Innocent, ex- deputy pleads in drug case

A former Carroll County deputy pleaded innocent Monday to charges of aggravated assault, possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Jonathan Edward White, 31, was arrested July 27 in Berryville after pointing a gun at his wife, according to court documents.

White was a narcotics investigator for the Carroll County sheriff’s office. On July 22, White’s wife told Sheriff Randy Mayfield and another officer that White was using methamphetamine, according to an affidavit she filed in Madison County Circuit Court seeking an order of protection. The couple lived in Madison County.

“When Jon learned what I had done, he was very upset,” his wife wrote. “He kept texting me how I cost him the only job he ever loved.”

On July 27, while driving on Arkansas 21 on her way to work, she met a vehicle driven by White. He turned around and followed her, according to the affidavit. Both pulled over to talk.

“We got into an argument,” she wrote. “He yelled at me how he wasn’t a cop anymore and took his gun out and pointed it at me.”

When White was arrested, a glass smoking pipe and plastic bag containing a crystalline substance were retrieved from his right front pocket, according to an affidavit filed in Carroll County Circuit Court by Jerry W. Williams, an investigator for the sheriff’s office.

At the time of his arrest, White told an officer that he was under the influence of methamphetamine, according to the affidavit.

White was booked into the Carroll County jail, then transferred to the Benton County jail in Bentonville on July 28. He was released July 29 on a $ 5,000 surety bond. White was formally charged Thursday.