State files for judge’s recusal in LR suit

The Arkansas Department of Education on Friday formally asked Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen to step down from a case involving the state takeover of the Little Rock School District.

The Education Department filed the motion for recusal late Friday afternoon, citing a Jan. 28 statement by Griffen to the state Education Board and published on the Arkansas Times’ blog. The department had made an initial request in a letter to the court Monday, but Griffen — who was randomly assigned to the case after the state takeover — asked for a formal motion.

“On January 28, 2015, this Court made certain public statements wherein the Court advocated its position that the State Board of Education should not remove the Little

Rock School District Board of Directors,” according to the state’s motion. “The defendants respectfully request that the Court recuse from the present case.”

When reached Friday, Griffen said he does not comment on cases pending in his court.

Griffen had sent a letter Jan. 28 that urged the Education Board to leave the School Board intact. Disbanding the School Board, he said in the letter, would “disenfranchise the voters” and would “subject the electors of the Little Rock School Board to taxation without representation.”

The School Board has worked to overcome years of race discrimination and poverty in an attempt to provide education to every student in the district, he said.

“The Little Rock School Board you are asked to dissolve has done nothing that justifies being dissolved,” he wrote. “Instead, you are being urged to commit an act of tyranny by people who must surely know that this School Board is more representative, cohesive and committed to serving all students than all of its predecessors, without exception.”

That same day, the Education Board voted 5-4 to dismantle the School Board and named Dexter Suggs as the interim superintendent. The vote came after discussion of the district’s six schools labeled as academically distressed because fewer than half of the students at those schools scored at proficient levels on state math and literacy exams during a threeyear period.

In court documents, Jeremy Lasiter — an attorney for the Education Department — said Griffen’s statements “point to a bias in favor of the plaintiffs’ position.”

“At the very least, the statements point to an appearance of unfairness,” he said.

When asked Friday when he might make a decision, Griffen said the plaintiffs in the case — who include three recently displaced Little Rock School Board members — have a chance to respond to the recusal motion. They have no later than five days to give their response, and the state has another five days to reply to that.

Marion Humphrey, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs, said earlier this week that his clients would not support a motion for recusal.

Once those steps are cleared, Griffen will make his decision, he said.