This blog is dedicated to exposing and documenting misdeeds and misadventures of local, county, state and federal agencies and their employees in Arkansas. [news@snarkymedia,com/ 501-487-1699]
A Snarky Media Group publication
Last week we exposed LRSD having the fired Pulaski County Special School District teacher, Karla Lasiter working as a substitute at Forest Park Elementary school.
Lasiter's forcing a 5 year old Black student to scoop his own poop out of a toilet made headlines around the world earlier this year.
You can check out our post from March about that by clicking here.
LRSD administration was quick to tell us that Lasiter was not an employee of the district, but would not accept responsibility that she was on campus of one of their schools and in direct contact with vulnerable LRSD students.
So it was no surprise today to learn that another LRSD substitute teacher, Precious Lyons, was in the news, this time for being in a knock-down-drag-out fight at Central High while being in possession of a handgun.
Lyons has a documented history of criminal offenses involving possession of controlled substances.
Lyon also has an open cases in Little Rock District Court that involve in part her driving on a suspended license
We asked LRSD if they had a list of banned individuals that gave to the WillSub, the staffing organization that provides substitutes for the district.
They said no.
We wondered if another former PCSSD teacher, Stephanie Almand, was substitute teaching in the district.
Almand is facing felony sexual assault charges regarding her sexual activity with a minor she taught.
You can read our stories about her by clicking here, here and here.
LRSD never responded to our question if Almand was substituting in a LRSD classroom.
We were tipped off that a female Lonoke County Detention Deputy or employee was arrested earlier this week for sexually assaulting multiple female inmates and providing contraband items such as cellphones and drugs to inmates.
To hide the arrest from online exposure (LCSO arrests and booking are posted online) the Sheriff had the city police do it.
We called the Lonoke police department and the cop that we spoke with stated he was not authorized to release her name. He said we would have to get that from the chief.
To cut to the chase, we sent the Lonoke Police chief, Matt Edwards, a FOI request via a text message to his cellphone.
This is an image of the full FOI request.
Why is the Lonoke Police Department unwilling to provide the name of the individual or immediately provide the booking records and mugshot?
It's all public information.
We suspect the Lonoke Police Chief won't be happy about the next several FOI requests we have planned to send.
Stay tuned for updates.
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***UPDATE 08/21/21 - 5:05 PM***
We found out the name of the arrested jailer. It's Beth Norman.
Source say her cousin is the jail administrator, Kristie Flud.
Back in July, Norman liked a post the Sheriff's office made about job openings for jailers and dispatchers.
We previously reported about Pulaski County Special School District teacher Stephanie Almand being arrested and charged with felony sexual assault charges in connection with a 17 year old male student at Maumelle High School. You can read those stories by clicking here, here and here.
Now two additional sexual assault charges have been file against her, this time the victim was under the age of 14 at the time of the sexual assault.
Administrative Order No. 5 specifically deals with victims under age fourteen.
We have request records for LRPD and the Pulaski County Circuit Clerk and will updated this story as the records are received.
A former co-worker of Almand's at eStem sent us an email about some "fishy behavior" involving Almand when she worked at that school in the 2019-2020 school year.
From Almand's PCSSD employment application
Could the latest charges involve an eStem student?
Stay tuned.
***UPDATE- 8/17/21 12:02PM***
According to the PCSSD mouthpiece, Almand is no longer an employee.
We suspect Almand resigned to keep any PCSSD internal investigation a secret.
We asked the school district to provide records regarding her separation from employment.
Stay tuned.
***UPDATE - 8/18/21***
LRPD tells us that they still have an on-going investigation of Almand and refused to provide any further records.
On Tuesday, August 10, 2021 I received a call from a special agent with the Little Rock field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the Public Corruption Unit.
The individual that called refused to provide his name, and I assumed it was a scam call like one about your Social Security number being disabled or the last call about your car warranty expiring.
The man said "we think you have some information that can help us on one of our cases."
I told him to call an attorney friend of mine and try to schedule the meeting.
I gave them the number of fellow blogger and attorney Matt Campbell.
Matt publishes Blue Hog Report and we often collaborate to expose shady public officials and government corruption.
I called Matt and gave him a heads up. Some time later Matt sent me a text.
I wanted Matt along to be a witness as I felt certain I would not be permitted to record the meeting.
Many of you know before I became an investigative journalist and blogger, I had considerable experience as an investigator (state agency and financial institutions). In those positions I frequently worked with law enforcement agencies including the FBI.
Here are some business cards of the agents I worked with when working in those positions.
Let's take a minute to give some additional background information, back in 2016, after an in-depth investigation and a lawsuitto force release of public records, we found that Cody Hiland, then a prosecuting attorney, had illegally used federal funds to pay for payroll taxes, etc.
Hiland also had some problem with an employee that used her position to obtain sealed court records in another state about her ex-husband's new wife.You can read about that by clicking here.
Hiland also employed an investigator with a questionable background and law enforcement credentials obtained under false pretenses. You can read about that by clicking here and here.
The FBI investigated that matter with Hiland and the drug task force he ran out of his office in Conway.
