MOUNTAIN PINE — The Mountain Pine School Board decided Wednesday at a special board meeting to reinstate Superintendent Bobby Gray on Thursday after more than two months of keeping him on paid administrative leave.
Gray was charged Feb. 25 with third-degree battery, public intoxication and disorderly conduct after police were called to his home over an altercation.
Gray was put on paid administrative leave at a special School Board meeting March 7.
Assistant Superintendent Rebecca Morriss had been the acting superintendent since a March 9 special board meeting.
On Wednesday, Gray pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct in Garland County District Court. The charges of third-degree battery and public intoxication were dropped, Gray said Thursday.
Gray’s attorney, Q. Byrum Hurst of Hot Springs, entered the plea just after 9 a.m. before District Judge David Switzer.
On March 20, Gray pleaded innocent, but Hurst told Switzer that “after some negotiating,” Gray had chosen to plead no contest to the charges.
Switzer said Gray has 30 days to pay the $220 fine that he ordered in the case.
Garland County sheriff’s Deputy J.T. Dunn said in a report that he responded to a call to Gray’s house about 9:15 p.m. on Feb. 25.
Dunn’s report said that Gray’s wife, Andria, told him that she and Gray had gotten into an argument and she had been attempting to leave with her sister and brother-in-law, but Gray wouldn’t allow her to leave.
Arkansas, Pages 13 on 05/25/2012