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| BRANDIE GIBSON WAITS TO APPEAR BEFORE JUDGE WENDELL GRIFFIN |
Brandie Gibson, the fiancee of Forth Smith District Judge Jim O'Hern entered an not guilty plea in the Little Rock Courtroom of Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffin. A jury trial is set for September 26, 2017 if a negotiated plea is not arranged before that date by her court appointed public defender, Jessica Duncan.
Gibson is charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance, Schedule I,II meth cocaine, a Class D Felony.
A Class C felony is punishable by three to ten years of incarceration and a fine of up to $10,000.
It
is interesting a Gibson has a public defender in that she is driving
around in a brand new pick-up truck, often see parked at the home of
Judge Jim O'Hern.
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| BRANDIE GIBSON'S NEW RIDE PARKED IN JUDGE JIM O'HERN'S DRIVEWAY |
Gibson and O'Hern were both arrested by Little Rock Police back on December 2, 2016 at a sketchy west Little Rock extended stay hotel (that has a reputation as a site frequented by prostitutes and drug dealers) after a room inspection by hotel staff found a small bag of meth in their room in a nightstand drawer.
Both
were placed in separate holding rooms at the nearby LRPD Northwest
District Station. O'Hern freely admitted to detectives that Gibson was
his girlfriend (O'Hern filed for a divorce from his wife in November
2016, days after being elected to the beach with her help). O'Hern told
detectives that he had paid for the room with his credit card, but had
only spent one night with her there, the night of December 1st. O'Hern
claimed that he was in Little Rock for a "noon meeting" and was at Sonic
getting lunch for that "noon meeting".
WTF Jimbo, all those years practicing law and that's the story you tell the police???
We
have tried to find out exactly what the meeting was that O'Hern was
allegedly in town to attend, one that he would be eating a lunch from
Sonic while attending.
O'Hern
was not in in town for any meeting/training for his new position and he
has not had a represented a client in Pulaski County in years.
O'Hern denied any use of illegal drugs and told detectives that if Gibson was a drug user he would be done with her.
Here are portions of the statement O'Hern gave the police:
Gibson first told detectives that O'Hern was just her lawyer and he knew nothing about the drugs.
Then
in another interview, after the detectives interviewing both suspects compared notes, Gibson admitted that the drugs were hers.
Gibson
never came clean about what her source of employment really was. She
told the police she was in "advertising" and had multiple men come to
her room that didn't use their real name. The hotel reciept lists her
employer as Walmart.
The only connection with advertising is her placement of advertisements on websites that deal with escorts.
We understand that O'Hern has given Gibson and engagement ring with a red stone that once belonged to his mother.
O'Hern is currently under investigation by the Arkansas Judicial
Discipline and Disability Commission and they have conducted an
extensive, far reaching investigation (they even sought information from
the publisher of this blog). We expect that they will be wrapping that
up in the very near future.
Don't
hold your breath waiting for them to remove O'Hern as that is unlikey
to happern. Judges can kill their children and Judges can drive when
they are so drunk that they can't stand up and still stay on the bench
and on the public payroll.
A
judge that may or may not use meth and might or might not be a pimp
will probably get a stern warning and be allowed to carry on.
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Our posts about the O'Hern scandal:
http://badgovernmentinarkansas.blogspot.com/2016/12/fort-smith-judge-elect-involved-in.html
http://badgovernmentinarkansas.blogspot.com/2017/01/more-details-surface-in-judge-jim-ohern.html
http://badgovernmentinarkansas.blogspot.com/2017/03/sketchy-fort-smith-judge-acknowledges.html