Arrested lawmaker urged to quit post

Rutledge rebukes Gates over tax case

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge on Friday called for state Rep. Mickey Gates to resign after his arrest a day earlier on charges of failing to pay state income taxes.

“He should neither have sought public office, or held public office if he was not paying taxes into the system,” Rutledge said of her fellow Republican.

Gates, who lives in Hot Springs, was arrested on seven felony counts of failing to pay taxes or file returns from 2012-17.

He hadn’t filed tax returns since 2003 but only faces charges in the more recent years because of the statute of limitations, according to an Arkansas State Police affidavit in Garland County Circuit Court.

State Rep. Michael John Gray of Augusta, chairman of the state Democratic Party, on Thursday also called on Gates to step down.

Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson stopped short of that, saying he trusted Gates to “do the right thing to assure the public that his tax responsibilities are handled appropriately or step aside.”

Reached by phone Friday, Gates repeated a statement he gave a day earlier to The Sentinel-Record. He said he will plead innocent to the charges, has been dealing with authorities “in good faith,” and the filing of charges came as a “total surprise.”

“I will not be making any further comment on advice of counsel,” he said.