Police union: Two filings harassment
In the latest salvo in the ongoing legal battle between Little Rock Police Chief Keith Humphrey and the Little Rock Fraternal Order of Police, attorneys for the labor advocacy organization filed a motion in federal court late last week seeking sanctions — including attorney’s fees and costs — against the police chief and his attorney, Michael Laux.
The motion for sanctions, filed by Little Rock attorney Deborah Linton Ferguson, charges that Humphrey and Laux had advanced claims in violation of Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, saying Humphrey’s complaint lacks evidentiary support and is unwarranted by existing law or any non-frivolous argument to extend, modify or reverse existing law or to establish new law.
The motion charges that both the original complaint, filed Sept. 30, 2020, and an amended complaint filed Nov. 18, 2020, appeared to be calculated to harass the Little Rock Fraternal Order of Police and its board and committee members, and to cost the defendants the money and time required to defend themselves against the police chief’s claims.
The amended complaint alleged that the Little Rock Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 17, Watchguard Video, and 21 named individuals, had engaged in a conspiracy to have Humphrey ousted from the top job at the Little Rock Police Department.
The 21 individual defendants named in the complaint are: Assistant Little Rock Police Chief Hayward Finks; former Assistant Chief Alice Fulk; Lt. Cristina Plummer; Little Rock police officers Duane Finks, Reginald Parks, John Gilchrist and Kevin Sexson; Little Rock Fraternal Order of Police board and committee members Ronnie Morgan, Erik Temple, Kevin Simpson, Kenneth Hamby, Steve Dodge, Michael McVay, Kyle Henson, Travis Cumming and Mark Ison; former Little Rock police officer Charles Starks — who was fired by Humphrey on May 6, 2019; Little Rock Labor and Employee Relations Manager Shella Atlas-Evans; Watchguard Video employee Matt Murski; and local blogger Russ Racop.
On Jan. 14 of this year, Laux filed a notice to dismiss without prejudice six individuals and Watchguard Video — which is a subsidiary of Motorola Solutions — from the lawsuit. The notice was filed 10 days after U.S. District Judge James M. Moody Jr. denied a motion by Laux for a 90-day extension of time to serve all defendants with the complaint and summons. The individuals dismissed are Parks, Simpson, Sexson, Atlas-Evans, Murski, and Racop.
Laux, contacted by phone Tuesday afternoon, said he plans to reinstate the defendants in a second amended complaint as soon as Moody rules on six pending motions filed in November and December to dismiss the lawsuit. A motion for leave to file a second amended complaint filed by Laux last December, in which Laux said he intends to add an additional defendant — Little Rock attorney Chris Burks — to the complaint is pending and remains under advisement, according to a court docket entry from Moody that was entered in early January.
“The problem is there’s been a pending motion to dismiss for, I don’t know, six or seven months,” he said. “Very unusual. Whether the judge agrees with the plaintiff or not, the decision is taking an inordinate amount of time and what the judge has said is that he will not accept the amended complaint until the motion to dismiss is resolved but then he sat on [the motion to dismiss] for many months.”
Laux said he could not comment on the substance of the motion for sanctions filed Thursday, saying he had not yet had time to review it.
“I’ve printed it out but I haven’t had time to look at it yet,” Laux said. “They filed a similar motion, I want to say, a few months back that I think was resolved by an amended complaint, but I haven’t even looked at the body of it yet. To me, this is just another instance of Fraternal Order of Police bullying.”
Laux said he has a looming deadline of Sept. 10 to add the defendants back to the complaint or to file an amended complaint.
“At that point,” he said, “if something hasn’t happened I’ll force the issue, but that’s all I know right now.”
A message left Tuesday afternoon with Ferguson was not returned.
Humphrey was appointed police chief by Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott shortly after Scott was sworn in as mayor in 2019. Humphrey has been at odds with the Little Rock Fraternal Order of Police and several of his subordinates in the department since he fired Starks three weeks after assuming command of the department. Humphrey fired Starks in response to the officer’s fatal shooting of Little Rock resident Bradley Blackshire on Feb, 22, 2019, during a traffic stop, even though Starks was cleared of wrongdoing by the prosecuting attorney’s office.
The following January, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox ordered Starks to be reinstated. Nine months later, in September 2020, Starks resigned, citing mistreatment on the job since his reinstatement, which he said was fostered by Humphrey and the mayor.
Humphrey has been the subject of several lawsuits filed by current and former Little Rock police officers, some claiming that they were subjected to retaliation by the chief over Starks’ firing, reinstatement and subsequent resignation.
On Sept. 15, 2020, seven Little Rock police captains and three assistant chiefs addressed a letter to Scott and the Little Rock Board of Directors describing Humphrey as “a catastrophic problem” and asked the city to resolve the issues related to Humphrey’s leadership of the department.
A no-confidence resolution sponsored by Little Rock Director Lance Hines that would have urged Scott to “take appropriate action” was presented to the board at its Dec. 15 meeting but was tabled for two weeks. Hines withdrew the resolution at the board’s Dec. 29 meeting, citing a lack of support for the measure.