For the second time in six years, a longtime Little Rock defense attorney is facing drug charges because, police said, a bag of methamphetamine fell from his pocket onto a bank lobby floor.
An arrest warrant was issued Tuesday for James Clouette, 68, after Little Rock police said he dropped a small bag of what was later determined to contain 1.4 grams of methamphetamine on the floor of a west Little Rock Onebanc on June 5.
The warrant charges Clouette with possession of a controlled substance, a Class D felony. He surrendered at Little Rock District Court at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Clouette was also charged with possession of a controlled substance under similar circumstances -- dropping a bag of methamphetamine onto the floor of a bank lobby -- in March 2009.
According to an affidavit in the new case, police responded to the Onebanc at 11101 Rodney Parham Road on June 5, 2014, where the bank security manager told police that a man, later identified as Clouette, entered the bank to cash a $30,000 cashier's check. After Clouette left, a bank employee found a small bag containing a crystalline substance on the floor in front of the teller window where Clouette had been standing. The baggie was logged, tagged and stored as evidence by the police.
A narcotics sergeant later interviewed a loan assistant at the bank who said, "I was returning from the copy machine when I noticed something on the floor in front of the teller window. [I] went to pick it up thinking it was trash. It was not paper but a small [plastic bag] holding a white crystal substance. I then handed it over to the branch manager."
The affidavit states a review of the bank surveillance tape shows Clouette entering the bank at 11:42 a.m. and approaching a teller window. During the transaction, Clouette is seen reaching into his front, left pants pocket. Five seconds later, Clouette is seen dropping a white object from his hands. The white object landed at Clouette's feet.
When Clouette left the bank at 11:54 a.m., the white object remained on the floor at the teller window, according to the affidavit.
The substance in the bag was later analyzed by the state Crime Laboratory and found to be methamphetamine, the affidavit states.
Calls Wednesday afternoon to Clouette's office telephone resulted in a message stating the phone's mailbox was full and not accepting new messages.
Clouette, a lawyer since 1974, was charged in March 2009 with possession of methamphetamine after a customer found a thumb-sized plastic bag of what turned out to be methamphetamine on the floor of a then-Pulaski Bank branch in downtown Little Rock on Aug. 1, 2008.
Clouette was found guilty of the charge after a bench trial in November 2009. During the trial, the centerpiece of the prosecution was a bank surveillance video showing Clouette, his hand in his right pocket, walking across the bank lobby when a small white spot suddenly materializes on the floor behind him.
Clouette was sentenced to two years of probation, but no judgment of conviction was entered against Clouette after he successfully completed his probation.
Clouette maintained his innocence throughout the case.
The Supreme Court's Committee on Professional Conduct later reprimanded Clouette for illegally possessing a controlled substance and ordered him to pay a $150 fine and placed him on monitored probation for two years.
According to the Arkansas Supreme Court clerk's office records, Clouette's law license is delinquent for nonpayment of current year dues but will not be suspended as long as he pays his annual attorney-licensing fee by April 15.
Metro on 04/02/2015