Faulkner County fires road officer it armed

CONWAY — The once well-armed Faulkner County one-man Road Department enforcement unit is no more.

Officer Jason Bell was fired Thursday shortly after Sheriff Karl Byrd decommissioned Bell, authorities confirmed Friday.

Byrd cited domestic-abuse allegations against Bell and previously reported questions regarding the county’s purchase of five guns, including two AR-15-style rifles, at a cost of $4,419.95 and a stockpile of ammunition for Bell. Records show the county spent $8,450.31 on the ammunition - enough Bell has said to last him until 2020.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported in August that the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has been investigating the purchases of several guns by the county, including those for Bell.

In a termination letter obtained under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act,County Judge Preston Scroggin told Bell that he was firing him because Byrd “has taken away your commission as a law enforcement officer.”

“Accordingly, you can no longer perform your job functions as Faulkner County Road Police,” Scroggin added.

Scroggin’s letter did not mention the purported abuse, which Vilonia police investigated Aug. 31. But Scroggin’s office released two other letters, an Aug. 31 one suspending Bell without pay over the incident and a Sept. 5 one reinstating Bell.

In an interview Friday, Bell denied that he had abused 20-year-old Kelsie Walker, who authorities said suffered visible injuries and was taken to an emergency room. He has not been charged with any crime.

“There was no abuse,” Bell said. “I was defending my home.”

Walker did not return a phone message seeking comment.

Bell, when asked if he had returned the weapons and ammunition the county bought for his use, said, “Those guns are in the hands of law enforcement.

“I’m not going to say” which law-enforcement agency, Bell added. He soon ended the interview by hanging up his phone.

County Administrator Jeff Johnston - himself facing a felony theft-of-property charge over a driveway-asphalt project - said Friday that the county judge’s office turned over the guns, the ammunition and Bell’s truck and blue lights to the Damascus Police Department.

“Since we have no road police now,” the Road Department has no use for the items, Johnston said.

An agreement dated Thursday and signed by Scroggin and Damascus Police Chief Randy Spencer says that if the county later determines that the road police need the items, they are to be returned, and that they are to be returned if they’re no longer of value to the Damascus police.

Spencer said he picked up one of the long guns Thursday and another one Friday. A third long gun is being repaired.

Spencer said he did not have the pistol that was issued to Bell, had not been offered one but didn’t need another one anyway. The location of that pistol was unclear late Friday.

A Mini-14 rifle and a shotgun that the county issued Bell were stolen, he has said, adding that he later bought a similar shotgun with his own money.

Spencer said he has not done an inventory of the items given to his department. But he said, “I’ve got enough ammunition to last many years, I promise you.”

Spencer said Bell worked for his department part time until about two weeks ago when he resigned.

Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland said his office did not charge Bell after Walker backed off from her original report to police. Still, Hiland said, “It was obvious that she had received serious injuries.”

In a case report, Hiland’s investigator, Boyce Hamlet, wrote that he interviewed Walker on Sept. 5. “Walker stated that she ‘did not want to remember’ the incident ... and she did not want to go forward with charges,” Hamlet wrote.

Hamlet said Walker indicated that she did not want to tell him who gave her alcohol on the night of the incident and that she refused to tell him about other events Aug. 21.

“I told her I was very concerned for her safety,” Hamlet wrote. “In my professional opinion, Ms. Walker’s answers were coached and not honest answers to my questions.”

In Friday’s interview, Bell, who is married, contended that Walker left his home, returned and broke open his bedroom door “and physically attacked me.”

Despite repeated questions, Bell would not say why he didn’t call police if he was in danger. “The only thing I had on my mind that night was getting away from her,” he said.

Walker gave a different account to Vilonia police. In a written statement, she said she opened the door and went inside Bell’s bedroom. There, she said, she saw Bell, a man and a woman in bed.

Walker said she left but returned and “slapped him on the back.”

“He pushed me away and I came back at him. I did slap him a few times. He then slapped me in the ear and I fell to the ground. I got back up and hit him a few times in the head. I told him to shoot me. He then grabbed something with a double [barrel] and put it to my throat. I pushed that away. We argued back and forth a couple of times and he punched me with his fist in the mouth. I fell to the floor crying. I got in the car to leave and he came outside saying we ‘were done.’”

Bell, who said his wife was not at home at the time, said he and Walker had not been dating. Asked how they knew each other, he said, “We hadbecome friends, whatever you want to call it.”

The Vilonia police report says Bell did not answer the door when police got to his home. “I wasn’t here,” Bell said. He said he tried to talk with police the next morning.

In the letter in which Scroggin originally suspended Bell, Scroggin wrote that he had learned Bell was “the subject of an investigation into alleged criminal activity of a violent nature.” In the Sept. 5 letter, Scroggin reinstated Bell, saying the investigation had been closed with no charges filed.

Byrd, however, said Thursday that he decommissioned Bell because “[Bell’s] conduct lately has not been anything I want associated with the sheriff’s office.”

Byrd specifically cited the gun and ammunition issue, and the alleged domestic abuse.

Referring to statements by various people in the domestic-abuse investigation file, Byrd said, “All of the information that came out in those statements ... whether it’s prosecuted or not, that’s conduct unbecoming” a police officer.

“I don’t tolerate conduct like that from my employees and someone that I commissioned as a ... favor to the judge’s office - I’m just not going to tolerate it,” Byrd said.

Of Walker, Byrd said, someone “beat the hell out of her. You can look at the injuries and see at least three blows.”

In addition to an ear injury, Byrd said, “One side of her face [was] swollen and cut, and her lip [was] split.”

According to the Vilonia police report, Walker was taken to an emergency room after she and another woman showed up at the department about 1:40 a.m. Aug. 31.

The sheriff said he didn’t decommission Bell immediately because he thought the county judge “would handle that appropriately.” But after he learned that the county judge had allowed Bell to return to work, Byrd said, “Really and truly, enough was enough.”

Scroggin did not return e-mail or phone requests for comment Friday.