Nobody yet knows whether Ben Lipscomb, city attorney for Rogers, did anything illegal, unethical or wrong. A special prosecutor has been appointed to investigate a scenario -- the details of which remain publicly sketchy -- in which he may have portrayed himself as a police officer.
Benton County Prosecutor Jim Clark requested appointment of the special prosecutor after allegations arose. Marc McCune, prosecutor in Crawford County, is looking into the matter.
What’s The Point?
Benton County’s prosecutor and deputies for the sheriff’s office made the right decisions on how to handle two recent cases involving public officials.
Allegations like those lodged against Lipscomb are precisely the kind that deserve a special prosecutor. One can certainly infer that the problem with such an impersonation by a public official is its invocation of the power of law enforcement to get something that the public official would not normally get.
The details are yet to come. As it stands, Lipscomb is innocent in the eyes of the law of any such allegation. That's as it should be.
It was troublesome that his comments after the investigation was revealed appeared to be very lawyer-like parsing of words. "It's impersonating a law enforcement officer, and as a prosecuting attorney, I am a law enforcement officer," Lipscomb said. But the law is the law. He's right that the statutory language has meaning. The outcome of the investigation will certainly be viewed through the specifics of legal language. But when it comes to those holding public office, it must also be viewed through the lens of ethics.
We applaud Clark for taking the allegations seriously and taking the necessary steps to ensure an examination of a public official's actions. Let the facts spell out whether Lipscomb has been wrongly accused or whether there's is a price to be paid for wrongdoing, legally or ethically.
Likewise, we applaud the actions of Benton County deputies who had the unenviable task of responding to reports of a drunk individual headed to his car from the Frisco Festival in Rogers. The task was unenviable because the man turned out to be County Judge Bob Clinard.
As with Lipscomb, the full circumstances of Clinard's run-in with the officers, which resulted in a public intoxication charge, remain to be revealed. But those who notified authorities of the dangers and the deputies involved did the right thing by handling Clinard's situation just as they would have with anyone else.
Holding public office creates responsibilities to the public, not special privileges. We're glad to see officials in Benton County taking that seriously.
A Clarification
An ordinance to fund new early voting sites in Washington County would appropriate $28,587 for part-time salaries, supplies and computer equipment related to four new sites: Prairie Grove City Hall, Medical Arts Pharmacy in southeast Fayetteville, the Fayetteville Boys and Girls Club and Arvest Ballpark in Springdale. An earlier proposal for five sites was cut back to three after Quorum Court members expressed concerns, but Arvest Ballpark was added back at the request of Justice of the Peace Rex Bailey of Springdale.
An editorial in Thursday's edition focused on the former three-site proposal as we advocated for the Quorum Court to support an expansion of early voting sites in the county.
Commentary on 08/29/2014