HOT SPRINGS -- A ruling in a Little Rock attorney's suit to release recordings of 911 calls made after the death of Circuit Judge Wade Naramore's son is expected this afternoon, the special judge assigned to the case said at the conclusion of a Wednesday hearing at the Garland County Courthouse.
Retired Circuit Judge Sam Bird said he would rule after listening to recordings of Naramore's 911 call on July 24 and dispatched to the Hot Springs Police Department and another person's 911 call made the same day and dispatched to another agency.
Matt Campbell, the Little Rock attorney and blogger to whom the Hot Springs police had declined to release the recordings, said after the hearing that the call not made by Naramore was a "direct call to the ambulance company."
City Attorney Brian Albright denied Campbell's Oct. 20 records request on behalf of the special prosecutor assigned to investigate the July 24 death of 18-month-old Thomas Naramore. Albright said after the hearing that the special prosecutor subpoenaed the call Campbell referenced.
According to an affidavit special prosecutor Scott Ellington filed Wednesday with Albright's hearing brief, he told Hot Springs Police Chief David Flory that the recordings were part of the investigative file and exempt from Campbell's Arkansas Freedom of Information Act request.
"I advised him that I preferred the 911 audio recordings not be released to the public pending my investigation," Ellington said in the affidavit.
Campbell argued during the hearing that Ellington's preference is irrelevant in determining if the recordings should be released, telling Bird that only material that's investigative in nature can be exempt.
Flory and Ellington were in the Division 4 courtroom Wednesday in anticipation of testifying, but Bird said testimony was unnecessary. The two 911 calls downloaded onto separate CDs that Albright presented as exhibits were the extent of the evidence entered into the record Wednesday.
Bird said he would listen to the CDs and decide if they're "investigative in nature and fall within the law enforcement exemption."
He said he planned to render a decision at his home in Little Rock and transmit it to the Garland County circuit clerk by the close of business today.
State Desk on 11/05/2015