Gillean forgoes appeals, heads off for prison

CONWAY — Former University of Central Arkansas Chief of Staff Jack Gillean has given up the right to further appeals of his commercial burglary convictions and will begin serving his prison sentence under an agreement approved Monday.

Gillean, shackled and handcuffed, nodded his head but said nothing audible as he and two of his attorneys appeared before Judge Charles Clawson Jr. in Faulkner County Circuit Court. Moments earlier, Gillean had conferred privately with his attorneys, Timothy Dudley and Nicki Nicolo.

Gillean “will be transported [from the county jail to a state prison] immediately upon availability” of space, Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland said after the brief hearing.

Gillean, 59, faces a threeyear prison sentence, a

$35,000 fine and 120 months of probation in the burglary case, which resulted from a cheating scandal at UCA. Dudley noted in court that Gillean already has served some probation.

It is unlikely that Gillean will spend three years in prison. Hiland said an inmate with good behavior typically serves one-sixth to one-third of a prison sentence in Arkansas.

Clawson had ordered Gillean’s arrest earlier this month after the prosecutor’s office said a probation office advised that Gillean had tested positive for marijuana six times and once for amphetamines since his March 2014 trial ended.

Under the agreement, Gillean forfeited his appeal bond, which also was the $17,500 bond he had posted after his initial arrest in October 2012. Dudley said Gillean waived further appeals resulting from his convictions on six counts of commercial burglary.

In exchange, the state agreed to dismiss its petition to revoke Gillean’s probation and not to prosecute Gillean for the purported probation violations.

On Dec. 9, a three-judge panel of the Arkansas Court of Appeals upheld Gillean’s convictions. Gillean could have appealed that decision had he not accepted the agreement.

“I think the final resolution is good for our community and especially for the University of Central Arkansas,” Hiland said after the hearing Monday.

After Gillean’s trial, the prosecution dropped two other charges against him — one felony count of fraudulent insurance acts and one misdemeanor count of filing a false financial statement.

The latest developments marked the end to a 3-yearold legal case that had exposed details of Gillean’s drug and alcohol use and his sex life.

When he abruptly resigned from his UCA job in June 2012 during a police investigation, his salary was $146,971. He had worked there since 1996 and had gained the trust of university presidents, who often deferred to him on university history when it involved the law or policy matters.

At UCA board meetings, he routinely sat at the front of the conference room with the president and trustees.

Before joining UCA, Gillean had worked as a deputy attorney general and as executive assistant for criminal justice when Jim Guy Tucker was governor.

The black- and gray striped jail clothes Gillean wore Monday were a stark contrast to his suit-and-tie days. As he was leaving the courtroom, he turned and said something to his attorneys and later smiled and laughed softly in an exchange with a sheriff’s deputy.

Gillean was charged after former student Cameron Stark told police that Gillean had willingly given him UCA-issued keys and a key card with the knowledge that Stark intended to use them to enter professors’ offices and steal tests. Stark later testified under immunity.

Gillean, who has been living

in Hot Springs, left his UCA position just days after Stark gave university police Gillean’s keys and said Gillean had given them to him.

Stark was being questioned at the time about a drug theft on campus. No one was charged in that theft.

Hiland said his “take-away from this case was the transparency and spirit of cooperation we received from the university despite this case coming on the heels of two previous high-profile negative issues.”

His reference was to the resignations of former UCA Presidents Lu Hardin and Allen Meadors. Hardin later pleaded to federal felony charges related to a secret

bonus he received while at UCA. Meadors pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor resulting from actions during his presidency.

Hiland said the case is “also symbolic of the fact that no matter your position or station in life you can be held accountable for your actions.”

Asked how Gillean was doing, Nicolo said, “He is well.”