FAYETTEVILLE -- An attorney representing Washington County apologized for citing race and politics as possible reasons for a former employee suing the county judge, according to circuit court documents.
Jason Owens, a Little Rock attorney with Rainwater, Holt and Sexton, filed a motion Oct. 2 to dismiss a class-action lawsuit filed in April by George Butler against the county, several employees and County Judge Joseph Wood.
"The plaintiff certainly disagrees with the county judge politically and, possibly, otherwise on a variety of issues. Judge Wood is the first Republican judge in decades and the first African-American judge in an even longer period," Owens wrote in a footnote.
Butler was chief of staff for former County Judge Marilyn Edwards, a Democrat who didn't run for re-election last year. He was county attorney for just over 30 years until 2014, when he retired. Butler is white.
Butler's class-action lawsuit claims that Wood didn't follow county policy when he fired and hired department heads, and the money paid to the new employees should be returned to the county general fund. The lawsuit doesn't ask for an exact amount but asks the court to mandate that the salaries of six employees hired by Wood this year be returned to the county coffers.
The Oct. 2 motion footnote drew questions from some justices of the peace and a pointed response from Butler's attorney, Jim Lingle.
"Judge Wood may be the first Republican judge and the first African-American judge in awhile, but he is also the first judge to violate county hiring policies and to ignore the sound public policy reason behind the rules," Lingle wrote in an Oct. 19 reply to Owens' motion. "The law applies across racial and party lines."
The lawsuit has nothing to do with race or political affiliation, Lingle said.
In a Nov. 3 response to Lingle, Owens and Rainwater attorney Mike Rainwater apologized in a footnote.
"George Butler is a fine man, lawyer and long-time public servant and the undersigned counsel has always counted him a friend. Undersigned counsel intended no implications of any kind by mention of the county judge's race and personally apologizes for any confusion," according to the response.
The same document asked the judge for a hearing on Owens' motion to dismiss. The case has been postponed, and no settlement is under consideration, Owens said. No hearing has been set.
County Attorney Brian Lester referred specific questions about legal tactics of the case to Rainwater.
Owens said he communicates, mostly by phone, with Wood and Lester before making major decisions in the case.
Justice of the Peace Eva Madison, a Democrat representing northeastern Fayetteville and an employment lawyer, has raised concerns repeatedly about how the case is being handled. Madison emailed Lester on Oct. 28 asking who made the decision to bring up race and the reason behind the decision. Lester responded by saying the tactic was a valid, legal argument.
Lester and Madison both provided the email exchange.
"I'm not sure if you are shocked at the thought that George Butler's motive may have been racially motivated, or at the audacity that anyone would suggest such a thing against a Democrat," Lester wrote to Madison.
Metro on 11/26/2017