FORT SMITH -- The Sebastian County sheriff's office is investigating an allegation that a Fort Smith police captain committed perjury during a circuit court hearing in 2014.
A news release from the sheriff's office Thursday said it was investigating Capt. Jarrard Copeland, head of the Police Department's office of professional standards.
The release said Sebastian County Circuit Judge James Cox asked the sheriff's office to review the records and conduct interviews and submit a report to him for his decision.
"The investigation is ongoing and may take several weeks to complete," the release said. "Several subjects need to be interviewed and there is a plethora of documentation to be analyzed."
The request came after a Jan. 27 meeting Cox had with Sheriff Bill Hollenbeck and Prosecuting Attorney Dan Shue regarding allegations of perjury that may have been committed during an Aug. 29, 2014, hearing before Cox, the release said.
Little Rock attorney Matthew Campbell accused Copeland of lying when Copeland testified that he did not identify any suspects in an investigation he was conducting into complaints that someone had revealed the identity of undercover officers to Campbell.
Campbell said documents show that complaints from the undercover officers submitted to Copeland had identified Campbell's clients as suspects.
"I am 100 percent confident I did not commit perjury and feel the allegations against me are baseless," Copeland said Thursday.
Campbell, who raised the accusations against Copeland, said Thursday that he was glad to see one law enforcement agency take up an investigation of another.
Campbell asked in a Jan. 20 letter that Shue file the charge against Copeland. Shue replied in a letter two days later that his office does not file charges unless an offense report is made and an investigation is conducted. He suggested Campbell contact the Arkansas State Police or the sheriff's office.
The 2014 hearing, Campbell said, was over a request he made to Cox for an injunction to stop Copeland, as head of the office of professional standards, from questioning two of Campbell's clients, police Cpl. Wendall Sampson Jr. and former Sgt. Don Paul Bales, in a lawsuit they had filed against the city of Fort Smith and its police officers.
The issue over which Copeland wanted to question Sampson and Bales was not one of the main issues in the officers' lawsuit, Campbell said. Campbell wanted to block the questioning because he said it was another attempt by the department to continue its retaliation against his clients.
Campbell also said he believed Copeland wanted to question his clients outside of his presence, which he opposed.
Campbell said that Copeland wanted to question Sampson and Bales about how Campbell learned the identities of undercover officers, which are exempt from disclosure under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
The undercover officers filed complaints with Copeland, Campbell said in his affidavit. In the complaints, they said they suspected their identities were passed to Campbell by Sampson, Bales or Campbell's third client in the lawsuit, Sgt. Rick Entmeier. Entmeier already had been questioned by Copeland about the complaints before Campbell filed the motion to block the questioning.
Campbell's affidavit included portions of testimony from Copeland in the injunction hearing in which he said no one in the complaints submitted to him were listed as suspects.
Campbell's affidavit contained a passage from the hearing's transcript in which Cox asked Copeland to clarify when he testified, '"Nobody said anybody did anything.'"
Cox denied Campbell's motion for the injunction.
The three officers, through Campbell, filed their lawsuit in January 2014 against the city of Fort Smith, Police Chief Kevin Lindsey and other city officials and police officers, including Copeland. All defendants but the city and Lindsey were dropped later from the suit.
The officers contended in the lawsuit that they encountered retaliation after they approached Lindsey with information that city and police-department policies were violated.
After a hearing June 30, Cox granted a summary judgment motion in favor of the city and dismissed the lawsuit. His ruling is under appeal before the Arkansas Court of Appeals.
State Desk on 02/05/2016