100 years ago
April 24, 1918
NEWPORT -- J. W. Dent, who says that he has been employed at Camp Pike, was arrested by H. C. Patton and B. W. Jamison yesterday for making alleged disloyal remarks. He was turned over to the government authorities and will be taken to Batesville for trial. Dent was in conversation with S. J. Binning of this city when he voiced the alleged remarks concerning the government's policy of selling Liberty bonds to the effect that they were not worth the paper on which they were written, and that the United States was sure to suffer defeat at the hands of the Germans, and that this government is not a free man's country.
50 years ago
April 24, 1968
• Two Negro employes of the Mohawk Rubber Company plant at West Helena have filed suit in federal District Court seeking to establish a plant-wide seniority policy. Melvin D. Irwin and Johnie E. Lewis, both of Helena, said that under the present system an employe forfeits his seniority when he transfers from one division to another. They said this discriminates against Negroes seeking to transfer to higher-paying jobs in other divisions. The defendants are the Mohawk Rubber Company and Local 539 of the United Rubber, Cork, Linoleum and Plastic Workers of America.
25 years ago
April 24, 1993
• Law enforcement officers arrested a suspended prison boot camp drill sergeant on a capital murder charge Friday night after a Pulaski County grand jury questioned him about his possible involvement with gang activity. Sgt. Rodney Spencer, 25, of Pine Bluff appeared upset upon leaving the grand jury room Friday evening. He denied any wrongdoing. Spencer apparently came under investigation after his car was used in the Dec. 29, 1992, gang-related slaying of David Eskridge, 21, of North Little Rock. Spencer reported his 1992 Chevrolet Camaro stolen from the University Mall parking deck almost an hour after the shooting.
10 years ago
April 24, 2008
• A Pulaski County jury acquitted a 54-year-old Little Rock man of rape and kidnapping charges Wednesday, rejecting the claims of two gang-rape victims that he'd held a gun on them and demanded a turn at having sex with them. Lazaro Pedroso, the second of three men to stand trial, told jurors he rescued the women, both 20, after they were kidnapped in January 2007 from Impressions then raped and beaten, first outside the club at 5201 Asher Ave., then at the home of a co-defendant. "They are not telling the truth because I never had a gun in my hand," Pedroso told jurors during his 80 minutes of testimony. "I saved the lives of those young women."
Metro on 04/24/2018