DWI charge filed on governor’s son

Arrest is months after ’16 case tossed

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s son was arrested early Monday on a driving while intoxicated charge.

Records show that William Asa Hutchinson III, 42, of Rogers was booked into the Washington County jail in Fayetteville shortly after 3 a.m. Monday. The online booking report says he faces multiple charges including DWI, speeding and not submitting to a test that could determine his blood-alcohol content. He was arrested by an Arkansas State Police trooper based in Springdale, according to the report.

Hutchinson was released less than two hours later, at 4:36 a.m., on $1,626 bond, jail records show. His first court appearance is scheduled Wednesday in West Fork District Court. Another hearing there is set for July 19.

Hutchinson’s arrest occurred less than a year after a DWI conviction against him was dismissed by a circuit judge because of errors on the citation.

In that case, Hutchinson was cited after crashing his Ford pickup into a guardrail in the early morning of Jan. 24, 2016, while driving along Interstate 49 in Fayetteville. State Police Cpl. Joshua Arnold, who responded to the scene, described Hutchinson’s eyes as “bloodshot and watery” and that “there was a strong odor of intoxicants coming from the cab of the pickup” in the incident report. Arnold said that when he asked Hutchinson to take a sobriety test, Hutchinson refused.

On Nov. 30, 2016, Hutchinson was tried and convicted by a Fayetteville district judge for driving while intoxicated, careless and prohibited driving and refusing to submit to chemical testing.

But inconsistencies found in the state police citation used to charge Hutchinson were called into question last year by Hutchinson’s attorney, Chad Atwell of Fayetteville.

The first citation completed by Arnold marked that it was “daylight” conditions outside, even though it was about 3 a.m. On that ticket, Arnold said the crash took place at mile marker 67 on the interstate. Arnold tried to void the ticket and then wrote another one indicating that it was dark outside. That citation, however, said the crash happened at exit 67, which is past mile marker 67.

The second citation was the document filed in court and used to charge Hutchinson.

Atwell argued Hutchinson never received the citation used against him in court and that the statute of limitations to charge him using that document had already passed.

Circuit Judge Mark Lindsay agreed with Atwell and dismissed the case last July. The Fayetteville District Court verdict was vacated.

Lindsay said Arkansas law doesn’t allow an initial charging document — in this case the first citation written by Arnold — to be voided in a DWI case.

Hutchinson had been arrested twice on DWI charges before the January 2016 incident, according to earlier Democrat-Gazette reports.

In May of 2016, he was arrested by Alabama law enforcement officials who said he was attempting to sneak MDMA — a psychoactive drug known as “molly” or “Ecstasy” — into a music festival.

Hutchinson is a Rogers lawyer who practiced with his father before his father, a former administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, was elected governor in 2014.

A spokesman for the governor didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Hutchinson III