Judge orders former lawmaker jailed

Order says Hutchinson must pay ex-spouse child support to be released

LITTLE ROCK — Jeremy Hutchinson, the former state lawmaker facing a potential federal prison sentence for bribery and tax fraud, was jailed by court order Thursday for failing to pay $515,579 in child support to his exwife, an amount that rises to $620,142 when interest is included.

His only way out of the Pulaski County jail is to pay his former spouse $524,000, although he owes more, according to the nine- page order by Pulaski County Circuit Judge Alice Gray.

“The plaintiff is in willful contempt of court for his failure to comply with the terms of the [divorce] decree and property settlement agreement,” Gray stated in her ruling. “The court specifically finds that at all relevant times, the plaintiff had the ability to pay. He had the ability to pay when the amounts were due, and he now has the ability to pay.”

On Feb. 3, the Little Rock Republican is due to be sentenced in federal court on bribery and tax fraud charges. Hutchinson pleaded guilty in June 2019 to conspiring from 2014 through 2017 to commit bribery with Benjamin Burris, the co-owner of an orthodontic clinic chain in Arkansas, to further legislation favorable to the businesses, and in a separate case, filing a false income tax return in 2012 and making false statements on subsequent tax returns through 2014.

In Missouri, his sentencing is pending for his guilty plea to a federal bribery conspiracy count that involves his admission to accepting bribes from a federally funded Missouri nonprofit, Alternative Opportunities Inc., which became Preferred Family Healthcare and once served as Arkansas’ largest Medicaid provider of mental health care.

The nephew of Gov. Asa Hutchinson and son of former U.S. Sen. Tim Hutchinson, Jeremy Hutchinson is a former lawyer who served two terms in the state House from March 2000 to January 2007, then two terms in the

state Senate from January 2011 until he resigned in August 2018 when he was indicted by a federal grand jury.

On Thursday, Gray jailed the 48-year-old, twice-married father of three after finding him in contempt of court for deliberately breaching his June 2011 divorce decree and property settlement six times, the child support arrears among those violations. Hutchinson had agreed to pay $ 10,500 per month. The interest on those arrears is $104,563.

Gray also indicated she will consider requiring him to pay 50-year-old Stephanie Anne Hutchinson’s legal fees for what has been a 21-month-long court battle.

The judge further found that Hutchinson had deliberately failed since September 2018 to pay his minor children’s major medical health insurance and one- half of their medical and prescription drug expenses not covered by insurance.

The judge also found that Hutchinson has refused to disclose the retirement funds and benefits he had amassed during the 12½-year marriage, a requirement since his ex- wife was entitled to half of what he accrued during their marriage, the judge found. He has 10 days to turn those materials over so that whatever funds and benefits he has can be divided with his ex-spouse.

The judge ruled that Hutchinson also owes his former wife $9,756 in premiums she has paid since September 2018 on a $300,000 l i fe- insurance policy. Hutchinson was supposed to pay for a $ 1 million life insurance plan that would make her the beneficiary until she turns 70 but never did so. He must now take out a $700,000 plan and maintain it until she reaches 70, under Gray’s ruling.

Also, Hutchinson failed to live up to a promise to pay for his children’s college education as long as they maintained at least a 2.0 grade point average as full- time students. The judge ordered him to reimburse the two eldest for their attendance at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville up to $34,574 for the oldest son, Jackson, 23, and $20,000 for the middle daughter, Hallie, 20, with the requirement that he put up a $50,000 bond within 10 days for his youngest, daughter Abby.

Hutchinson also stopped paying for his kids’ summer camps and mission trips in September 2018, so he must pay those costs while his youngest is in high school and the older children are in college, Gray’s ruling states.

The judge’s findings come after three previous hearings this year in response to Stephanie Hutchinson’s March 2021 contempt motion in which she complained that Jeremy Hutchinson had stopped living up to the pair’s divorce settlement in September 2018. At the time, Hutchinson was in child-support arrears of $311,644 after making partial payments totaling $13,857 between September 2018 and March 2021, Stephanie Hutchinson asserted.

Jeremy Hutchinson claimed to be destitute, so poor that he could not afford to pay for legal representation but had to represent himself.

In her contempt finding, Gray found no merit to his defenses to his ex- wife’s contempt complaint.

Claims that the pair’s divorce decree had somehow modified the pair’s secret property settlement were nullified because it was Hutchinson himself who had presented the settlement documents to the court and asked that they be accepted, which they were, the judge noted.

Hutchinson also waited too long to ask for his child support to be reduced, the judge noted, acknowledging that he has since taken those steps in a Dec. 19 motion. That request has yet to be heard.

Hutchinson has failed to prove that he can’t afford his child support, Gray stated.

“The court finds that the plaintiff has failed to meet his burden,” she wrote. “There were several hearings in this case over several months, and at no point did [Hutchinson] offer to pay even what he thought he should be paying in child support or his other obligations.”

The judge also rebuffed Hutchinson’s claims that his ex had duped him into signing their property settlement by promising to stay in Little Rock with their children, only to move back to Northwest Arkansas after the divorce was finalized. The judge found that Hutchinson had shown no proof of fraud on his ex’s part, and that even if there had been, he had “ratified” her actions when he agreed to an addition to their property settlement agreement in November 2012. Further, Hutchinson had waited too long to bring that accusation to court, the judge stated.

Hutchinson filed for divorce in April 2011 from his wife, the former Stephanie Anne Wagner, whom he had married in June 1998. According to the divorce petition, the couple had split up about 80 days earlier. The pair did not use their first names in the pleadings, using their middle names instead, listing themselves as Young Hutchison and Anne Hutchinson.

Their divorce was finalized about two months later, and Jeremy Hutchinson was married in September 2017 to Brianna Wynne Mathews. Property records show the couple live on Bella Rosa Place in a two-story, 2,439-square-foot home between Cantrell and Taylor Loop roads they bought for $293,550 in December 2020, according to property records.

J. Hutchinson