Gov. Mike Beebe asked state police Wednesday to join in an inquiry into state parole officials’ handling of an eight-time absconder who went on to be arrested and charged in a Little Rock kidnapping and murder.
Beebe spokesman Matt DeCample said the governor spoke Wednesday morning with Col. Stan Witt, director of the Arkansas State Police, and asked the agency to conduct its own review, independent from the review Beebe called for Monday after learning of the lengthy parole-violation history of Darrell Dennis.
“It’ll be parallel to our review,” DeCample said. “He asked [state police] to do their own administrative investigation, administrative being the key word. It’s not criminal by any means, but the governor does want some outside perspective and eyes on this.”
DeCample said the governor’s office is continuing to gather information from the Department of Community Correction and the state Parole Board about Dennis,suspected of being one of three men who kidnapped, killed and left 18-year-old Forrest Abrams in a Little Rock street on May 10, less than two days after Dennis’ release from the Pulaski County jail, having been held on an absconder warrant.
The review, prompted by a story in Monday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, will look at whether Community Correction Department personnel followed policies and procedures in Dennis’ case and in similar cases. It also will examine the agency’s policies and procedures.
“[The state police investigation] won’t change or slow the review from our end, but again, the governor wants all the information he can get,” DeCample said. “The state police is a natural place to turn.”
When asked about a precedent for involving the state police in the investigation of another state agency, DeCample said he wasn’t sure, noting that usually state reviews of agencies are conducted by the Department of Finance and Administration.
Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler confirmed that detectives began the administrative investigation Wednesday afternoon.
He said the scope, range and timeline of the investigation are difficult to predict, but that special investigative agents, not internal-affairs investigators, were tapped for the work.
“You have to understand that in an administrative investigation, the blinders are off,” Sadler said. “The department will not only be looking at [Dennis’ parole] but the entire [state parole] operation … and how that works.”
Sadler said investigators will be looking for similar cases of parole absconders or those with criminal histories similar to that of Dennis.
Sadler said he didn’t know the last time the state police had been asked to handle an administrative review of a state agency.
Department of Community Correction spokesman Rhonda Sharp declined to comment, saying she had no knowledge of the state police investigation.
After serving less than a third of a 60-year sentence for aggravated robbery, Dennis, now 47, was paroled in November of 2008.
Between then and his May 22 arrest in Abrams’ death, he was arrested at least 14 times and racked up at least 10 felony charges after two drug raids at his Little Rock residence.
He failed drug tests, missed meetings with his parole officers and was cited as an absconder eight times since his release from prison, yet Dennis never appeared before the Parole Board for a revocation hearing.
On May 8, Dennis was told by parole officers that he would be sent to a center for parole violators. The hold put on him by the Community Correction Department was withdrawn and he was released with the expectation that he would report to a parole officer in the next 24 hours.
There is no record of him reporting and roughly 30 hours after his release, Abrams was found dead at West 11th and South Woodrow streets.
Before the involvement of the state police, two state senators said they wanted to conduct legislative reviews of the Dennis case as well as other potential problems or flaws in the parole system.
Shortly after Beebe’s announcement Monday that he wanted a full review, Sens. Jeremy Hutchinson, head of the Judiciary Committee and David Sanders, who sits on the Senate’s Joint Performance Review Committee, said they wanted to speak to parole officials sometime this summer.
Dennis remained at the Pulaski County jail Wednesday night. His parole was revoked June 5, and state prison officials don’t know when he’ll be sent back to prison.
According to Sharp, Dennis could be eligible for another parole hearing in May on his previous convictions.
Arkansas, Pages 9 on 06/20/2013