In the past year, 1st Judicial Circuit Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Michael Ladd has been accused of harassing his neighbors, as well as pulling a gun on someone at a bar in Cross County.
Despite the barrage of complaints, Ladd's boss, Prosecuting Attorney Fletcher Long, wouldn't officially look into the matter or ask a special prosecutor to intervene, said Dwight Brown, who is one of Ladd's neighbors.
The 1st Judicial Circuit covers Cross, Lee, Monroe, Phillips, St. Francis and Woodruff counties.
At wit's end, Brown and his wife, Beth, finally hired an out-of-town attorney.
That attorney, Marty Lilly of Jonesboro, said that when the Browns arrived at his office doorstep, they simply didn't know what else they could do about their problems with Ladd.
Lilly soon understood their frustration.
"I sent letters to Fletcher and others asking that an independent person be appointed to look into it. I made several requests and was always met with one excuse or the other," he said. "Fletcher wasn't going to do it. He always said he would look at it first and then determine whether there was a conflict [of interest]. We jumped through hoops."
Nearly a year after the Browns started complaining about what they described as Ladd and his brother honking, cursing and wishing them death, Lilly's letter to a district judge prompted Long to recuse himself and request a special prosecutor, Lilly said.
The statute of limitations had nearly run out by the time a special prosecutor was assigned, leaving Arkansas State Police only a few weeks to conduct an investigation.
On Tuesday, the results of that investigation prompted special Prosecuting Attorney Jason Barrett to file a misdemeanor charge of harassment against Ladd and his brother, David.
Michael Ladd didn't return repeated calls for comment.
Barrett also is opening a second investigation into an allegation that Ladd brandished a gun at a Cross County bar in March.
This isn't the first time that Ladd has found himself in trouble with the law.
At 1 a.m. Sept. 24, 2006, the deputy prosecutor was arrested in Jonesboro after a police officer noticed him weaving and driving at a slow rate of speed. The officer said she smelled alcohol in the vehicle after she pulled Ladd over.
Ladd said that he and his passenger, Alisa Spence, had just left the 501 Club. He refused to take a breath-analyzer test.
He also refused to sign his statement of rights, saying, "Yeah, I understand the English language," after the officer read them to him and asked him whether he had any questions.
Ladd initially pleaded no contest in district court to charges of DWI, refusing to take a breath-analyzer test and impeding traffic flow. He then filed a misdemeanor appeal in circuit court.
In August 2008, Ladd entered a guilty plea to DWI, and prosecutors dropped the other two charges. He was fined $500 and sentenced to one day in jail with credit for time served.
In a phone interview Friday afternoon, Fletcher Long said he will await the outcome of the harassment charge and the results of the state police investigation before making any decisions involving Ladd's role as a deputy prosecutor.
"As far as the DWI is concerned, that's over and done with," Long said. "He's a human being, he made a mistake, he's paid the price. It's done."
According to the criminal information sheet filed by the special prosecutor, Ladd and his brother pulled into a neighbor's driveway while honking the horn in the early-morning hours of Aug. 16, 2013. The Ladds then pulled to a stop in front of the house, cursing and saying that they hoped the homeowner would die, the document said.
Brown said this happened after he persuaded the city of Wynne to issue a citation regarding Ladd's dogs, which he said Ladd allows to run loose through the neighborhood.
"They get into everyone's trash and poop in the yard," Brown said Friday. "And we have a leash law."
Getting the citation issued, he added, was an ordeal in itself.
"The city's afraid of him," Brown said. "And his wife is the city attorney."
Ladd's wife is City Attorney Kathleen Talbott. The pair also practice law together at their firm, Talbott & Ladd.
"I could not get anybody on a local level to really do anything. Nobody wanted to mess with this guy," Brown said. "[Ladd and Talbott] are of the attitude that they're above the law. And Fletcher Long doesn't want to do anything about it, but he's [Ladd's] boss. We presently have a do-not-contact order -- ourselves and another neighbor. It's not just us he's been harassing."
The Wynne Police Department previously asked state police for an independent investigation into allegations that Ladd pulled a gun on another patron at a bar in March, according to an article that ran in the Wynne Progress.
The article described a letter written by the Wynne Police Department to its state counterpart. In the letter, local authorities worried that conducting their own investigation would be a conflict of interest because of their working relationship with the prosecuting attorney's office.
"The letter also indicates the department has been threatened with legal action for a perceived failure to investigate certain citizen complaints against Ladd," the Wynne Progress reported.
State police investigators had planned to meet Friday with Ladd at his attorney's office so they could serve the warrant for harassment, state police spokesman Bill Sadler said. But when investigators called Ladd's attorney that morning, they learned that the Wynne Police Department already had gotten the warrant and served it to Ladd while he was in court Thursday.
State Desk on 08/16/2014