Gathering all details on parolee, Beebe says

A day after requesting a review of the parole history of an eight-time absconder recently charged in a Little Rock kidnapping and capital murder, Gov. Mike Beebe said that his office has received a lot of “good information” from state parole officials.

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After reading a story in Monday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette about Darrell Dennis, 47, who racked up 14 arrests, including at least 10 on felony charges between his release from prison in late 2008 and his May 22 arrest in Little Rock, Beebe met with Department of Community Correction Director David Eberhard and asked the department and the Arkansas Board of Parole for a “thorough review” of Dennis’ case, as well as other policies and procedures in the state agency.

On Tuesday, Beebe declined to go into specifics about the types of information he has received, but he said that it appeared that Dennis, who despite a long list of arrests and parole violations, never saw his parole revoked prior to his arrest in the May 10 killing of Forrest Abrams because of a combination of factors.



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“We’re still gathering facts, we’ve got a lot of good information that’s already come in… we’re looking to see what systemic changes and what individual personnel or case specific issues contributed to this,” Beebe said. “I can tell you, without going into detail yet because the investigation is not complete, that it appears that it may be some of both.”

Community correction spokesman Rhonda Sharp said she wasn’t up to speed on the review process. Eberhard did not return calls for comment Tuesday. Beebe said he has been in contact with Eberhard’s agency and Parole Board officials since Monday morning.

Beebe didn’t speculate about who might be named in the review or where it was heading.

“What happened is [in] excusable, totally [in]excusable,” Beebe said. “What I’ve told everybody is tell the truth and if you’ve got to point fingers at each other, that’s fine. I’ll be the arbiter of who I believe or who I don’t believe and we’ll make it all known. It all needs to be fleshed out and we’re going to do that.”

Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample added that the governor is pleased with how forthcoming parole officials have been with information about Dennis’ history, but even with information coming in, he said it was too early to tell what shape the review will take or when it will be completed.

“We’re pushing through as quickly as we can,” DeCample said. “There’s not a sharp deadline… we’re not going to be shy about [the findings], whatever [they are]… You have a lot of legislators interested as well and have been for some time.”

On Monday, state Sens. Jeremy Hutchinson and David Sanders said they wanted to conduct their own reviews on their respective Judiciary and Joint Performance Review committees. Both said they didn’t have clear time frames for their reviews.

“We need to get to the truth,” Sanders said Monday. “[The Joint Performance Review committee has] the ability to bring agency heads before us. We also have subpoena power. I’m not saying we’d need to use it but we certainly have it.”

Dennis remained at the Pulaski County jail, where he has been held since his arrest, and is awaiting transfer back to a state prison after a June 5 Parole Board hearing that revoked his parole.

Arkansas Department of Correction officials don’t know when Dennis will be transferred.

After serving less than a third of his 60-year sentence for aggravated robbery, Dennis was released from prison in November 2008, then arrested the next April by narcotics detectives raiding his home.

Almost a year to the day later, narcotics detectives raided him again, resulting in more drug felony charges.

While an arrest for a violent crime, including a sex crime, immediately prompts a revocation hearing by state law, Department of Community Correction officials said that nonviolent felonies such as drug crimes can prompt revocation but often it’s up to the parole officer as well as the officer’s manager to decide to pursue revocation or alternative sanctions.

Dennis was scheduled for a revocation hearing in August 2010, but he never showed and agency officials said he never had one.

Dennis was arrested May 1 for absconding, his seventh such offense since his release, and held for a week before parole officials released their hold on him.

They notified Dennis that he would have to go to a technical violator’s center and to report to a parole officer within 24 hours of his release.

He didn’t, records showed, and roughly 30 hours later, Abrams’ body was found dumped in a Little Rock intersection.

Little Rock police said they are still looking for two other suspects in Abrams’ slaying.

Arkansas, Pages 9 on 06/19/2013

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