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Appeals court candidates record questioned Friday, May 16, 2008 By Doug Thompson Arkansas News Bureau FAYETTEVILLE - A circuit judge in Northeast Arkansas on Thursday disputed state Court of Appeals candidate Ron Williams' account of Williams' record as a deputy prosecutor. Williams, one of two candidates for the District 3 Position 2 appeals court post in Tuesday's non-partisan judicial election, said during a candidate forum April 23 that he tried an average of three felony cases a month when he was a deputy prosecutor. However, Circuit Judge David Burnett of Osceola, who was prosecutor when Williams was a lawyer in Paragould from 1978 to 1981, said he did not recall Williams prosecuting any felony cases for his office. "(Williams) was in the law firm that did my deputy's work for the time he was there," Burnett said in a telephone interview Thursday. "The only thing he tried were district or city court cases, as far as I know." Williams said he and Burnett have different recollections of his service. "Just because it's tried by a judge and not a jury doesn't mean it's not a trial," Williams said. He said he was hired to do municipal court cases "so Bob Thompson wouldn't have to do this stuff any more." Thompson was deputy prosecutor for Greene County at the time. He practices law with the firm Branch Thompson Philhours and Warmath. Thompson was out of his office Thursday afternoon, a spokesman said, and did not immediately return a call seeking comment. "If (Williams) is trying to say I didn't know what was going on in my district, he's wrong," Burnett said Thursday. "I don't want to get involved in a political race in Northwest Arkansas. I'm just telling you the facts. He never tried a criminal case while I was prosecutor." Some municipal court cases, such as serious driving while intoxicated cases, are felonies, "even though it's not much of one," Williams said. "A marijuana case is a one- to five-year (prison sentence) felony. (Burnett) wouldn't even have known about those cases half the time," he said. There were also cases such as probation revocation hearings, he said. Williams, a Springdale lawyer, faces Fayetteville attorney Courtney Henry in Tuesday appeals court election. Henry declined comment Thursday. |
