1 Arkansas city's ex-tech chief pleads guilty over misappropriated city funds, gets six years

Searcy's former director of information technology pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony theft of property after a third judge took over his case.

David Sawyers, 53, was sentenced to six years in prison in a plea agreement reached with the office of Prosecuting Attorney Rebecca Reed McCoy. Sawyers was accused of misappropriating $204,966.03 of city money from March 2013 through February of this year.

Sawyers made 145 purchases from three Internet companies that were not current suppliers of IT or computer-related products or services, according to an affidavit in the case. During that time, the city paid what turned out to be "fraudulent" invoices to one of the purported suppliers for $20,932.77, to another for $114,364.63 and to a third for $69,668.63, according to the affidavit.

The Class B felony is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

McCoy said in a written statement after Tuesday's hearing that the Arkansas Sentencing Commission recommends probation or 24 months incarceration in such cases. But she said, "I believe this case deserves a harsher sentence because it involves the abuse of trust the city of Searcy had given Sawyers as well as an extraordinarily considerable sum of misappropriated money."

Defense attorney Clay Simpson declined to comment after Tuesday's hearing.

Judge Craig Hannah, the administrative judge for the 17th Judicial Circuit, presided over the hearing in White County Circuit Court in Searcy after Judges Robert Edwards and Thomas Hughes recused from the case.

Edwards stepped off the case in September after advising that Searcy Mayor David Morris had texted him to express displeasure with the proposed plea agreement. Hughes was then assigned to the case but recused in late October. Hughes did not publicly state a reason for his recusal.

The Daily Citizen in Searcy has reported that the mayor told Edwards in the text message that Morris and City Council members were unhappy that the agreement did not require Sawyers to pay the city immediate restitution. In recusing from the case, Edwards said in court that the text was "entirely inappropriate and improper" and that he no longer believed he could preside impartially over the case, the newspaper reported.

McCoy said the city has an insurance policy "which can provide restitution ... and Sawyers can ultimately be held responsible by the insurance department through a civil case."

She said Sawyers has paid the insurance deductible to the city.

"The prosecutor's office has no input in enforcing conditions of parole, such as payment of restitution," McCoy said. "The Criminal Justice Efficiency and Safety Act of 2017 further reduces the ability of the Department of Community Corrections to compel payment of restitution. Had we recommended restitution as a part of Sawyers' sentence, the restitution payments would typically be spread out over several years and in minimal payments, if it was ever able to be collected at all by the Department of Community Corrections."

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State Desk on 11/02/2017

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