JONESBORO -- A Jonesboro attorney is seeking a summary judgment against the Craighead County Circuit Court that he claims is charging convicted people an unlawful "sheriff's fee."
Mark Rees said the county's practice of collecting an $86 fee for the Craighead County sheriff's office violates Arkansas Code 16-10-305, which sets a uniform court cost of $150 for felony violations. Other costs, including process serving, issuing summonses or drug screening tests, can be added to court costs on an individual basis, Rees said.
"Any type of fee collected by the circuit court has to be authorized by legislators," Rees said. "This is a fee added onto every person who went through the court system."
Rees originally filed the lawsuit against Craighead County in 2012 after he noticed that defendants in other counties in Arkansas were paying $150 in "court costs." His defendants paid $236 in Craighead County, he said.
He said he saw no other circuit court in the state charging the additional fees like Craighead County does.
Craighead County District Court charges a standard $100 fee for court costs. However, if a defendant appeals a district court case to circuit court and the conviction is upheld, the defendant pays both the $100 district court fee and the $236 circuit court fee, Rees said.
"I wanted to know where the money went," he said.
Rees is asking that Judge David Laser, a retired circuit judge who was appointed to the case, issue a summary judgment within 45 days and refund defendants who were charged the additional $86 fee.
Craighead County Sheriff Marty Boyd, who is not named in the lawsuit, said the money collected from the "sheriff's fees" is deposited in the county's general fund.
Rees said the Circuit Court collected between $300,000 and $400,000 from 2009-14. He estimated that another $100,000 was charged in 2015 and the first three months of this year.
Geoff Thompson, an attorney with Rainwater, Holt and Sexton in Little Rock who is representing Craighead County, did not return telephone messages Wednesday.
Craighead County Judge Ed Hil was traveling to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday and was unavailable, an assistant in his office said.
Rees filed the lawsuit on behalf of Christopher Miles, a Jonesboro man convicted of filing a false report of a crime in 2008. Miles was sentenced to 12 months of probation for the offense, fined $500 and charged $236 in court costs, which included the $86 "sheriff's fee."
"I looked into it," Rees said. "I saw circuit court costs varied in Craighead County."
Rees said the practice has been going on for at least 20 years. He was told when he questioned it that "it was the way they did it."
In his action, Rees wrote that the imposition of court costs above "costs allowed by statute is an illegal exaction."
He said he hoped Laser would issue a judgment and require the county to find those charged the additional $86 fee and reimburse them.
"They need to find all the individuals who paid this and give them their money back," Rees said.
State Desk on 04/14/2016