Captain files ethics complaint

Security coordinator for ex-Coach Petrino listed $3,111 in gifts

— Arkansas State Police Capt. Lance King has apparently filed a complaint against himself with the Arkansas Ethics Commission regarding gifts he accepted from the University of Arkansas football program.

The gifts, valued at $3,111, came to light after the state police examined King’s decision to drive former Razorbacks head football Coach Bobby Petrino to the hospital after an April 1 motorcycle accident.

King has kept his supervisors apprised of the ethics complaint he initiated, state police spokesman Bill Sadler said in an e-mail.

King did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Based in Springdale, King coordinated security for Petrino. He also manages Troop L, the state police unit that investigated the accident. Besides driving Petrino to Physicians Specialty Hospital in Fayetteville, King spoke with the coach by phone in the days after the wreck, according to university records and a state police statement.

For four days after the highly publicized accident, Petrino failed to disclose to his athletic department supervisor that he had a passenger, a 25-year-old female employee, on the motorcycle with him. Just before state police released the accident report April 5 that listed Jessica Dorrell as his passenger, the coach admitted to Athletic Director Jeff Long that she was present. He also apologized for a “previous inappropriate relationship.”

Long fired Petrino on April 10.

The Arkansas State Police determined that King did not violate state law or department policy in his actions after the accident or in previously accepting the gifts, Sadler said last month.

He also said that King planned to inquire with state agencies about whether he erred in accepting the gifts. The gifts included football tickets, athletic apparel and other items from the university’s football program.

Arkansas law generally forbids public employees, officials and other state workers from accepting gifts valued at more than $100. There are more than a dozen exceptions in the law, including wedding gifts.

The Arkansas Ethics Commission investigates complaints of violations of the law on accepting gifts. The complaints, which can be filed by anyone, are confidential while they are being examined, Director Graham Sloan said.

The ethics commission can dismiss complaints that are unfounded. It can also write a letter of caution, warning or reprimand and can levy fines between $50 and $2,000, Sloan said.

The commission’s final decisions are available to the public. Complaints can take 150 to 180 days to be decided, Sloan said.

Citing confidentiality requirements, Sloan would not confirm or deny whether a pending ethics complaint exists against King.

Asked if he had ever known of a public employee or official filing a complaint against himself, Sloan said he could only speak to complaints that already have been investigated. But among those, he said he did not know of such a case in his 15 years in the office.

Arkansas State Police considers the gifts an issue “strictly between” King and the ethics commission, Sadler said. He referred questions to the commission and to King.

“Until there is a resolution of Captain King’s self-reported complaint, the Arkansas State Police believes in fairness to Captain King and the ethics commission. We should not intervene with any public comment,” Sadler’s email said.

Between January 2011 and January 2012, King accepted several gifts from the Razorbacks athletic department, state police reported. Among them was $139 worth of athletic apparel to wear while providing security on nongame days, Sadler said.

King also received gifts from the university in gratitude for his work in coordinating security, Sadler said. They included $2,575 in Razorbacks football tickets - four tickets to each Fayetteville and Little Rock football game and four tickets to the Sugar Bowl and Cotton Bowl. Other gifts were a Sugar Bowl ring, watch and paperweight, and a Cotton Bowl warm-up suit valued collectively at $397.

On April 1, according to state police records and statements, King met a car that was transporting Petrino and Dorrell to Fayetteville from the accident scene. King met the car at a shopping center on Arkansas 16 in Fayetteville and drove the bloodied Petrino to the hospital.

About the same time, King’s state police unit was called to investigate Petrino’s accident.

On April 2, Petrino asked King if he would be required to identify his passenger in the crash, according to a statement from the state police.

King told Petrino by phone that “we had been getting phone calls from people who had said there was a passenger on the rear of the motorcycle” and if Petrino didn’t identify her, the accident report would say “unidentified white female.”

“I didn’t ask him the name and he didn’t ask me to keep her name off the report,” King wrote in his statement released April 9.

On April 3, Petrino said at a news conference that he was riding the motorcycle alone.

On April 5, King called Petrino to tell him that the accident report was about to be released, according to the state police. It included Dorrell’s name. That’s when Petrino admitted their relationship to Long.

In an April 9 statement, King wrote, “At no time did I fail to provide information to my supervisor or involve myself in the accident investigation. I do not know Jessica Dorrell and I have never met her. Coach Petrino and I did not discuss any passenger information during transport to the hospital or otherwise. I have a professional relationship with Coach Petrino and have never met with him or his family socially.”

King was required to provide a detailed account of his dealings with Petrino after the accident, though the state police said he was not subject to an internal investigation and did not violate agency policy or state law.

Long fired Petrino, saying the coach had created a conflict of interest when he hired Dorrell as a football program coordinator in March without disclosing their extramarital affair. Dorrell resigned her job with the athletic department after receiving a settlement of nearly $14,000.

Arkansas, Pages 10 on 05/29/2012

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