Alexander City Council decides to settle 2012 lawsuit out-of-court

The Alexander City Council unanimously decided to accept an out-of-court settlement in a civil rights lawsuit filed in 2012 by former Assistant Police Chief Brad Williams. The suit was filed against the city and Police Chief Horace Walters. Walters has since resigned from the police department on unrelated issues.

Arkansas Municipal League (AML) Attorney John Wilkerson updated council members and the mayor on the progress of this case, and several others, during their August 17 meeting. Wilkerson said Williams, Walters and the AML have agreed on a $30,000 settlement. The City of Alexander will pay 10-percent of that ($3,000) while the AML insurance program will pay the other $27,000.

Wilkerson told council members, “If we were to lose the trial it would probably be in the neighborhood of 50 to 60 thousand dollars.”

The lawsuit stems from incidents involving a paycheck, police car lights and a contentious relationship between Walters, Williams and Paul Mitchell, who was mayor at the time.

In 2011 Williams was leaving the Alexander police force for another job. Walters claimed Williams purposely attempted to steal an extra paycheck and stole a set of blue police car lights from a locked storage area. Williams submitted his resignation on September 27, 2011. Walters charged Williams with "theft of city property" in December, 2011.

Williams lost the paycheck he received on September 3, 2010. Then Mayor Shirley Johnson approved issuing him a new check, which he cashed on September 8, 2010. About one year later the original check was found in a friend's car. Williams claims he did not realize the check was the one lost a year earlier. After cashing the check the error was discovered. The city council decided to not press charges and allow Williams to repay the city for cashing the extra check, which he did. At this point Mitchell is now mayor.

In the early summer of 2011 Williams borrowed a pair of blue lights from Tim Dudderar of the Saline County Sheriff's Department for a special assignment. Williams claims he discussed the plan with Chief Walters and received his approval.

After that Walters claims he told City of Alexander Police Officer Jeff Watson, "to locate a set of blue lights and install them into," the department's Dodge Durango. Officer Watson took the blue lights from Williams, who told him they belonged to Dudderar, and installed them on the Durango, court documents indicate. Watson is now an alderman from Ward-1.

Williams wrote Dudderar’s name on a piece of tape and put it on the lights. He then told Dudderar where he could retrieve the lights, which Dudderar eventually did. Williams contends Dudderar’s blue lights were the only blue lights ever in his possession, court documents state.

In his deposition Chief Walters claims Williams was involved in the disappearance of a second set of blue lights that were a gift to Alexander from the City of Benton. In court documents Chief Walters describes these blue lights as round and without serial numbers. However, according to court documents the transfer papers provided by the City of Benton that accompanied the lights did include serial numbers.

On December 20, 2011, Walters swore out an affidavit charging Williams with "Theft of Property" in regards to the cashing of the extra paycheck; four months after the city council decided to not press charges and allow Williams to repay the value of the extra paycheck. In the same warrant Williams was also charged with "Theft of Property" in regards to the police lights. After Williams was arrested and spent a night in jail Mayor Mitchell instructed the city’s prosecuting attorney to drop the case because he knew it was part of a personal vendetta being perpetrated by Walters.

Mitchell defeated former Mayor Shirley Johnson in the November, 2010 election and was sworn-in January 1, 2011. Mitchell fired Chief Walters on July 10, 2011. In a seven to one vote the city council vetoed the mayor and reinstated Walters. Williams supported Mitchell's actions, putting him at political odds with Chief Walters.

The city was dismissed from the case by Federal Judge Kristine G. Baker in 2013. She signed an order November 8, 2013 granting that, "Claims against the City of Alexander are dismissed."

The order further states, "Claims of malicious prosecution, defamation, outrage, and abuse of process against Chief Walters will proceed to trial."

It was decided to continue representing Walters since he was a city employee at the time. Williams had requested a jury trial.

One more appeal was attempted on behalf of Walters. The appeal claimed as a city official at the time he is entitled to qualified immunity from prosecution. The appeal was denied by a three-member Federal appeals court in St. Louis.

According to the court ruling, "Because a reasonable official would understand that including false information in and omitting relevant information from an affidavit in an effort to punish someone for supporting one’s political opponent would constitute a violation of clearly established constitutional rights, Walters is not entitled to qualified immunity."

A second lawsuit against the city also involves the police department. The suit was filed in December 2013 after a former Alexander police officer was found not guilty of manslaughter by a Saline County jury.

Nancy Cummings was charged with manslaughter in January, 2013 by Saline County Prosecuting Attorney Ken Casady after an investigation by the Arkansas State Police. They investigated a shooting, which occurred while Cummings was attempting to take 30-year-old Bryant resident Carlton Wallace into custody.

Cummings encountered Wallace walking on Brookwood Road in Alexander around 4:30 PM Saturday, September 8th, 2012. While attempting to handcuff Wallace, Cummings’s gun discharged hitting Wallace. He was transported to Saline Memorial Hospital where he was later pronounced dead.

