A jury on Friday acquitted Jefferson County Clerk Patricia Johnson, who faced 15 felony charges of forgery, theft of public funds and breach of public trust.
After two hours of deliberation a 12-member Circuit Court jury found Johnson innocent of all 15 counts that were leveled against her in March last year when she was arrested by Arkansas State Police.
Her arrest came after a legislative audit of county finances determined that she inappropriately awarded "Christmas bonuses" to nine employees in her office without proper authorization by the Jefferson County Quorum Court.
The Arkansas Legislative Audit determined during a routine audit of the county that Johnson had allocated over $22,000 to her employees in 2013 by altering hourly time sheets to falsely reflect overtime hours, according to a police affidavit.
The finding raised a red flag for auditors, and upon further investigation they determined that this practice had been occurring since 2010, resulting in over $54,000 of county money paid out to the clerk's employees.
The audit agency conducts audits of Arkansas counties annually using a program that randomly selects employees each year to test for payroll procedures, according to assistant legislative auditor Kim Williams.
"In the past years, county clerk employees had not been selected. However, when a clerk employee was selected for testing we found problems and expanded out testing -- thus the finding," Williams said in an email.
Roughly 20 witnesses took the stand during the four-day trial before retired Circuit Judge John Langston, including Johnson, who said that this had been a regular practice by county clerks since before she took office in 2009.
At the beginning of each year, the Quorum Court budgets money for the clerk's office's salaries. The money she was dispensing, Johnson said, were payroll funds unused at the end of the year.
"If they would have just told me I couldn't do what I was doing, I wouldn't have been doing it," Johnson said. "That's the point of an audit."
Little Rock defense attorney Austin Porter argued that Johnson's actions were protected by the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which entitles all employees in excess of 40 hours worked to overtime rates. Porter also argued that Johnson altered the time sheets due to a malfunctioning time-keeping system that was under-recording employees' hours.
Johnson and deputy clerks testified that the "Christmas bonuses" compensated for hours that went unrecorded by the system.
"Was Ms. Johnson authorized by law to do what she did? The Fair Labor Act says that she was, and that law supersedes any state law," Porter said.
Special prosecutor Jack McQuary, who was appointed to the case after the recusal of Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Kyle Hunter, argued that the time sheets were altered and the bonus checks were issued with the intent to defraud.
"Use your common sense. She stole that money," he told the jury during his closing statement on Friday. "Don't fall for the theory that it was magnanimous."
The clerk was also acquitted of an unrelated charge of forgery for attempting to alter a candidacy document required by the state past the filing deadline during her primary run in 2014.
Johnson had initially submitted the document with her name "Patricia Royal Johnson" as the name that would appear on the ballot. Once Trey Ashcraft filed to run against Johnson, she attempted to resubmit the document with her name listed as "County Clerk Patricia Royal Johnson" to indicate her incumbency, and then knowingly backdated the document to reflect a date prior to the deadline, according to a police affidavit.
In his testimony, former Jefferson County elections coordinator Will Fox said he did not accept the refiling. Johnson told him that "no one would know," McQuary said.
Porter also brought several character witnesses to the stand Thursday to testify on behalf of Johnson, including Jefferson County Sheriff Gerald Robinson, who called the forgery charge filed against Johnson "a bunch of crock."
"Ms. Pat is a very good person. She is honest, has a good heart, very giving -- she's like family," Robinson said, echoing the testimony given by several others before him.
The innocent verdict was followed by cheers and applause by about a dozen audience members who came showing support for Johnson, including Pine Bluff Alderman Glen Brown Sr. and former mayoral candidate Theodis "Ted" Davis.
Many who congregated in the Jefferson County Courthouse corridors after the verdict believed that the charges Johnson faced were a result of political persecution aimed at her in an attempt to remove her from office.
"This case should never have gone this far," Porter said.
"There were powers that be who were trying to bring about harm to this lady, who is just a great political servant," Porter said.
Metro on 07/23/2016