Tenacious turmoil

Troubles continue

All the smoke endlessly billowing from the conflicted community of Tontitown appears to have erupted into flame with the announcement of a state police investigation into activities of the newly elected Mayor Paul Colvin and a city councilman.

You'll have to have had your second cup of coffee by now to keep up with the latest installment. Ready?

Former Mayor Jack Beckford had replaced Police Chief Denny Upton with Kristopher Arthur.

Then Paul Colvin was elected mayor.

Arthur smelled something he didn't like in City Hall. But believing he might have a conflict of interest in investigating his new boss, in December he contacted Washington County Prosecutor Matt Durrett with his concerns of alleged possible criminal wrongdoing by Colvin and a Tontitown city council member.

Colvin asked Chief Arthur to resign, then fired him when he refused. Colvin replaced Arthur with the previously departed Upton.

Durrett asked the Arkansas State Police to investigate what's up with Colvin and the council member. Arthur also apparently has retained an attorney and will appeal his firing to the city council.

Meanwhile, Colvin has asked city employees to cooperate with the newly restored Chief Upton.

Reporter Scarlet Sims' story about the twisted mess said the mayor wasn't available for comment. Probably suffering a touch of heartburn.

Bribing Maggio

Staying with the theme of the day, may the good Lord spare Arkansans from elected officials the likes of former Faulkner County Circuit Judge Michael Maggio.

He pleaded guilty the other day in federal court to taking a bribe in exchange for greatly reducing a jury's negligence verdict against a Conway nursing home.

It doesn't get worse than a judge accepting a bribe. As a result Maggio faces up to a decade in prison and a $250,000 fine. Let's hope he gets the fullest measure for his admitted violation of the public trust.

To compound his self-inflicted disgrace, Maggio was seeking a position on the state's Court of Appeals at the time he accepted the admitted bribe in the form of a campaign contribution.

Thankfully, he quit that campaign after being caught making anonymous posts about bestiality, sex acts, divorce and confidentiality in the case of a Hollywood actress. The Supreme Court frowned on Maggio's acts and removed him of his judgeship, saying he'd severely compromised the orderly administration of justice. Hmmm, ya think?

That mess was followed by questions by this paper about contributions his campaign had received from political action committees financed by nursing-home owner Michael Morton, according to news reports.

Just days after accepting those contributions, "Judge" Maggio kindly reduced a jury award of $5.2 million against one of Morton's nursing homes to $1 million. For some reason Morton's name was omitted from the court papers, yet news accounts said he was otherwise identified by his ownership of the nursing home in question.

The news account of Maggio's guilty plea quoted First Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Harris, who said: "As part of his plea, Maggio admitted that his decision to remit the judgment was improperly influenced by the donations that his campaign received from the business owner. Maggio further acknowledged that he attempted to delete text messages between the campaign fundraiser and himself after the contributions from the business owner were disclosed by the media."

After the smoke cleared in this malfeasance meltdown, the Supreme Court thankfully banned Maggio from ever again sitting as a judge.

It doesn't get any lower in public service than elected officials who accept bribes for favors in office and those who pervert the public trust by offering them. In this case, the victim involved was a nursing-home patient, for gosh sakes.

Ten years in prison will be letting the former "judge" off far too easy. The sentencing has yet to be scheduled. Many will be watching.

The Lipscomb dilemma

Finally, I'm beginning to think the city of Rogers might be better off hiring a municipal therapist to deal with the continuing daytime drama that's become the life and times of its myriad conflicts with City Attorney Ben Lipscomb.

From all I've read, it strikes me Ben's become what amounts to a royal pain with the city fathers, his colleagues, and even trying to determine if he's a legal resident of Rogers. Then there's the matter of what his job responsibilities even are nowadays.

The lawyer's much-publicized states of antagonism began last year when he was accused of posing as a law enforcement officer so he could enter a VIP tent to get a drink for a friend during an Arkansas Music Pavilion performance. Seems his woes have since become darned near a cottage industry for the media.

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Mike Masterson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at [email protected].

Editorial on 01/18/2015

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