I worked with a special agent in the Public Corruption Unit and shared records I had obtained via FOI request. Her name was Tonja Sablatura.
The Hiland investigation came to a screeching halt when he was appointed the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas.
I sent a text message to her about the call from Special Agent Copley to confirm his identity.
So on Wednesday, August 11, 2021 I went to the FBI Field office in WLR.
Matt was going to tag along, but he had to meet with a client so I went by myself.
As I was going through their security checkpoint, I was told I could not take an electronic devices inside., So I had to take my cellphone and digital recorder back to my vehicle.
I met with Copely and his partner in what used to be the receptionist office inside the front door on the right (counter and glass window that looked out on the fourier of the building). A big empty room with three or four old desk chairs and a big ass free standing copier/printer.
After some small talk they got into the reason for the meeting.
They reiterated what they had said to me and Matt about wanting to sit down with me as they believed I might have some information that would assist them in an investigation.
The targets of the investigation? The feckless Little Rock mayor and the troubled, corrupt police chief.
Our discussion lasted almost three hours.
You dear readers, can drawn your own conclusions.
Ours here at Snarky Media Group is that some shit is about to go down.
Earlier today we broke this story about Pulaski County Sheriff's Office Detention Deputy Ollie Mills being fired and arrested for stealing information of nine inmates, including social security numbers , for the purpose of using that information in financial identity fraud.
A press release was sent out at approximately 4:30pm today that detailed the incident.
Mills, 27, of Conway is being held in the Pulaski County jail without bond.
Mills in her PCSO uniform at a happier time
Sheriff's spokesman Lt. Cody Burk said the department received a tip about Mills collecting nine inmate's names and social security numbers prior to the arrest.
Mills had been employed at the detention facility less than a year, according to Burk, and she has been terminated from her employment at the sheriff's office.
According to Mills' Facebook page, her prior job was a nurses aid at a Little Rock rehab center.
Investigators have not been able to find fraudulent actions taken against the inmates, and the investigation is ongoing, the release said.
A search of court records reveals that Mills had a history of financial problems resulting in a lien being filed against her by the Department of Finance & Administration for non-payment of state income taxes.
And failure to pay rent when due which resulted in a judgment being obtained against her in the amount of $3,191.29.
Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Herbert T. Wright
In 2020 we filed four Arkansas Freedom of Information appeal from denial of rights lawsuits against the feckless Little Rock mayor and deadbeat police chief.
Two of the cases were assigned to Judge Wright and two were assigned to Judge Wendell Griffen.
Wright unsuccessfully tried to wrangle the two cases from Judge Griffen to no avail.
Initially, Wright failed to follow the law and set the cases for a hearing within seven days of the petitions being filed.
We had difficulty getting Wright to set a date for the hearing and that necessitated that we file a motion for his recusal.
That filing resulted in his setting a date for a hearing.
In that hearing the city attorney, Tom Carpenter, motioned that all four cases we filed be consolidated. This would require Judge Griffen to agree to step away from the two cases in his court (he didn't - more on those cases in another post).
Little Rock City Attorney Tom Carpenter
So on March 3, 2020 the LR mayor and police chief appeared before Wright to answer for their refusal to turn over public records.
The first case involved copies of the non-exempt portions of each uniformed, plain clothed non-undercover LRPD officer's personnel record.
According to records LRPD had previously provided to us, they had approximately 529 non-undercover cops. In response to our request for copies of personnel files, they only provided 79 files and closed the request. Hence our appeal.
Wright ordered the city to provide those records to us by the close of business on the next day, March 4, 2020.
The other case was not addressed at the hearing.
On March 4th, the city provided us with a thumb drive containing 432 personnel files all jumbled up in 18 PDF's.
Five of the files were duplicates of files in the initial 79 files provided out of 529 files. We raised our concerns with the city attorney about the missing 23 files.
On March 5, 2020, the city filed a notice of compliance with the court in which they admitted to have not provided all the records as ordered.
So on March 9, 2020 we filed a motion for contempt as the city had not provided all the records as ordered.
Then COVID-19 happened and the courts for all practical purposes shut down.
When the courts opened back up in 2021 we asked for a hearing on our motion for contempt and for a hearing on the second case.
Initially Wright wanted to have the hearing via Zoom. That was fine, but he wanted us to be present in the courtroom while the defendants and city attorney could call in from their office or home. That showed a bias and preferential treatment for the defendants.
We objected.
After some additional court filings, Wright agreed to have all parties in his courtroom.
Here are some clips from the article about the project. The article is titled "Fairness and Efficiency Are at the Forefront of Reforms in Pulaski County".
The treatment we received from Wright was anything but equitable or fair.
At the hearing today he found no problems with the defendants not being present and would not hold the mayor or police chief in contempt and dismissed the second case.
That second case involved LRPD permitting an individual to have access to records (videos) that they refused to provide to us.
The message Wright sent out today is that his court orders are not worth the paper they are written on.
But the jokes on him.
We obtained all the records we asked for. We were given them last year.
In fact we almost skipped the hearing today. Wonder if he would have held us in contempt?
