District Judge Emily White, running for a seat on the Arkansas Court of Appeals, cannot use her title on the March ballot, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox ruled Tuesday.
Fox's decision came in response to a lawsuit filed last week by White's opponent, prosecutor Stephanie Potter Barrett.
The women are running for the position 2 seat in District 4 of the Court of Appeals District that covers 15 counties: Clark, Garland, Hempstead, Hot Spring, Howard, Little River, Logan, Miller, Montgomery, Pike, Polk, Scott, Sebastian, Sevier and Yell.
Barrett's name will appear on the ballot with her title, prosecuting attorney for the 8th South Judicial Circuit of Lafayette and Miller counties. Barrett, 46, was elected to her first term in 2014 and reelected last year, both times without opposition.
White, 45, was appointed to her position as district judge for the 33rd Judicial District of Hot Spring and Grant counties in May 2018 by Gov. Asa Hutchison. She'll hold the post until the end of next year.
State law prohibits appointed judges from listing their title on the ballot when running for the Appeals Court or Supreme Court, Fox said.
The judge also dismissed Barrett's claim that White was wrong to describe herself as a judge on the petitions she used to collect signatures to qualify for the appeals court race. White was -- and is -- a judge, Fox noted.
The judge concluded the 90-minute hearing by rejecting Barrett's other allegations that involved where White lives and what her "legal" name is.
Barrett, represented by her cousins, twin brothers Joshua and Jacob Potter, contended that White should be required to use her married surname, Lengefeld, on the ballot and disputed that White lives in Garland County. Barrett contended that White actually lives in Grant County, which is outside Appeals District 4.
White's lawyers, Jeff Priebe and Jennifer Waymack-Standifer, countered that White is her professional name, which she has used consistently over her 18-year legal career. White, who testified for about 40 minutes, said she generally goes by White-Lengefeld in her personal life. She said she was elected to the Poyen School Board as Lengefeld.
White said she and her family bought a home in Hot Springs in February so she could run for the Appeals Court seat but that they do spend many nights at their former home, depending on her daughters' school schedules.
The change in residences did not require the children to change schools, Ronnie Kissire, the Poyen School District superintendent, testified.
Stephen Turnage, a private investigator, testified that he had made a post-midnight visit to White's Grant County home for the Potter brothers to surveil the property the night before Barrett's lawsuit was filed.
He told the judge he spent 16 minutes observing the residence and that he saw three vehicles and a travel-trailer parked at the residence there.
Metro on 11/19/2019
CORRECTION: Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox ruled Tuesday that District Judge Emily White, who is running for a seat on the Arkansas Court of Appeals, can use her title in the court race, but cannot use it on the March ballot. An earlier version of this story's headline incorrectly reflected Fox's ruling.