Facebook posts threatening the life of a Pulaski County circuit judge have Little Rock police searching for a man already facing charges over accusations that he tried to ram his SUV into a North Little Rock police officer's squad car.
Arick Marquett Johnson of Mabelvale is on probation for threatening a state trooper's wife and ramming another car in an unrelated road-rage encounter.
Court filings show Detective Matt Hoffine obtained an arrest warrant Wednesday charging Johnson, 34, with felony terroristic threatening, based on statements about Circuit Judge Herb Wright on the Facebook page of the Arkansas Bar Association on Monday.
"You might get hunted down ... like Herbert Wright is about to. S DUB Special coming soon! BY ANY MEANS Necessary," the post states, with "S DUB Special" believed to refer to a Smith and Wesson pistol. Other posts indicate that Johnson knows where Wright lives and include the emojis for bull's-eyes, fire, a goat and a tombstone, court filings show.
Johnson's Facebook page describes him as the co-founder of Americans Against Corruption. Police report seeing several posts mentioning the judge, unspecified court staff members and "others of the legal profession," with court filings showing Facebook mentions of other lawyers who have represented him, including Bill James, Will James, Richard Mays, Theodis Thompson and Cara Boyd Connors.
Court filings show that Wright has had no dealings with Johnson since a January 2020 appearance. Wright's criminal caseload was transferred to Judge Cathi Compton at the beginning of the year, and she is presiding over Johnson's criminal cases now.
In February 2015, Wright found Johnson guilty in a bench trial of terroristic threatening. Johnson had threatened the wife of a state trooper in May 2013 in front of the family's home and with their 8-year-old son watching. The judge sentenced Johnson to six years of probation over the recommendation of prosecutors who requested prison time.
Prosecutors said Johnson's threats were not a spur-of-the-moment decision but the result of him taking time to track down the trooper, then waiting until his wife was alone to approach her.
Johnson testified at his trial that he had never seen nor spoken with the woman before but admitted he had posted photographs of the couple's home on his Facebook page with disparaging remarks about the trooper, and that he had been driving an SUV like one the woman described on the date in question.
His lawyers argued that Johnson was being framed by the trooper who worked off-duty security for the apartment complex where Johnson lived, because the officer had been ordered to run Johnson off the property with tactics that included claiming he could kill Johnson and get away with it because he was a police officer.
In April 2017, Johnson's probation was extended by a year because he tested positive for marijuana, had not completed his community service and owed about $150 in fines and court costs.
In January 2020, another five years was added to his probation after Johnson pleaded guilty to criminal mischief and two counts of aggravated assault for a March 2019 apparent road-rage incident on University Avenue that ended with Johnson ramming his yellow Hummer into a Jeep occupied by two men at Hindman Park, according to police reports.
Court records show Johnson's most recent arrest was March 4 on aggravated assault and terroristic threatening charges, a day after North Little Rock officer Rodney Thomas reported that Johnson, a neighbor, had been regularly harassing him for almost a year because Thomas is a police officer. Johnson spent a night in jail before being released on $10,000 bond.
According to an arrest affidavit, Johnson, driving his Hummer, pulled in front of Thomas' patrol car on Chicot Road, opened the driver's door and hung out of the vehicle.
Thomas said he lost sight of the Hummer, but as he was getting home, Johnson reappeared in the Hummer and drove into his lane head-on, forcing Thomas to swerve to avoid a crash. Little Rock detectives collected video of the encounter from Thomas' squad car.
Thomas also provided detectives with a seven-minute cellphone video from May 2020 that shows Johnson and his girlfriend yelling at Thomas, claiming that he had harassed the woman. The recording was said to show Johnson yelling racial slurs, homophobic slurs and anti-police rhetoric at Thomas.
Last January, Thomas also filed a complaint about Johnson recording a Facebook video in front of Thomas' home that shows Johnson calling him a pig and a coward.