East Arkansas police chief on leave in fraud inquiry

Spokesman says state investigating

A map showing the location of Marianna.
A map showing the location of Marianna.

Arkansas State Police are investigating Marianna Police Chief Martin Wilson on a fraud allegation, spokesman Bill Sadler said.

Sadler said the state police investigation began at the request of the First Judicial District prosecuting attorney. Sadler did not release any further information, and Jason Carter, the First Judicial District deputy prosecuting attorney, said he could not comment on an ongoing investigation.

Wilson has been on administrative leave since Oct. 28, interim police Chief Daniel Strickland said. Strickland referred further questions about Wilson to the city attorney, Bill Lewellen, who declined to confirm whether Wilson was on leave. Lewellen said Wilson is still chief.

"I can't discuss personnel matters without the permission of the employee," Lewellen said. "I don't feel comfortable discussing any of the chief's business or any employee's business."

Ten days before he went on leave, Wilson's legitimacy as chief was called into question in a court filing that alleged Wilson had forged his high school diploma.

Arkansas requires all members of law enforcement to possess either a high school diploma or a General Educational Development certificate.

Wilson denied the accusation in October.

"I did graduate, and I'm proud of it," Wilson said in an interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "Those allegations are not true."

Wilson has worked for the Marianna Police Department since 2006, according to records from the Arkansas Commission on Law Enforcement and Training.

The accusation against Wilson came in an amended complaint filed Oct. 18 in the case of Darry Chatwood and Charles Mitchell Jr. vs. Russ Hinsley, Alco Management and the City of Marianna.

Chatwood and Mitchell allege police brutality and wrongdoing by Hinsley, a former police officer, in 2017. The complaint says Hinsley wrongfully arrested and detained the pair, as well as physically battered both, which included choking one of the men while he was handcuffed.

Hinsley was moonlighting as a security guard for Alco Management at the time of the incident but was also a Marianna police officer. Wilson said in October that Hinsley has since been fired.

Austin Easley, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said the case has stalled since the filing because the defendants have taken issue with Easley also serving as a deputy prosecuting attorney in a different county. He said he plans to turn the case over to another lawyer so it can progress.

The complaint filed Oct. 18 asserts negligence by the city for failure to investigate Wilson's educational background despite having "previously been placed on notice" about his lack of education. The complaint does not detail when or how the city had been placed on notice.

The complaint connects the accusations to the case against Hinsley by arguing that without this negligence, Wilson would not have been chief and would not have hired or retained Hinsley, and therefore Hinsley would not have injured the plaintiffs.

Counsel for the plaintiffs requested that the city prove that Wilson finished high school or received a GED. The diploma provided by the city states that he graduated in 1989 from Central High School in Helena-West Helena.

Wilson told the Democrat-Gazette that he gave the city a copy of his original high school diploma, but the plaintiffs' attorney points to an affidavit from the Helena-West Helena School District as evidence it is forged.

According to the affidavit written by then-interim Superintendent Linda English, primary records from around the time Wilson says he was in school were stored in a building that was damaged by water.

The district was unable to find any academic records of Wilson or "the persons who would have graduated in 1989," the affidavit states, so the district turned to "secondary sources" to determine whether Wilson graduated from Central High School.

The affidavit states that Wilson's name was not on the graduation list nor on the list of student dropouts from 1989. His photo was not in the 1989 yearbook, nor was he listed as not pictured, the affidavit states.

The diploma he provided the city, according to the affidavit, shows different names for the principal, district superintendent and board secretary when compared with the yearbook. It is also different from another individual's verified diploma from 1989.

Wilson said he doesn't know for sure whether he ever sat for a yearbook photo his senior year, but said he believes he did.

He said he didn't know why he wouldn't be listed in the yearbook or why his diploma would be different from someone else's from his class.

A public records request by the Democrat-Gazette to the city of Marianna for documents related to Wilson's hiring turned up a transcript showing coursework at Central High School in Helena-West Helena between 1985 and 1989.

The transcript isn't clear as to whether Wilson graduated, but it lists him as ranked 203 out of 216 students with a 1.38 grade-point average. It also shows various courses completed or not completed during his four years at the school.

English was out of the office and not available for comment on the affidavit or transcript Wednesday and did not return previous calls for comment.

Wilson said in October he was not worried about the accusation.

"I don't have anything to hide," he said. "They can do all the digging they want."

Metro on 12/12/2019

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