Justices back tossing of evidence in arson

State attorneys failed to persuade the state's highest court to overturn an Independence County judge's rejection of evidence of an arson because fire investigators failed to obtain a search warrant.

ADVERTISEMENT

More headlines

In a unanimous opinion, the Arkansas Supreme Court dismissed an appeal from the Arkansas attorney general's office, saying that the court had no jurisdiction over this mix of "fact and law."

The ruling followed a June 2011 fire in Batesville that wholly consumed a dental office, a pharmacy, and a restaurant, Pioneer Pizza, owned by Christopher Brashers.

Three days after the fire, a Batesville fire chief, joined by insurance investigators, walked through what was left of the debris.

The group determined that the fire started in Brashers' pizzeria and that the presence of "accelerants" showed that the blaze had been deliberately set.

Brashers was charged with arson, a Class Y felony punishable by up to life in prison, but Brashers filed a motion with the court in Independence County to dismiss the evidence used against him.

The court ruled that Fire Chief Randy Sharp did not ask Brashers for permission to go on his property nor did he seek a search warrant.

Brashers argued that the evidence obtained in the search was inadmissible and that the fire chief improperly assisted the insurance investigators, supplying them confidential information.

Sharp's efforts amounted to a "joint venture" between law enforcement and insurance investigators, Brashers argued. He asked the court to throw out any evidence that had been collected without a warrant.

State attorneys argued that no warrant was necessary to investigate the fire's remains, arguing that there is a precedent for no-warrant searches at fires.

Independence County Circuit Judge John Kemp sided with Brashers and suppressed the evidence.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court's opinion found that there were no pressing matters of legal interpretation and that Kemp was within his authority to make sense of the facts and apply basic legal tenets.

Brasher's criminal case remains open but will proceed without the photographs, diagrams and other evidence supplied by Sharp.

Metro on 05/29/2015

Upcoming Events