Special judge picked for clerk’s lawsuit

PINE BLUFF — A special judge has been appointed to hear a lawsuit filed against Jefferson County’s top administrator by the county’s circuit clerk.

Arkansas Supreme Court Justice John Dan Kemp appointed retired Circuit Judge David Laser of Jonesboro to hear the case involving County Clerk Lafayette Woods Sr. and County Judge Gerald Robinson.

Circuit Judge Jodi Dennis sent Kemp a letter last week informing him that she was recusing from the case. Also recusing were Circuit Judges Alex Guynn, Robert Wyatt, William Benton, Leon Jamison and Earnest Brown; Jefferson County District Judges John Kearney and Kim Bridgforth; and Lincoln County District Judge Phillip Green.

Woods filed the lawsuit against Robinson regarding an ordinance passed May 13 by the Jefferson County Quorum Court that dealt with workforce reduction recommendations made by Robinson.

Woods contends that Robinson told the Quorum Court he was cutting only one position from Woods’ office but actually cut three. Woods also said in the lawsuit that cuts made by the Quorum Court at Robinson’s direction left him with insufficient funding to carry out his office’s duties under the Arkansas Constitution.

No trial date had been set as of Wednesday.

Laser served 15 years as Division 9 judge of the 2nd Circuit of Arkansas before retiring in 2014.

In 2011, Laser presided over a hearing in which the West Memphis Three — three men convicted of killing three boys in West Memphis in 1993 — entered Alford pleas, which allowed them to assert their innocence while pleading guilty. Laser accepted the pleas, resulting in a new trial, after which he sentenced each man to 18 years and 78 days in prison.

Given credit for time served, which amounted to 18 years and 78 days, the three men — Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelly — were immediately freed from prison.