Bergman school official reinstated
Bergman Superintendent Joe Couch returned to work Tuesday after a brief leave of absence after his arrest Nov. 19 on suspicion of driving while intoxicated and driving left of center.
The Bergman School Board put Couch on administrative leave with pay Nov. 20. The board met again Monday and voted 5-0 to reinstate the superintendent, School Board President Bill Sansing said.
The board will continue to monitor court proceedings related to the arrest, Sansing said. The board's next meeting is Dec. 18.
Couch, 62, was arrested after a Boone County sheriff's deputy saw Couch's vehicle weaving in its lane and crossing the centerline on U.S. 65, just south of Harrison, according to the sheriff's office. The deputy administered a sobriety test and a breath alcohol test that showed an estimated blood-alcohol concentration of 0.14, above the state limit of 0.08.
Couch was released Nov. 20 after posting a $970 cash bond. His first court date is Dec. 18.
-- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
LR teen stabbed man, police say
A teenage boy stabbed a filmmaker and stole his van outside a Little Rock gas station early Sunday morning, police reported.
Officers responded shortly before 1 a.m. to an Exxon station at the corner of South University Avenue and West 53rd Street, where they found Michael Armstrong lying on the floor inside. Blood was "all over the ground" as two men held and comforted the 30-year-old Armstrong, who had been stabbed, according to a police report.
Armstrong, whose short films have appeared in the Little Rock Film Festival, Little Rock 48-Hour Film Project and El Dorado Film Festival, was taken to UAMS Medical Center for treatment.
He later told officers that before he was attacked, he had been at the Exxon getting "caffeine" for himself and some friends. The group had been filming a short horror movie at Armstrong's home nearby, the report states.
As Armstrong left the gas station, a person described as a black, slender man about 6 feet tall gave him cash and asked him to buy a pack of cigars. When Armstrong returned with the cigars, the person purportedly stabbed him twice in the back and stole his Ford Windstar.
Detectives recovered surveillance footage of the attack from the gas station, according to the report.
Officers searched the area and found Armstrong's vehicle not long after he was hospitalized. The van was being driven by Ontario Jones, 17, about 1.5 miles north of the gas station at 3991 Fair Park Blvd., police said.
Jones was arrested and charged with aggravated robbery, first-degree battery and theft of property. He was being held in the Pulaski County jail late Tuesday in lieu of $25,000 bond.
Armstrong wrote on his Facebook page Monday morning that he was "going to be ok."
-- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Man who escaped jail pleads guilty
HOT SPRINGS -- A man who escaped from the Garland County jail and was later arrested in Florida pleaded guilty Monday to federal charges in a Hot Springs bank robbery and a carjacking in March 2013.
Derrick Estell, 34, pleaded guilty to two counts of using a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence in the March 1, 2013, robbery of Hot Springs Bank & Trust and a carjacking that took place March 7, 2013, as authorities moved toward his arrest at the Super 8 motel in Hot Springs, according to a U.S. attorney's office news release.
In July 2013, authorities said Estell escaped through a window at the Garland County jail, where he was held after his transfer from the East Arkansas Regional Unit in Brickeys for a court date. About a month later, Estell and his girlfriend were arrested in Jay, Fla.
News accounts at the time stated Estell was sentenced in 2010 to 12 years in prison on several charges, including residential burglary and breaking and entering, and was paroled Feb. 23, 2012. Estell violated the terms of his parole and was arrested on 26 charges from separate incidents in February and March 2013, including aggravated robbery and burglary.
U.S. District Judge Susan O. Hickey accepted the Monday pleas in Hot Springs, and Estell was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service after the hearing.
His sentence will be determined by the court after pre-sentencing review. The mandatory minimum for the first count is seven years, and the mandatory minimum for the second count is 25 years. The maximum penalty for each count is life imprisonment, the release said.
-- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Report: Workers erred with votes
TULSA -- A newspaper has found that hundreds of provisional votes cast in the Nov. 4 general election were not counted, including a pair mistakenly rejected by poll workers.
The Tulsa World reported Friday that nearly all those rejected were set aside for valid reasons, but a pair of the 301 provisional ballots cast in Tulsa County were rejected in error.
Travis Rice said he was told his vote would count after his name was mistakenly removed from the rolls. Election workers earlier this year had tried to remove a relative with a similar name.
Tulsa County Election Board Secretary Patty Bryant said a woman was removed from voter rolls after her birth date and the last four digits of her Social Security number matched that of a possible felon ineligible to vote.
-- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NW News on 12/03/2014