Judge defends heavy questioning of assistant AG

An official recording from a court hearing held earlier this month showed Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen interrupted a state lawyer 50 times in a little less than two hours.

The recording was played in Griffen’s courtroom Tuesday amid a dispute between the judge and Attorney General Leslie Rutledge over allegations she has made about his treatment of her staff. The dispute is the latest in a series of public feuds between the outspoken judge and other elected officials.

Last week, Rutledge asked the Arkansas Supreme Court to move all of her staff’s cases out of Griffen’s courtroom. In her request, she cited Griffen’s treatment of Senior Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Merritt during a hearing Sept. 13.

On Tuesday, Griffen sat silently at an attorney’s table in his own courtroom as he played the recording of the Sept. 13 hearing for attorneys and media seated in the gallery.

Griffen denied he treated Merritt unfairly. He said his reputation for having a “hot bench” applies to any attorney who comes unprepared to argue his case.

The 77-page transcript of the Sept. 13 hearing — in a case involving a medical marijuana company appealing its disqualification for a cultivation license — was completed Monday and released by the attorney general’s office.

Griffen then invited the media to listen to the recording of the entire hearing. Reporters weren’t allowed to record the audio on their own devices but they could obtain a copy of a transcript from the state’s court website.

In both the recording and transcript, Merritt argued for dismissing the appeal by Carpenter Farms Medical Group on the grounds of sovereign immunity, or the state’s immunity from being sued. Griffen repeatedly interrupted Merritt as he brought up recent Supreme Court rulings to allow some cases to be exempt from sovereign immunity.

Griffen repeatedly pressed Merritt to explain how the Supreme Court precedent shouldn’t apply to the Carpenter Farms case. Carpenter Farms alleged the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission exceeded its authority in disqualifying the company’s application.

“Every time I go to answer your question, Your Honor, you won’t let me finish,” Merritt said, according to the transcript.

“Well, I don’t let you finish because I know you’re not answering my question and I’m going to do that until you answer me,” Griffen said. “So you either answer my question or you’re going to have me interrupt you.”

According to the transcript, Griffen interrupted the opposing attorney for Carpenter Farms, Matt Simmons, just twice. Griffen also denied the state’s motion to dismiss the case.

Griffen told reporters Tuesday he wouldn’t have done anything differently at the Sept. 13 hearing.

“There has been a public allegation … accusing me of mistreating a lawyer, of being abusive to a lawyer, of browbeating a lawyer,” Griffen said. “You heard the recording, the lawyer was never mistreated. … The lawyer was thoroughly questioned.”

Merritt didn’t attend the audio playback in Griffen’s courtroom. A spokeswoman for Rutledge sat in the gallery listening to the recording, but declined to comment after.

In a brief filed with the Supreme Court on Monday, Rutledge’s office alleged Griffen’s mistreatment of her staff attorneys dates back years, and included “belittling remarks” and threatening attorneys with sanctions.

In April 2017, Griffen issued a ruling against Rutledge and the state prison system that temporarily threatened to halt a series of planned executions. Afterward, Griffen left his courtroom and attended an anti-death penalty protest in front of the Governor’s Mansion, where the judge was photographed strapped to a cot.

Rutledge successfully appealed the case, and the Supreme Court stripped Griffen of his ability to hear all death penalty cases. That decision prompted a yearslong legal battle in which Griffen sued the justices in an attempt to have capital cases returned to his docket. Griffen’s lawsuit was unsuccessful, and the Arkansas Supreme Court last week denied Griffen’s request to have his docket restored with death penalty cases.