LR housing director pleads innocent; warrant recalled, trial set

Metropolitan Housing Alliance Executive Director Rodney Forte outside court Thursday, June 4, 2015.
Metropolitan Housing Alliance Executive Director Rodney Forte outside court Thursday, June 4, 2015.

The executive director of Little Rock's Metropolitan Housing Alliance entered an innocent plea Thursday in his appeal of a lower court's ruling that he negligently violated the state's Freedom of Information Act.

Rodney Forte didn't speak during the brief hearing before Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herb Wright, during which the judge also set a Nov. 4 trial date.

The hearing came a day after Forte's plea and arraignment was scheduled to have occurred. Neither Forte nor his lawyer, N.M. "Mac" Norton, was present in court when the case came up Wednesday, which prompted Wright to issue a failure-to-appear arrest warrant for Forte.

Norton started the hearing off addressing the earlier absence.

"I think I owe the court an apology," he said, calling it a "lapse in communication."

"No problem," Wright replied. He then recalled the alias warrant.

Forte was convicted of the Class C misdemeanor on June 4 in Little Rock District Court, with the judge saying the housing director had been "negligent" in refusing to release records requested by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

District Judge Alice Lightle said then that while the requests may have been "numerous" and "burdensome," they were "proper requests for government documents" that went unfulfilled "within the allowable statutory framework."

She said it was Forte's responsibility to "ensure full compliance," adding that anything short of a conviction "would defeat the purpose of the Freedom of Information Act and would undermine the accountability of an agency."

Forte and his attorneys contended the agency attempted to cooperate with the newspaper and that negligent behavior had not been proven.

The charge was filed against Forte after the agency sent the Democrat-Gazette a bill for more than $16,000 for documents requested under the information law. The agency said the money would be used to hire temporary workers and buy extra supplies.

See Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for more on this story.

Upcoming Events