Linda Satter
Stories by Linda
Bail hearing set for jailed officers
posted: 05/26/2012 3:20 a.m. Discuss
Two Little Rock police officers accused of escorting shipments of marijuana through the city remained on paid leave and in jail Friday as a judge set a hearing for June 4 to determine whether he will set bail that would allow their release pending a trial.
Judge vacates U.S. attorney office sanction
posted: 05/26/2012 3:09 a.m. Discuss
U.S. District Judge Bill Wilson agreed Friday to vacate a $4,000 sanction he imposed earlier this year against the U.S. attorney’s office.
Languishing, civil-rights suit dismissed
posted: 05/24/2012 3:46 a.m. Discuss
A federal civil-rights lawsuit filed last year that sought to represent a class of disabled people requiring mentalhealth services from the State Hospital has been dismissed because of the remaining plaintiff’s failure to pursue it.
New federal judge takes her seat
posted: 05/24/2012 3:41 a.m. Discuss
Kristine Baker, the newest federal judge in the Eastern District of Arkansas, was sworn in late Monday afternoon in a private ceremony, putting her officially “on the job” just two weeks after being confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
Judge sentences dad to 15 years over child porn
posted: 05/19/2012 5:09 a.m. Discuss
A Craighead County father was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison Friday for possessing and distributing child pornography through his home laptop computer in 2010.
Ex-lawman is sentenced in Delta case
posted: 05/17/2012 5:08 a.m. Discuss
Without much discussion, a federal judge on Wednesday sentenced former Helena-West Helena police officer Herman Eaton Sr. to 16 months in prison for using his patrol car last August to escort across the city a man who claimed to be carrying a load of cocaine, in exchange for $500.
Steroid case unfair, man says
posted: 05/16/2012 5:01 a.m. Discuss
The owner of a nutritional supplements store in Little Rock reluctantly pleaded guilty Tuesday to a charge of dispensing prescription drugs without a prescription, agreeing that he sold a product containing anabolic steroids in 2009 in violation of Federal Drug Administration regulations.
Slip excludes jurors from 2 counties
posted: 05/12/2012 5 a.m. Discuss
A human typing error in a computerized database inadvertently prevented residents of St. Francis and White counties from serving as jurors and grand jurors in federal court in the Eastern District of Arkansas from 2009 through 2011, U.S. District Clerk Jim McCormack announced Friday.
LR’s attorney OK’d for case
posted: 05/10/2012 5:30 a.m. Discuss
Little Rock City Attorney Tom Carpenter won’t be disqualified from representing the city and its Police Department, including two off-duty officers, in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by another officer whose father was killed during a fight with the offduty officers in late 2010, a federal judge has decided.
Patrolman in Delta case given release
posted: 05/09/2012 5:38 a.m. Discuss
The only law-enforcement officer indicted in a federal public corruption and drug case centered in the Arkansas Delta who hasn’t pleaded guilty was granted release from custody Tuesday, nearly seven months after her arrest.
Jury sees no fluke in child-porn file, convicts PB man
posted: 05/04/2012 3:24 a.m. Discuss
After deliberating Thursday for more than four hours, a federal jury rejected a Pine Bluff man’s claim that child pornography found on his computer and related equipment was placed there against his will by glitches in the former file-sharing network Limewire.
Ex-USA Drug exec pleads guilty to fraud
posted: 05/03/2012 4:59 a.m. Comment 1
A last-minute guilty plea, worked out Wednesday morning by a former USA Drug employee while potential jurors cooled their heels in the federal courthouse in Little Rock, led the U.S. attorney’s office to drop all 33 charges against the employee’s wife and her sister, just before all three were to begin a onemonth trial.
PB man starts trial in child-porn case
posted: 05/02/2012 5:26 a.m. Discuss
A Jefferson County man who served 26 months in federal prison for his 2002 guilty plea to a charge of trafficking in child pornography was back in federal court in Little Rock on Tuesday, this time facing a jury trial on new child pornography charges.
NLR man gets extortion term
posted: 05/02/2012 5:16 a.m. Discuss
The details behind a married couple’s extortion of $25,000 cash from Conway banker Randy Sims last summer remained as mysterious as ever on Tuesday, when the husband, Richard Lee Johnson, was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison.
2 more plead guilty in federal drug case
posted: 04/28/2012 2:52 a.m. Discuss
Two more defendants pleaded guilty Friday in the ongoing federal drug-trafficking and public-corruption case known as Operation Delta Blues.
Sale of personal data admitted
posted: 04/26/2012 5:15 a.m. Comment 1
A West Memphis woman admitted Wednesday to a federal judge that she used her position as an employee of the Social Security Administration office in that city to sell confidential information to a man in Little Rock who used it for criminal purposes. Leeanna Brooke Morgan, 31, pleaded guilty to a single charge of illegally transferring someone’s date of birth and mother’s maiden name for the purpose of misusing a Social Security number.
