

Two judicial candidates from Conway, one of them an appointed circuit judge, should be disqualified from next month’s races because they don’t meet the constitutional requirements to hold office, lawsuits against them claim.

The separate suits against Judge H.G. Foster and Angela Byrd state that since each has had a license suspension for nonpayment of annual state-bar licensing fees, they do not meet the criteria for office set forth in Amendment 80 of the Arkansas Constitution. It requires a judicial candidate to have been a licensed attorney for at least six years before taking office.

Suspensions remove lawyers’ authority to practice law, which makes them unlicensed, the plaintiffs argue, citing the Arkansas Supreme Court’s rules.

The plaintiffs want Foster and Byrd removed from the list of eligible candidates and any votes for them to be excluded in the May 20 election. They’ve asked for a hearing within a week. As of Wednesday afternoon, no hearing had been scheduled.

Foster’s license has been suspended four times for a total of 216 days - a little more than seven months - since 2009 for not paying his licensing dues on time.

His last suspension was for 11 weeks - 77 days - because he didn’t pay his$200 last year until May 17, according to the lawsuit filed by attorney Lucien Gillian on behalf of Doralee Idleman Chandler.

Chandler, 41, is competing with Foster, 61, for the 20th Judicial District circuit judgeship vacated by Rhonda Wood and now filled by an appointee. Wood was elected to the Arkansas Court of Appeals in 2012 and is now running for the state Supreme Court.

Foster’s license was suspended for 11 days in 2009, and for 64 days, a little more than two months, in both 2011 and 2012, according to the lawsuit. He was appointed to his judgeship by Gov. Mike Beebe in January 2013.

Reached for comment Wednesday, Foster said he’d only just received a copy of the lawsuit and hadn’t had time to read it, so he was not prepared to discuss it.

Foster was the district’s elected prosecutor from 1986 to 2006. He was first licensed in 1978. Chandler, a Little Rock lawyer in private practice and a Conway minister, was licensed in 1998.

Byrd, 46, who is seeking a different 20th Judicial District circuit judgeship, had her license suspended for nonpayment for a day in March, according to the suit filed by attorney John Tull on behalf of Lonnie Williams, described in the filing as a resident of the judicial district that includes Faulkner, Van Buren and Searcy counties. Tull did not return a phone call for comment about the suit.

Byrd, who left the prosecutor’s office in 2011 to go into private practice, is challenging incumbent Circuit Judge David Clark. Byrd did not return a message left at her law office.

To be able to take office on Jan. 1, 2015, any judicial candidate must have been continuously licensed since Jan. 1, 2009, the lawsuits state. Byrd, the wife of former Faulkner County Sheriff Karl Byrd, was licensed in 1992.

The lawsuits come two weeks after a specially appointed judge ruled that a 6th Judicial District candidate, Valerie Thompson Bailey, was not a legitimate candidate to challenge Circuit Judge Tim Fox because her license had been suspended for about nine years.

Bailey’s attorneys argued at a hearing that her suspension, an administrative penalty she accepted while she lived out of state and raised her children, should not be counted against her like a suspension for misconduct would.

But the appointed judge, John Cole of Sheridan, ruled that in Bailey’s case, the Amendment 80 requirement does not distinguish between the nature of suspensions.

“A suspension is a suspension is a suspension,” Cole stated.

The lawsuits were filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court because Arkansas Secretary of State Mark Martin is a defendant in his role as statewide elections administrator. The election commissions in Faulkner, Van Buren and Searcy counties are also defendants.

Chandler’s case has been assigned to Judge Mary McGowan while Williams’ suit is before Judge Wendell Griffen.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 04/03/2014

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