Pulaski County jurors got their first look Thursday at the government-owned property where Christian lifestyle influencer Dennis Rainey thinned out a grove of trees behind his Roland hilltop home to get a better view of the neighboring Lake Maumelle, an act prosecutors call criminal vandalism but what Rainey has attributed to an honest mistake that he wants to atone for.
Authorities estimate the damage to the 111-tree grove is worth at least $109,000, while the defense has presented evidence that only seven trees were removed out of only 77 affected, making the loss worth as little as $65.
Today, jurors are expected to hear Rainey's version of events from the man himself as the trial moves into the defense phase on its final day after two days devoted mostly to the prosecution evidence.
As the result of a three-month-long sheriff's office probe in 2021, Rainey is charged with Class B felony criminal mischief, which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison and a $15,000 fine, but only if jurors are convinced he committed a crime and that they believe the prosecution's estimate of damages is accurate.
The 8,900-acre lake and its watershed of mostly forest are owned by Central Arkansas Water, Little Rock's drinking water supplier. The utility, which serves about 500,000 residents, makes a priority of keeping the watershed around the man-made lake pristine to serve as the natural front-line in the utility's purification process.
Utility officials say they cannot tolerate any destruction to the property because it could degrade water quality. Home to about 25 miles of the Ouachita National Recreation Trail, the Central Arkansas Water property is also a beloved haven for hikers, boaters and fishermen.
The Rainey family has been the reservoir's closest neighbor for 40 years as Rainey built a publishing and broadcast empire focusing on Christian marriage and centered around FamilyLife, the biblical-based relationship counseling center in Little Rock founded by him and his wife.
Rainey, 75, told authorities he'd been granted permission when he first trimmed and cut down trees to maintain the lakeview 30 years ago by former water company leadership that predated the establishment of Central Arkansas Water.
But the only witnesses who could definitively confirm Rainey's account are both dead, meaning that he is limited by the rules of evidence regarding hearsay about what he can tell jurors about how he came to make the decision to have the tree grove trimmed back. The judge has ruled that he can only tell jurors he believed he had permission to scale back the foliage between house and lake.
Prosecutors Robbie Jones, Nicole Pace and Christopher Turansky rested their case Thursday afternoon with their final witness, the only current Central Arkansas Water executive who could have granted Rainey permission to cut back the trees. Raven Lawson, the utility's watershed protection manager for nine years, testified that Rainey did not ask for approval, telling jurors she is sure she would know if any of her predecessors at the utility had ever given him the OK.
"To my knowledge ... he did not ask for permission. He did not ask anyone currently employed," Lawson said.
Lawson spent almost 2 ½ hours on the stand, mostly under cross examination by defense attorney David Parker about claims that are central to Rainey's defense: that he's a victim of bullying by volunteer conservation groups and government overreach with Central Arkansas Water going after Rainey, whom they believed to be rich, to get at his wallet to punish him.
Along those lines, Parker questioned Lawson about internal emails that show her discussing with other execs ways to inflict "maximum" punishment on Rainey.
"The public really wants, and we should too, whatever the maximum thing we can do is," Lawson said, reading from an email. "The only thing that's going to make a difference to this guy (based on his net worth) is losing that view. I think we could come up with [$25,000] in fines, it wouldn't matter to him."
Parker further had Lawson read from one message she wrote that shows how Central Arkansas Water execs were talking about trying to ruin what Lawson called Rainey's "million-dollar view" by stringing up netting over the remaining trees -- a scheme favored by utility leader Tad Bohannon -- or putting up lights behind the Rainey home on utility property.
The utility did neither, and Lawson testified they were barely seriously considered, although she had been directed to research the cost of the netting.
Parker also had Lawson read an excerpt from an email she wrote warning Central Arkansas Water leadership that volunteer conservation groups such as Friends of the Ouachita Trail, the Ozark Society and Central Arkansas Master Naturalists would take a stand against the utility if it didn't do something that would punish Rainey and discourage any other Lake Maumelle neighbor from similarly cutting down trees. Those groups warned that their opposition to Central Arkansas Water would extend to them actively discouraging other volunteers from contributing to the utility's land preservation efforts, such as with tree plantings and trail building, according to the email.
"The 'take home' message for me is that a number of volunteer/civic organizations that we have been long standing partners with ... will be very vocal against us and withdraw all support to CAW if we don't do something major about this ... they would vocally speak against anyone offering volunteer support to us in the future," the email states.
Throughout questioning, Lawson maintained that her and fellow executives' interest in sanctions against Rainey were not based on who he was -- they'd never really heard of him before this -- or how much money he had. She told jurors that CAW wanted a punishment that would warn other lake neighbors that tampering with the forests would not be tolerated under any circumstances.
The prosecution's first witness of the day was Bryan Rupar, the utility's land conservation coordinator, who manages Central Arkansas Water's land around its two lakes, the Maumelle reservoir and 1,240-acre Lake Winona near Paron in the Ouachita National Forest. Rupar showed jurors video footage he recorded of the bare spot behind the Rainey home from a drone in August 2021, about two months after the damage was discovered, and then again in December of that year, so jurors could see what the damage looked like in the different seasons. He also provided jurors with still images taken from the recordings.
He told jurors that topping trees like Rainey did -- cutting their crown's branches down to a living stump a few feet tall -- put the trees' lives at risk.
"The tree is not likely to survive and if it does, it won't have the same vigor," he said, describing how the plant would have to devote resources necessary for survival into restoring its lost branches and leaves that are required so it can nourish itself through photosynthesis. The loss of nutrition from the leaves further puts the tree at risk of insect infestations and disease infections that it's not healthy enough to fend off, he said.
He told jurors to imagine a Christmas tree as an example of a healthy tree while cutting trees back like Rainey did makes those trees comparable to the "Charlie Brown" tree befriended by the cartoon character in the 1965 TV Christmas special.
The only description of how the affected area looks from ground level has come from the prosecution's first witness from Wednesday morning, Rhonda Patton.
The 61-year-old Roland woman who lives next to the Central Arkansas Water forest with her husband alerted authorities after coming across the tree crew hired by Rainey on its last day of work. Patton told jurors she's regularly walked the Ouachita Trail two to three times a week for the past 15 years. She told jurors that compared with the full canopy she's used to, what's been left behind is like "abstract art" in the way the surviving trees are trying to grow back.