Prosecutors on Monday dropped sexual assault charges against a former state prison guard after a Pulaski County circuit judge ruled that the man's admission to authorities that he had sex with an inmate violated his constitutional rights.
Circuit Judge Leon Johnson ruled in August 2013 that Arkansas State Police tricked 28-year-old Mark Edward Wright into admitting he had sex with the 34-year-old woman, who was serving time for second-degree murder for killing her boyfriend in 2004 in Pine Bluff.
The Arkansas Supreme Court in June refused to hear the prosecutors' appeal of the judge's ruling.
Wright, who is married, had been charged with third-degree sexual assault and fourth-degree sexual assault over accusations he had intercourse and sexual contact with the woman between October 2009 and February 2010.
Deputy prosecutor Robbie Jones told the judge Monday that prosecutors could not convict Wright without the statement the North Little Rock man gave to state police in December 2011 as part of an application to become a trooper. Wright was a sergeant when he left the Department of Correction in December 2011.
In an interview in preparation for an employment lie-detector test, Wright first told Special Agent Joseph Pickett that he had not had sex with his accuser, a transcript of the recording shows.
But under continued questioning by Pickett, Wright said he had once had sexual contact with the woman, but no more than kissing and grasping her buttocks, according to the transcript. It was "the first and the worst thing I've done," Wright told Pickett, describing the embrace as being consensual.
After urging by the agent to be as honest as possible, Wright said he had sex with the woman in a hallway closet by the infirmary, according to the transcript. He denied forcing her.
In the judge's ruling that the interview was inadmissible, he stated that despite Wright having been read his constitutional rights, he was misled by Pickett about the agent's intentions in questioning him.
Noting that Pickett had promised Wright absolute confidentiality while consulting during the interview with the trooper investigating Wright, the judge described the interview as a "facade" conducted as part of a "ruse" intended to persuade Wright to incriminate himself.
Wright's accuser, represented by attorney Eric Buchanan, is suing Wright in federal court, contending he harassed her with lewd remarks and groped her before raping her in January 2010.
The woman, who is on parole in Illinois, said Wright impregnated her, court filings show. The suit is scheduled for trial at the end of the month.
Wright, who does not have legal representation in the lawsuit, is the only remaining defendant in the woman's civil-rights lawsuit.
In response to the lawsuit, he denied having sexual contact with her, reporting that he worked for the prison system from March 2005 to December 2011, assisting for some time in the Wrightsville Hawkins Center for Women because of a staffing shortage.
"I ... was never alone with any of the female inmates without a witness and/or camera view and observation," he wrote, court filings show. "I am innocent of any allegations against me."
The woman's claims against the Department of Correction were dismissed in May on the basis of sovereign immunity.
Her accusations that two other guards -- Shemiracle King, who has two children with Wright, and Kimberly Matthews, Wright's purported girlfriend at the time -- harassed her -- sometimes physically in retaliation for reporting Wright to the police -- were dismissed last month. The federal judge ruled that there was no evidence of wrongdoing by the women.
Metro on 09/13/2014