Mayor's plea: Not tamperer

Monticello funds said to go astray

Monticello Mayor Zack Tucker has pleaded innocent to charges of public-record tampering and abuse of office, according to court filings.

ADVERTISEMENT

More headlines

Tucker, who was to appear in court Monday, submitted a waiver of first appearance and arraignment Friday and pleaded innocent. The judge approved the waiver Friday.

Drew County Circuit Clerk Beverly Burks said Tucker's next appearance in court will be at 9 a.m. Nov. 21 for a pretrial hearing. That hearing would again be before Circuit Judge Bynum Gibson.

Tucker's attorney, Hani Hashem, said the next step is to review the prosecutor's file before the hearing.

Felony record tampering can result in a fine of up to $10,000 and up to six years in prison, and misdemeanor abuse of power can result in a fine of up to $1,000 and no more than 90 days in jail.

Conviction of any felony can disqualify a person from holding a mayorship.

Tucker was elected at 25 years old in 2014, and his term expires Jan. 1, 2019.

Since being charged in September, Tucker has been tending to his mayoral duties although some of his authority has been stripped by unanimous votes of the City Council. Since August, the council has taken away the mayor's ability to authorize checks from the city and reduced Tucker's city spending account for 2016 to zero.

The charges relate to the 2015 Arkansas Forest Festival. The festivals, which started in 2015, are operated by the Arkansas Forest Festival Committee, of which Tucker is chairman. The festivals are not officially operated by the city.

Tucker started moving money around to cover debts after the authorization of a check filled out by Tucker in February 2015 was disputed by the person whose signature was on it, according to an Arkansas State Police summary of its investigation. That dispute spawned an unauthorized disbursement from a city account by the mayor, according to the investigation.

On April 3, 2015, Tucker wrote a $22,500 check from the city's Advertising and Promotion Commission to the Economic Development Fund of Monticello -- a longtime city contractor and the concern that took Arkansas Forest Festival under its wing as a nonprofit in 2014.

Tucker then created an invoice from the fund that stated the money was for ETC Engineering's work ­done on a proposed convention center that had failed by public vote in 2015, police said. Tucker did not have the authority to write checks from the fund, police said.

That check is what prompted Drew County Prosecuting Attorney Thomas Deen to send the case to the Arkansas State Police. Tucker is charged with committing abuse of office April 2, 2015, and tampering with public records April 3, 2015.

On April 3, 2015, Tucker deposited the $22,500 into the Arkansas Forest Festival's bank account instead of the Economic Development Fund's account, then withdrew the money from the bank and bought a cashier's check to pay Variety Attractions for entertainment provided for the 2015 festival, police said.

That $22,500 fulfilled the remaining balance to Variety Attractions, police said.

The festival was held April 3 and 4, 2015.

Another forest festival was held earlier this year. But later, in June, Union Bank closed Arkansas Forest Festival's bank account because of a negative balance, police said.

Metro on 10/18/2016

Upcoming Events