CARROLL COUNTY : Lawyer receives contempt citation
Posted on Monday, March 3, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/218611/
BERRYVILLE — A lawyer in Berryville has been cited with contempt of court by a district judge who said she lied about why she couldn’t be in court. On Jan. 15, Cindy Baker told Gerald Kent Crow, judge for Carroll County’s eastern district, that she was stuck in St. Louis waiting to argue a case before the 8 th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals, records in the contempt case show.
Crow granted Baker a delay in several of her cases set for the next day in his court, a Wednesday.
According to a notice of contempt, a trooper cited Baker for speeding the morning of Jan. 16 in Northwest Arkansas, so Crow called the appeals court in St. Louis to investigate.
He learned from staff there that Baker had finished her argument the day before by
1 10 a. m. — 4 / 2 hours before she called Crow to cancel her next day’s cases, according to the notice. Crow cited Baker with contempt — a Class C misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $ 100 fine. Then, in a Jan. 22 letter he asked the Arkansas Administrative Office of the Courts to appoint another judge. “Her conduct is so serious I doubt my ability to hear the matter impartially,” Crow wrote. “I believe she deliberately lied to me, and her conduct is so egregious that I would impose penalties that might exceed what another judge would consider reasonable.” The Administrative Office of the Courts appointed Benton County West District Judge Jeff Conner to hear the case and Benton County Prosecuting Attorney Van Stone to pursue it.
Trial is April 28.
Baker’s attorney, Jeff Rosenzweig of Little Rock, wrote in a motion that Baker was told she had to stay at the appeals court Jan. 15 after she finished her oral arguments.
Baker, who ran unsuccessfully for Carroll County prosecutor in 2006, was given the information by someone she believed was an appeals court employee, Rosenzweig said.
“This was a good faith reliance by Cindy Baker made to her by a person she believe to be associated with the court,” Rosenzweig said. “As it turns out, Cindy Baker was not the person they were looking for, but she didn’t know it at the time.”
Calls to Baker’s law office weren’t answered Friday.
About the time Crow asked for a different judge to be assigned, Rosenzweig filed a motion asking Crow to recuse.
Rosenzweig wrote in a motion that, by personally investigating the matter, Crow has demonstrated bias.
“... [H ] e’s already found facts, and the proceedings are mere formalities to deal with punishment,” the motion states.
Crow wrote in the notice that Baker’s actions violated Rule 3. 3 of the Arkansas Model Rules of Professional Conduct. The rule calls for “candor toward tribunal.”
Rosenzweig said the contempt charge will likely draw the attention of the Arkansas Supreme Court’s Committee on Professional Conduct.
“The committee will look at it, but what, if anything, they do will depend on in part on what happens in the contempt case,” he said. “If she’s exonerated, they will likely do nothing.”
Rosenzweig said people are cited with contempt of court all the time.
“I’ve been a lawyer 20-something years, and I’d say I’ve represented 40 attorneys on it,” he said.
In the speeding case, the Arkansas State Police stopped Baker, 35, in a Chevrolet Silverado pickup on U. S. 412 in Madison County. She was driving 79 mph in a 55-mph zone, the contempt records show.