Altered hiring file obtained by police
BENTONVILLE — The Arkansas State Police has the original document signed by Benton County Sheriff Kelley Cradduck concerning the hiring of a former jailer — a copy of which was discovered missing from sheriff’s office files in November, according to court documents.
Cradduck is accused of ordering his staff to backdate Gabriel Cox’s hiring date to pay him for time he was not an employee of the jail. He also instructed his secretary in October to lie to state police, who were investigating the case, according to the court documents.
State police arrested Cradduck on Tuesday on accusations of tampering with public documents, a Class D felony; and tampering, a Class A misdemeanor.
Formal charges haven’t
been filed against Cradduck. Jason Barrett was appointed special prosecutor in November after Nathan Smith, Benton County prosecutor, recused.
Cradduck has said the allegations are politically motivated. He said he was attempting to help Cox, who was homeless at the time, by hiring him to work in the jail. Cradduck insisted in a video he released earlier this month that he did not illegally try to pay Cox but that the man deserved pay for the time he spent waiting to get hired.
After applying for work in September, Cox went to the sheriff’s office for days before his hiring took effect, according to Cradduck and state police records.
“It’s an antiquated system that is not fair to new hires,” Bill Adams, Cradduck’s campaign manager, said when asked about the video. “The sheriff told his staff to hire somebody, and days later he had not been hired.”
The sheriff inquired whether Cox was owed something for his time and trouble, but he didn’t order any backdating, Adams said.
Cradduck recently fired Cox after Rogers police arrested him on misdemeanor drug charges. Cox’s personnel records listed Cradduck’s address as his home when he was hired. Cradduck has said Cox moved into an apartment in Rogers after he received his first paycheck.
On Oct. 8, sheriff’s office Maj. Nathan Atchison gave state police Cox’s payroll form with a Sept. 28 effective hiring date, according to the probable cause affidavit. The form was signed by Cradduck on Oct. 8.
Cox’s first work day was Oct. 7, according to court documents.
Atchison told state police that when he and sheriff’s office employee Myrna Scott were reviewing Cox’s file in response to a Freedom of Information Act request on Nov. 3, they found the form Cradduck signed to pay Cox for two weeks he didn’t work, according to court documents.
Atchison told state police that he later reviewed the file before it was released and the backdating document was missing, according to court documents. Atchison said he suspected the document had been shredded, according to court documents.
Scott said she didn’t release the document — a blank sheet with a hire date and Cradduck’s signature — because she didn’t believe it was covered by the Freedom of Information law, according to the affidavit. Scott said she didn’t think the document was relevant, the affidavit says. Scott denied she shredded or destroyed the document.
The felony tampering occurred Oct. 5 when Cradduck instructed Dianna Goodwin, his secretary, to immediately hire Cox and backdate his hiring, according to the probable cause affidavit. The affidavit says misdemeanor tampering occurred on or about Oct. 13. When interviewed by state police on Oct. 13, Cradduck denied he instructed anyone to backdate any documents concerning Cox’s hiring.
On Oct. 14, the state police obtained an affidavit from Rogers attorney Don Kendall, signed by Goodwin, that says Cradduck contacted Goodwin on Oct. 13 and told her he had been interviewed by the state police. He told her to deny he instructed her to backdate Cox’s hiring documents, the affidavit says.
Adams on Wednesday described the case as a political stunt to harm Cradduck’s chances of securing a third term in office.
“Why wait two months if they already had all this information?” Adams said. “This is a joke.”
Cradduck’s arraignment is set for 8 a.m. Feb. 29 in Circuit Judge Robin Green’s court. An arraignment on the day before the March 1 primary election isn’t helpful for the campaign, Adams said.
Adams said the campaign would like to have Cradduck’s arraignment moved up, but such a request is up to Cradduck’s attorney, Drew Miller.
Miller declined to comment Wednesday.
Cpl. Timothy Filbeck with the Siloam Springs Police Department, Maj. Shawn Holloway with the Benton County sheriff’s office and Lt. Paul Pillaro with the Lowell Police Department are Cradduck’s opponents in the Republican primary.