2nd big shot in Delta ring pleads guilty
posted: 04/25/2012 5:25 a.m.
Discuss
Leon Bernard Edwards, the No. 2 defendant in a sweeping federal investigation into a drug-trafficking and public-corruption ring centered in Helena-West Helena and Marianna, pleaded guilty Tuesday to the main charge in a lengthy federal indictment in exchange for a recommended 22-year prison sentence.
Sentencing in plot to rob armored car hits a snag
posted: 04/21/2012 2:43 a.m. Discuss
A scheduled sentencing Friday morning for Mark Davis, the last of a group of men accused in an armoredcar-robbery conspiracy, was cut short after a dispute arose about whether Davis can withdraw his earlier guilty plea.
Ex-fire chief pleads guilty in arsenal gyp
posted: 04/20/2012 3:15 a.m. Discuss
A former fire chief at the Pine Bluff Arsenal pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Little Rock to a felony charge, admitting that he collected $133,974 in overtime pay that he didn’t earn.
Real estate firm settles job-discrimination suit
posted: 04/19/2012 4:14 a.m. Discuss
A Little Rock subsidiary of the Memphis-based real estate company Crye-Leike Inc. has agreed to pay $600,000 to former employees and job applicants to resolve a race-discrimination and retaliation lawsuit brought in late 2010 by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Man gets 4 years in hired-killer plot
posted: 04/14/2012 3:09 a.m. Discuss
A Star City truck driver who agreed to pay someone $500 to kill his girlfriend’s husband must serve four years in federal prison, a judge decided Friday.
Pretrial land hold approved
posted: 04/11/2012 5:16 a.m. Discuss
A federal judge agreed Tuesday to place a “pretrial restraint” on most of the 262 acres near Imboden that belong to former Pocahontas attorney Bob Sam Castleman, in case he is ultimately convicted of drug trafficking charges and the property must be forfeited to the government.
’76 hammer attacker’s relief bid riles victim’s kin
posted: 04/08/2012 3:41 a.m. Comment 1
Gwen Prince of Searcy was only 9 years old when, one night in September 1976, a neighbor’s 18-year-old son broke into the rented Batesville home where she lived with her mother and three young siblings shortly after the whole family had settled into their beds for the night.
Driver in firebombing gets 15 years in prison
posted: 04/07/2012 2:57 a.m. Discuss
A Waldron man whose body is covered in white supremacist tattoos, and who backed out of his December trial on civil-rights charges after three black people were reinstated to the jury panel, was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison for firebombing the home of an interracial couple.
Judge set to decide in suit by LR officer
posted: 04/05/2012 5:15 a.m. Discuss
U.S. District Judge Brian S. Miller concluded a teleconference Wednesday in a wrongful-death lawsuit against Little Rock police by promising to decide by the end of next week whether to disqualify the city attorney’s office from representing the police at trial.
W. Memphis officer guilty in choking
posted: 04/03/2012 4:10 a.m. Discuss
A West Memphis police officer was convicted Friday of a misdemeanor civil-rights violation after a federal jury found that he choked a handcuffed arrestee in 2010 but didn’t cause bodily harm.
Vacating plea called unlikely
posted: 03/31/2012 3:41 a.m. Comment 1
Shortly before concluding a hearing Friday for Keith Allen Deaton, a Batesville man hoping for relief from a life sentence, a federal judge looked him in the eye and gave him sobering news.
Man’s mom, 2 attorneys, sister testify
posted: 03/30/2012 3:30 a.m. Discuss
A federal judge heard a full day of testimony Thursday from four people connected to a Batesville man who has served 35 years of a life sentence for a murder that may not have occurred.
Evidence from ’76 now turns on timing
posted: 03/29/2012 4:27 a.m. Comments 4
Thirty-five years ago, 18-year-old Keith Allen Deaton of Batesville pleaded guilty to a capital-murder charge in exchange for a sentence of life in prison without parole.
8 former workers sue preschool firm
posted: 03/28/2012 3:57 a.m. Discuss
Eight former employees of Child Development Inc., a former nonprofit organization based in Russellville that administered Head Start programs in 13 Arkansas counties, are suing it and its Colorado based successor corporation, alleging they were victims of federal labor law violations and deserve compensation.
Charge against lawyer dropped midtrial after agency withheld data
posted: 03/23/2012 4:54 a.m. Comment 1
The U.S. attorney’s office in Little Rock took the relatively rare step Thursday of permanently dismissing charges against Forrest City lawyer Mike Easley in the middle of his nonjury trial.
In fraud on U.S., trial starts for lawyer
posted: 03/21/2012 4:33 a.m. Discuss
In a nonjury trial that began Tuesday in Little Rock, federal prosecutors hope to prove that Forrest City lawyer Mike Easley committed Social Security fraud.
4th officer guilty in Delta drug case
posted: 03/17/2012 5:22 a.m.
