Suit against Democrats thrown out

A former state representative’s lawsuit — his fourth — against the Arkansas Democratic Party was thrown out of court Wednesday by a Pulaski County circuit judge who ruled that Fred Smith has no grounds to sue because a federal judge has already heard Smith’s claims and ruled them to be baseless.

Judge Alice Gray dismissed the 4-month-old lawsuit after a brief hearing. Smith did not attend.

Smith, a former Harlem Globetrotter who was representing himself, had

moved to have the hearing reset but did not notify the judge he wanted a postponement.

On behalf of the Democrats and former chairman Will Bond, also a defendant, party lawyers Chris Burks and Daniel Ford argued that the findings last year by U.S. District Judge W.P. Marshall Jr. prevent Smith from turning to the state courts after losing in federal court.

They also told the judge that Smith’s taken too long to bring his accusations to state court because the statute of limitations restricts the time he has to sue to three to five years.

The lawyers also noted that Smith has filed so many lawsuits deemed baseless by the federal courts that Marshall has barred him from pursuing further federal litigation without a judge’s prior permission.

Smith claims in the circuit court suit that he was a victim of a conspiracy among party leaders and state officials to keep him off the ballot.

His issue with the Democratic Party is over how he was allowed to sign up as a party candidate for the 2012

primary, after which the party took him to court and got him removed from its ballot. Party officials said he was ineligible to hold office because of a felony theft conviction.

Smith won a seat in the House as a Green Party candidate that year, but he lost his chance for a follow-up term when he was defeated in the 2014 Democratic primary.

He was first elected as a Democrat to the House in 2010 but resigned the next year after being found guilty of theft in Chicot County, a ruling that made him ineligible to hold office until the finding was expunged.

He was allowed to register for the 2012 Democratic primary, but his conviction was not purged until two weeks after he had signed up as a candidate.