Meadors fined in Aramark plea deal

— Allen Meadors on Monday became the second consecutive University of Central Arkansas president to plead guilty to a criminal offense.

Meadors, 65, who did not appear in court, entered a negotiated plea through his attorney to a violation of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, a Class C misdemeanor.

The crime involved the mishandling of a $700,000 offer from food vendor Aramark to renovate the UCA-owned president’s house.

Judge Charles E. Clawson Jr., ruling in Faulkner County Circuit Court, fined Meadors $250 and ordered him to pay $150 in court costs as part of the negotiated plea. Meadors could have been fined up to $500 and sentenced to 30 days in jail.

Meadors originally was charged with solicitation of tampering with a public record, a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Asked why Meadors, who now lives in North Carolina, did not appear in court Monday, his attorney, Timothy Dudley, said: “Because it was cheaper not to.”

Meadors did not reply to messages left Monday on his home and cell phones or toan e-mail seeking comment.

In 2011, Lu Hardin, Meadors’ predecessor at UCA, was sentenced to probation and community service after pleading guilty to federal charges of money laundering and mail fraud, both felonies.

Law-enforcement authorities began investigating each case after disclosures by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, which also led to the men’s resignations.

For Hardin, the disclosure was that of an illegal $300,000 bonus he persuaded the board of trustees to give him in 2008.

For Meadors, the report revealed that Aramark’s renovation offer came with a major condition - that UCA must extend Aramark’s contract by seven years.

Meadors and then-board Chairman Scott Roussel had described the offer as a donation and had never mentioned the condition to other trustees or the public. Both later said their failure to do so was an honest mistake.

Roussel was not charged with a crime.

Dudley said outside court that he would not comment on what Meadors did to violate the Freedom of Information Act.

But Prosecuting Attorney Cody Hiland said later that Meadors “destroyed his own document” - a reference to the Aug. 12, 2011, letter in which Aramark offered UCA the $700,000 for renovations in exchange for the contract renewal.

On Aug. 30, 2011, the Democrat-Gazette sent UCA a Freedom of Information Act request seeking written documents relating to the Aramark offer. Later that day, UCA forwarded the letter, written to Vice President of Finance and Administration Diane Newton, to the newspaper.

Newton later said Meadors had unsuccessfully tried to persuade her to destroy the letter.

In an interview in May 2012, she said: “When I asked him, why would I get rid of mine ... because he still has his [copy], he said, well, he got rid of his,” Newton said.

Dudley said Monday that Meadors still denies telling Newton to get rid of her letter.

Meadors resigned Sept. 2, 2011, after the board agreed to a $563,312 contract buyout, $225,325 of which was publicly funded. The remainder was to be paid with private funds. The board also bought out Hardin’s contract when he resigned.

Newton declined comment on Meadors’ case Monday, as did UCA’s faculty-senate president, Kevin Browne.Tom Larimer, executive director of the Arkansas Press Association, said: “The penalty for [an] FOI violation is rather insignificant. I don’t know that anybody has ever spent a night in jail” for it.

“The court of public record is about as strong as it gets,” Larimer added. “In this case, there was obviously an attempt to subvert the law. The individual now has admitted that. The fine was small, but at least there was some closure to it.”

In a brief interview, Hiland said: “Most issues related to [the Freedom of Information Act] are civil in nature. On the rare occasion, we come across what we believe to be a criminal violation of the FOI law, and the state believes this was certainly a criminal violation.”

Hiland said he agreed to proceed with the plea despite Meadors’ absence because “we were ready to get resolution to the case ... and do the deal while we had the opportunity.”

Hiland said the statement that Meadors didn’t attend for financial reasons “was never communicated to us.”

Hiland said he is “pleased that there has been accountability for the violation, and it’s an opportunity for UCA to move past this particular incident and focus on the education of their students.”

Yet, criminal proceedings surrounding former UCA officials aren’t over.

Clawson called another case on the docket before he got to Meadors’ case - that of former UCA Chief of Staff Jack Gillean.

Gillean is charged with four felonies - three counts of commercial burglary and one count of fraudulent insurance acts - and a misdemeanor count of issuing a false financial statement.

Dudley, who also represents Gillean, told Clawson that Gillean’s pretrial hearing had been continued. Clawson then set March 4 for the new hearing date.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/15/2013

Upcoming Events