LITTLE ROCK -- A former Monroe County district court judge was arrested Thursday in Little Rock and accused of soliciting sex in exchange for taking action on a criminal case pending before his court, authorities said.
Thomas David Carruth, 63, of Clarendon is accused of soliciting sex from the girlfriend of a defendant in April in exchange for speeding up that defendant's trial date, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.
Carruth is also accused of lying to FBI agents when questioned about the incident, the release says.
According to the release, Carruth was charged in an indictment with three counts reach of honest services wire fraud and using a facility in interstate commerce in furtherance of unlawful activity, one count of bribery, one count of making false statements and one count of obstruction of justice.
If convicted on the top counts, Carruth faces up to 20 years in prison, the release says.
In a news release acknowledging the arrest, the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission said Carruth's home was raided by the FBI in June and that he resigned from his part-time, elected judicial position in August in order to run for another public office.
The commission said it is investigating two complaints that were filed against Carruth and that it had received complaints on the "the same subject matter when federal authorities began their probe of Carruth's alleged conduct."
The commission said the complaints remain pending before a commission investigation panel and that the commission said it will continue cooperating with the FBI investigation.
Contacted by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette by phone on Thursday evening, Carruth said only, "On the advice of counsel, no comment."
The FBI's Little Rock field office is investigating the case with the assistance of the Arkansas State Police, the Justice Department release says.
According to KARK, Carruth said shortly after the raid on his home that a woman "made a false accusation against me" in a blackmail attempt and that she'd "do anything" to get her boyfriend, the defendant, out of jail.
Carruth said he immediately notified the Arkansas State Police and FBI, the TV news outlet reported.
"I've done everything I'm supposed to do," Carruth told KARK. "When someone tried getting me to do something, I contacted authorities."
Citing the KARK report, a woman on Aug. 31 sued Carruth, alleging he defamed her by saying she offered him sex and then tried to blackmail him.
The woman, referred to as Jane Doe in the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, alleged that Carruth invited her to meet with him and offered to release her boyfriend in exchange for sex, but that she refused.
Carruth, acting as his own attorney, filed a motion the following month asking U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky to dismiss the suit. He argued in part that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case, that he hadn't been properly served and that his statement to the news channel couldn't be considered defamation because he hadn't named the person trying to blackmail him. Rudofsky hadn't ruled on the motion as of Thursday.
The Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission in November 2018 formally admonished Carruth, saying that from 2013 to 2017 he had contact with a small number of litigants or witnesses with cases in his court.
Witnesses said that Carruth would discuss with these people the merits of their case, the commission's report stated, although Carruth denied that accusation.
The commission determined that even if Carruth did not discuss cases with these people, that the "number, times and circumstances" of the meetings created an appearance of impropriety.
Additionally, the commission noted that while Carruth often recused himself from cases in which he had met with a litigant or witness, he did not always do so immediately, and that he made no effort to amend his behavior before the commission began looking into him.
Commission members determined that Carruth's willingness to improve his behavior and avoid meeting with litigants and witnesses warranted the admonishment instead of formal discipline.
A formal admonishment is a public sanction more severe than an informal adjustment but falling short of formal discipline, the report outlines. It represents a disapproval of the judge's actions.
The commission's report states that Carruth was elected judge in 2012. Before that, he was known for representing David Clark, who sued the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission in September 2009, alleging that their decision to cancel the year's turkey-hunting season about a week before it was scheduled to begin was arbitrary and done in bad faith.
The case was dismissed by the Pulaski County Circuit Court in April 2010, and Clark's appeal to the Arkansas Supreme Court in June 2011 was likewise dismissed.
Prior to that, in February 2004, the nonprofit Arkansas Wildlife Federation, of which Carruth was a member, sued the Army Corps of Engineers, alleging that the Corps violated the National Environmental Policy Act during its construction of the Grand Prairie Area Demonstration Project.
Carruth no longer appears on the federation's website but is listed as a member in the lawsuit and was its president in 2007, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported at the time.
The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas found for the Corps, and the 8th U.S District Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that ruling in December 2005.