Comment 1
A fourth law enforcement officer pleaded guilty Friday in the federal Delta Blues drug-trafficking and public corruption case, admitting that he took cash from drug dealers to warn them about impending raids and otherwise look out for them.
No new action planned against U.S. attorneys
posted: 03/16/2012 3:13 a.m. Discuss
A federal judge on Thursday flatly rejected a Dallas attorney’s request for additional sanctions against the U.S. attorney’s office in Little Rock in connection with a contentious legal maneuver for which the judge has already imposed a $4,000 penalty.
Ex-LR officer gives guilty cocaine plea
posted: 03/16/2012 3:09 a.m. Discuss
Ralph Jackson Sr., a retired Little Rock police sergeant, pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to a cocaine-distribution charge in exchange for an expected three-year sentence.
Sex in morgue at center of suit
posted: 03/15/2012 4:44 a.m. Comments 5
Former Pulaski County Coroner Garland Camper admitted he had sex with a former employee in the county morgue three days before he rehired her last year, leaving the county little option but to advise him to resign or face a potentially public investigation, according to a Wednesday court filing.
More rebuke urged for U.S. attorneys
posted: 03/15/2012 4:31 a.m. Discuss
Yet another request was filed Saturday asking a judge to punish federal prosecutors for improperly moving a civil case from state court into a federal criminal case.
Keep attorney on case for police, judge urged
posted: 03/14/2012 4:05 a.m. Discuss
Neither Little Rock City Attorney Tom Carpenter nor the city attorney’s office should be disqualified from defending the city and two officers in a lawsuit over the use of deadly force, Assistant City Attorney Bill Mann argued Tuesday.
Man gets 22 years in child-porn case
posted: 03/13/2012 4:39 a.m. Discuss
Freddie Wallace, a former nursing assistant from Wynne, was sentenced Friday to 22 years in federal prison for making and possessing videos of child pornography.
Plea is guilty in fake-goods case
posted: 03/10/2012 3:52 a.m. Comments 2
A Little Rock store owner pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to a single charge of intentionally trafficking in counterfeit goods, admitting that she sold a phony “Lacoste” brand polo shirt for $20 to two undercover police detectives April 26, 2010.
Man indicted in 3rd bomb case
posted: 03/09/2012 5:25 a.m. Discuss
A Little Rock man arrested last week after purportedly giving his therapist a pipe bomb has now been indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with the incident.
Death-case filing: Bar city role of attorney
posted: 03/08/2012 4:56 a.m. Discuss
A federal judge has not yet ruled on a motion to disqualify Little Rock City Attorney Tom Carpenter and the city attorney’s office from representing the city in a police officer’s lawsuit against the department over his father’s shooting death by an off-duty Little Rock police officer.
Job-bias information a joint effort
posted: 03/04/2012 4:06 a.m. Discuss
Knowing when workplace rights are being violated can sometimes be confusing, even for lifelong American citizens.
Couple told to pay $668,647
posted: 03/02/2012 3:13 a.m. Discuss
A federal judge Wednesday ordered an Ash Flat couple convicted of milking four government agencies over several years to pay $668,647.87 in restitution.
Two verdicts restored in 2010 racial-bias case
posted: 02/29/2012 6:10 a.m. Discuss
A federal judge shouldn’t have thrown out two jury verdicts favoring a former Lee County School District employee who said the school board’s black majority forced her to resign because she is white, an appeals court said Tuesday.
Race played role in exit, suit says
posted: 02/28/2012 4:57 a.m. Comment 1
Former Pulaski County Coroner Garland Camper alleged in a federal lawsuit filed Monday that racial discrimination played a role in his forced resignation last April.
Widow files new suit against jailers
posted: 02/26/2012 4:36 a.m. Discuss
The widow of a Bald Knob man who died of a heart attack in the White County jail in 2007 has refiled a federal lawsuit blaming his death on two jailers she says deliberately ignored his medical needs.
U.S. prosecutors appeal penalty for shifting case
posted: 02/23/2012 4:52 a.m. Discuss
Federal prosecutors in Little Rock are appealing a federal judge’s Feb. 1 order directing them to pay a $4,000 penalty for improperly transferring a Pulaski County Circuit Court lawsuit to federal court.
Arkansan arrested in ’10 bribery sting sees U.S. drop case
posted: 02/22/2012 4:31 a.m. Discuss
Lee Tolleson of Mountain Home, one of 22 sellers of military equipment to be arrested in early 2010 at a Las Vegas trade show as part of an undercover FBI sting operation, saw his charges dropped Tuesday by federal prosecutors in Washington, D.C.
Dad, son face meth charges
posted: 02/18/2012 6:28 a.m. Discuss
A father and son from north Arkansas who made the news eight years ago when they were tried in federal court in Little Rock for mailing a live copperhead snake to a mutual enemy are under federal indictment again.
