Arkansas college's lawyer calls bid to bar his firm in open-records suit harassment

Ecclesia College, shown in this file photo, is a private Christian college in Springdale.
Ecclesia College, shown in this file photo, is a private Christian college in Springdale.

FAYETTEVILLE -- The attorney for Ecclesia College in Springdale says efforts to disqualify his law firm from a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the school amount to harassment and should be met with sanctions.

Arkansas legislators gave nearly $700,000 in taxpayer money from the state's General Improvement Fund to the private Christian college.

Jim Parsons' Freedom of Information lawsuit, filed Feb. 9 in Washington County Circuit Court, seeks documents from the school that are related to those state grants.

The suit contends that private organizations that receive public money, engage in activities of public interest, carry on work intertwined with a government body or receive grants to promote economic development are subject to the requirements of the state's open-records law.

Parsons, a former teacher and board member at the college, lives in Bella Vista. He also contends that Ecclesia's recent claim to be a church rather than a college puts it in violation of the state constitution regarding receipt of state money.

Ecclesia contends that the documents sought by Parsons can't be released because they are covered in a protective order issued by a federal judge hearing the corruption case of former state Sen. Jon Woods, Ecclesia President Oren Paris III and Randall Shelton Jr. Former state Rep. Micah Neal has pleaded guilty for his role in a related kickback scheme.

Joey McCutchen and Chip Sexton, attorneys for Parsons, filed a motion seeking to disqualify Travis Story, Ecclesia's attorney, and his law firm from the Freedom of Information Act suit. They claim that state Rep. Bob Ballinger, R-Hindsville, a lawyer practicing in Story's firm, sponsored two grants to Ecclesia.

The motion says Ballinger and other state senators and representatives were joint applicants for the grant money and could be called as witnesses.

The Parsons motion further says that Arkansas Rules of Professional Responsibility require the disqualification of Story and other members of his firm because Ballinger is a witness.

Story disputes that assertion in his latest filing, calling it a ruse by which to further harass Ecclesia.

"The question is not whether Representative Ballinger could be a witness, but whether he is a necessary witness. Defendant represents that he is not," the filing says.

Story argues that legislators make only recommendations for the distribution of the money and that final decisions about it are made by the Northwest Arkansas Economic Development District board of directors.

"The fact that Rep. Bob Ballinger made a recommendation for a small amount of GIF [General Improvement Fund] grant monies ($5,000) to be given to the defendant by the NWAEDD is a tangential issue to the intent of the plaintiff which is to act as a private investigator delving into financial activities for which individuals associated with defendant are under federal indictment," Story wrote.

The filing says Ecclesia has already disclosed to the Economic Development District its Internal Revenue Service designation as a church so there is no need to ask Ballinger about it.

Story's motion seeks sanctions and dismissal of the suit.

Ecclesia's receipt of the money entered the spotlight after Neal pleaded guilty in federal court Jan. 4 to taking a pair of kickbacks that totaled $38,000 for helping two entities receive grants through the state's General Improvement Fund.

Woods has since been indicted on 1̶1̶ 14* counts of honest services wire fraud, one count of honest services mail fraud and one count of money laundering. Denying "honest services" by an elected official is a public corruption charge. Woods has pleaded innocent.

Paris and Shelton, a consultant, each have been indicted on n̶i̶n̶e̶ 13* counts of honest services wire fraud and one count of honest services mail fraud. Both have pleaded innocent.

Metro on 06/02/2017

*CORRECTION: Former state Sen. Jon Woods was indicted in mid-April and charged with 14 counts of wire fraud, one count of mail fraud and one count of money laundering. Oren Paris III, president of Ecclesia College in Springdale, and Randell Shelton Jr., a consultant, were each indicted on 13 counts of wire fraud and one count of mail fraud. A previous version of this story gave an incorrect numbers of charges.

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