Mark Nelson/Edwards - LRPD civilian mouthpiece |
Earlier this week we broke the story about the cover-up of a high speed LRPD pursuit that resulted in the death of a child.
You can read the story by clicking here.
Mitch McCoy with KARK/Fox16 reported on the cover-up in a news report yesterday.
An article appeared in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, written by Grant Lancaster, in which Nelson/Edwards stated that our story was not factual.
We made a formal complaint to LRPD regarding Nelson/Edward's defamatory statements.
According to Assistant Chief Heath Helton, Nelson/Edwards claims that the newspaper reporter factually misrepresented or lied about what he said. Nelson/Edwards claims he asked Lancaster to retract the story and he refused.
Helton told SMG's Bordeaux and Racop that he would provide a copy of an email he directed Nelson/Edward to send to the newspaper reporter.
In that email Nelson/Edwards story changed from being he was misquoted to a total denial that he even discussed our story with the reporter.
Nelson/Edwards has a documented disciplinary history at LRPD for abusive behavior.
We reported about an incident between Nelson/Edwards and a KATV reporter. Our own Russ Racop witnessed in January 2021. You can read our story about that by clicking here.
And in May 2021 Nelson/Edwards lost it and went off on a Fox16 reporter.
Former Assistant Chief Hayward Finks referenced "concerns" about Nelson/Edwards in a memorandum.
Here's the full memo: