BENTONVILLE - A September jury trial has been set for Benton County Sheriff Kelley Cradduck.
Cradduck is charged with felony tampering with a public record and misdemeanor tampering. He was arrested Jan. 19. Cradduck has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Cradduck appeared in court Friday morning. Special Judge Randy Wright scheduled the jury trial to begin Sept. 21. The trial is expected to last three days.
A pretrial hearing is set for Aug. 19.
Cradduck avoided cameras Friday morning. He did not use the main entrance to enter the Benton County Courthouse and used a door in Circuit Judge Xollie Duncan’s office to go through Circuit Judge Robin Green’s courtroom and leave the building.
Wright, who is a circuit judge with the 8th Judicial Circuit-North, was appointed as a special judge to preside over Cradduck 's criminal case. The 8th Judicial Circuit-North consists of Hempstead and Nevada counties in southwest Arkansas.
The six Benton County circuit judges recused from Cradduck’s case.
The felony charge accuses Cradduck of falsifying an employee payroll request form for Gabriel Cox to reflect a start date of Sept. 28 instead of his Oct. 7 hiring date. The change in hire dates would have resulted in Cox being paid for time he didn't work, according to court documents.
The misdemeanor charge accuses Cradduck of knowing an Arkansas State Police investigation was underway and instructing his assistant, Diana Goodwin, to lie to investigators and say the sheriff never asked her to back-date the employee payroll request form.
Jason Barrett was named special prosecutor in the case after Nathan Smith, Benton County's prosecutor, requested a special prosecutor handle the investigation.
Cradduck was seeking his third term as sheriff, but he was defeated in the Republican primary on March 1.