Scott County : Mayor charged with paying two women for sex
Posted on Tuesday, May 16, 2006
WALDRON — Waldron Mayor Troy Anderson was charged Monday with two counts of abuse of public trust and four counts of patronizing a prostitute.
Assistant Prosecuting Attorney John Riedel filed the two felony and four misdemeanor charges against Anderson, 72, in Scott County Circuit Court.
Riedel said he expected Anderson to appear Wednesday morning before a district judge in Waldron for a bond hearing.
Anderson, who has been mayor of Waldron since 1999 and is seeking the Democratic nomination for county judge, was not available for comment Monday at City Hall and could not be reached at his home.
News of the charges had not circulated around town Monday. Circuit Clerk Lenny McDaniel said he could not comment on the charges because they were sealed pending the execution of the warrant for Anderson’s arrest.
Two of Waldron’s City Council members contacted Monday said they had not heard of charges being filed against the mayor.
Donnie Owens said he had heard rumors for years about Anderson but had not put any credence in them.
“As far as I’m concerned, the mayor is a fine man and has done a lot for the city of Waldron,” Owens said.
Mark Ashford also had not heard about the charges.
“It shocked me,” he said.
He declined to comment further until he knew more about the charges.
The two abuse of public trust charges, classified as felonies, accused Anderson of giving a woman with whom he was having sex special treatment on her city water bill and giving her a $ 60 water deposit she never paid originally. The special treatment began in March 2004, according to court records.
The woman told Arkansas State Police investigator Kevin Richmond in a Feb. 22 interview that Anderson had been paying her for sex for eight to 10 years.
Prosecuting Attorney Tom Tatum Jr. said Monday the state police investigation had been going on for several months. Last week the state Legislative Audit Division agreed to review some of Waldron’s water customer accounts as part of the investigation.
In an affidavit by Richmond to justify an arrest warrant against Anderson, the woman told him Anderson allowed her to change the name on her water account when it became delinquent so she could continue getting water service without hav- ing to pay the delinquent charges to the city. The affidavit said the current balance in the woman’s account is $ 617.
In the Feb. 22 interview with Richmond, the woman told him she had had sex with Anderson the day before and was paid $ 45.
Richmond outfitted the woman with a recording device before her next meeting with Anderson on Feb. 24.
That day, the affidavit said, Anderson picked up the woman in Waldron and drove her out of town, during which she performed a sex act. The woman said he then solicited sex from her but she refused. He drove her back to Waldron and gave her $ 20.
Anderson was charged with two counts of patronizing a prostitute for the Feb. 24 encounter. Riedel said one charge was for paying for sex, the other was for soliciting sex.
Richmond’s affidavit said another woman told him Anderson had been trying to solicit sex from her for several years because of her delinquent water account.
On Jan. 24, the affidavit said, the woman went to Anderson and asked for his help in getting her granddaughter out of state Department of Health and Human Services custody. He told her to meet him the next day at a Waldron apartment, according to Richmond’s affidavit.
The woman wore an electronic recording device and met with Anderson. The affidavit said Anderson paid the woman $ 100 for sex.
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