Need an accident report? Arkansas Court of Appeals rules you can take a photo of it or copy it with your own equipment for free

Attorney Ben Motal - LRPD and the City of Little Rock violated his rights under the AFOIA

Russ Racop - November 22, 2020

Back in May, the Arkansas Court of Appeals ruled that an individual can inspect and take photos of accident reports or scan them with their own equipment all free of charge.

That ruling was in an appeal of a case filed by Little Rock Attorney Ben Motal, who had attempted to take a photo of an accident report at LRPD headquarters using his cellphone in October 2018.

LRPD stopped Motal from exercising his rights under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act. Motal subsequently filed a complaint in Pulaski County Circuit Court.

Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Mackie Pierce held a hearing and upheld the decision of LRPD/CLR.

Motal appealed Judge Pierce's decision and the Arkansas Court of Appeals ruled that Motal's rights had been violated and reversed the decision of the lower court.

Motal v Little Rock Appeal Decision by Russ Racop on Scribd

LRPD and the city were poorly represented by deputy city attorneys Caleb Garcia and Drew Middlebrooks according to the Opinion filed by Judge Kenneth Hixson.

Not so sharp Little Rock city attorneys Caleb Garcia and Drew Middlebrooks

Obviously, these two were not the top of their class and ended up taking steady public employment instead of going out on their own when no law firm made them offers.

The city has lost several similar lawsuits that we filed over FOI violations and will surely lose the ones we filed this year that are pending in Pulaski County Circuit Courts.

While the feckless mayor and the corrupt police chief claim transparency, no previous administration has had some many lawsuits filed against them for transparency/open records violations.

Arkansas State Police Trooper fired

I n June 2023 a teenage female filed a compliant with the Arkansas State Police ("ASP") about Corporal Michael Valentin, an ASP Trooper stationed in Harrison, AR. In her complaint she alleged that Valentin had groomed her and had sexual activities, while on duty, with her and another minor female. She also alleged he was stalking her. An internal investigation was opened. Both teenage females were interviewed as was Valentin. The girls stated that they were acquainted with Valentine because one of them was the stepdaughter of a fellow trooper and Valentin was a frequent customer at the restaurant that the fellow trooper and his wife owned, where both of the girls worked. The fellow state trooper was Jason Hutcheson. And the restaurant was Hutch's Hot Chicken. Jason Hutcheson Valentin even helped out with some construction projects at Hutcheson's restaurant. The girls stated that for about nine months, Valentin had causal encounters with them at different locat...

Arkansas State Police Troopers fired for illicit sexual relationship

Two Arkansas State Police Troopers were fired on April 5, 2024 after administrative investigations were conducted into accusations that they were romantically involved. Sgt. Mark Austin Blackerby (38 and married) of Scott and Trooper Jessica Diane McCord (30 and single) of Conway during their interviews with the State Police Office of Professional Standards ("OPS") in January 2024, were dishonest about the affair according to records provided to us by the ASP. Blackerby and his wife Cassie - a Jacksonville cop Initially, the investigation focused on Blackerby and both Blackerby and McCord denied a sexual relationship even though ASP vehicle tracking systems showed their vehicles parked at secluded locations for hours at at time and his vehicle at her home in Conway multiple times when he was on the clock. Blackerby admitted that he also disabled the tracking devices in his vehicle to try and hide his movements and their hookups. Blackerby told investigators that he is a ...

Little Rock Mayor's wedding announcement leads to a discovery of another legal blunder of Antwan Phillips

The feckless Little Rock mayor made this post of Facebook yesterday. So this morning we went to the County Clerk's website and grabbed a copy of his marriage license application. We immediately noticed that both Scott and his bride to be listed the same residence address - 8101 Kanis Oaks Drive. Scott's residence on his voter records is on Edwina Drive in Southwest Little Rock. Scott's bride-to-be is registered to vote in Florida. More about her later on in the story. So we Googled that address. According to records on file with Pulaski County, the property is owned by DRS Family Trust. You might wonder who is DRS Family Trust. Well dear readers, it's the mayor. The trust uses the middle initials of the mayor ("D" for Derrick) and his future spouse ("R" for Renee). the "S" is for Scott. How did we come to that conclusion? Well dear readers, it's from the mortgage the feckless mayor took out on his new home. And the feckless mayor also ...

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