Court denies appeal in ex-Arkansas legislator's corruption case

Jon Woods (from left) Randell Shelton Jr. and Oren Paris
Jon Woods (from left) Randell Shelton Jr. and Oren Paris

FAYETTEVILLE — A federal appeals court has refused to hear an appeal of an order to dismiss filed by defendants in the corruption case involving a former Arkansas state senator, the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.

Former state Sen. Jon Woods, Oren Paris III, and Randell G. Shelton sought to have charges against them dismissed because FBI special agent Robert Cessario had a hard drive of a laptop computer used in the investigation erased after being ordered to turn it over for inspection in a evidence-related dispute.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks’ refused to dismiss the charges, and the appeal to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals followed.

A three-judge panel Tuesday denied the appeal in a two-sentence ruling.

“The court orders that this appeal be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. The appellants’ joint emergency motion for stay pending appeal is denied as moot,” the ruling said.

The trial is scheduled to begin April 9.

The three defendants have pleaded innocent. They face up to 20 years in prison on fraud and conspiracy charges, if convicted. Woods faces an additional 10 years on a separate money-laundering charge, if convicted.

Woods, a Springdale Republican; Paris, president of Ecclesia College in Springdale; and Shelton, a consultant formerly of Alma, are accused of participating in a kickback scheme involving state grants. The Justice Department alleges Paris paid Woods and then-state Rep. Micah Neal of Springdale kickbacks in return for $550,000 in grants from them to his college from 2013 through 2014. Shelton is accused of using his consulting firm to funnel the money to Neal and Woods.

Neal pleaded guilty to a conspiracy count on Jan. 4, 2017, but has not been sentenced.

Neal made secret audio recordings from March to October 2016, hoping to find more evidence and mitigate the sentence he expects to receive, according to his testimony in an earlier hearing. Neal did this without the government's encouragement or participation, according to prosecutors, but he did inform investigators he was doing it.

Defense attorneys asked Brooks to dismiss the case last year, arguing they never received a complete copy of Neal's recordings. They received 39 files originally and discovered gaps in the dates between recordings. They also found text messages between Neal, his attorney and Cessario referring to recordings not among the ones the defense team received.

The discovery of the gap resulted in the U.S. attorney's office ordering Cessario to turn in the laptop for inspection. That inspection found Cessario had the hard drive erased.

See Wednesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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