Cummings told State Police she noticed Wallace carrying a pistol tucked in his pants and that he threw it into the woods when he saw her. When attempting to arrest him and search him for weapons, Cummings says her service weapon she had been holding discharged. While the incident was under investigation by State Police Cummings resigned from the department.

According to Walters he hired Cummings in January, 2012 and had received no complaints against her. Walters also said she wasn't a certified police officer. Walters added he followed the law when hiring Cummings, although she had not, as yet, gone through the 12 weeks of basic training at the Arkansas Academy of Law Enforcement (ALETA).


Walters said she had passed the standard mental and physical evaluation. And, he added, she had to ride with an officer and get to know the operations of the agency.

Prior to working at the Alexander Police Department Cummings worked for the Pulaski County jail from 1997 to 2004 and the Arkansas Department of Correction from 2005 to 2011.


Jacquelyn Wallace, Carlton Wallace’s mother, filed a civil rights lawsuit in Federal Court against the City of Alexander, Walters and Cummings on December 30, 2013. The trial is scheduled for this October.

Wilkerson said he has filed a motion for a summary judgment, “which is essentially telling the judge here’s all the facts, here’s all the reasons Nancy Cummings didn’t do anything wrong and the city didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Nancy Cummings was hired without going to ALETA,” Wilkerson said during his summary of the events. “You can be hired (in Arkansas) for a year to 18 months without any training whatsoever.”

“It’s a horror story on account of it,” he continued. “I have no doubt in my mind she actually shot that man and I believe her procedure and the way she handled the situation were as good as she could have done given the situation, given the circumstances.”

“But from your perspective, from the city’s perspective, the city allowed an officer who had not gone to ALETA to walk the streets of Alexander with a gun,” Wilkerson said. “The thing about Nancy though is she had training with the Pulaski County Sherriff’s Office, Arkansas Department of Corrections, both used the weapon that was used in the shooting, and (she) would (know) how to handle … suspects. And, she knew the parameter of the use of deadly force.  She had all the training I believe to be a law enforcement officer. You had a trained officer they (police department) really didn’t train.”

Alderman Dan Church asked to verify, “She had been through reserve school, too?”

Wilkerson responded, “Yeah.”

Wilkerson ended his report saying, “I hopefully expect to get out on a motion.”

Wilkerson also updated council members on two other lawsuits involving loans. One is over a repossessed fire truck and the other involves several loans that were bundled into one loan and later sold to a bank in Oklahoma.

The City of Alexander entered into a lease-purchase agreement with First Government Lease Company and its owner Paul Anthony Graver in May, 2008. The amount of the lease-purchase was $50,000 for the truck and an additional $24,325 in interest. The agreement is for seven years at $884 per month.

Graver lives in Chicago. His business is located in Northfield, Illinois.

In March, 2013 Alexander Mayor Michelle Hobbs, without consulting the city council, stopped making the monthly payments claiming the lease-purchase agreement was illegal under the Arkansas Constitution. Cities are limited to a maximum of five years when taking on interest-paying debt. The 1999 Freightliner fire truck was repossessed later that year. There is approximately $7,000 remaining on the loan.

In early 2014 Graver was ordered to put up a $54,000.00 bond by Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Tim Fox when he defied two court orders to return the truck. The truck was sold November 14, 2013 to a company in Raleigh, Mississippi.

The city filed a lawsuit in Mississippi attempting to reclaim the fire truck from the company that bought it. During a hearing held May 18, 2015 a judge there ruled the city cannot have the fire truck returned.

According to Mayor Paul Mitchell, who attended the hearing, “He (judge) said he couldn’t see how the City of Alexander could be harmed in any way because we had the $54,000.00.”

“Our position is we don’t have to pay $7,000,” Wilkerson told the council. “We are entitled to the $54,000, or the truck back, not to mention the equipment that was on the truck.”

“Let me work that out,” he added. “It may take a while.”

The City of Alexander is also being sued by an Oklahoma bank after the bank bought a loan from First Government Lease Company and its owner Paul Anthony Graver.

According to Arkansas Division of Legislative Audit's report for the City's budget year of 2007, in August the City combined six lease-purchase agreements consisting of police and fire vehicles, equipment, "and an addition to the fire station" on South Alexander Road. The "addition" was actually the purchase of property next to the fire station.

The original terms of the agreement were a loan of "$350,000 with an annual interest rate of 9.9% to be repaid by a monthly payment of $4,971 for 168 months (14 years)" the report states.

But, according to the amortization schedule the loan was for $435,975; $85,975 more than the original $350,000 with an interest rate of 9% instead of 9.9%. The payment period was also reduced to 12 years instead of 14.

Alexander still owes 100 payments of $4,970.83 each on the loan because it quit paying First State Bank in March, 2013 and has refused to pay since then because the city maintains that the lease-purchase agreement violates the Arkansas Constitution and is therefore void. The Arkansas Constitution puts a five-year maximum time limit on government loans and a maximum interest rate of 5-percent above the Federal Reserve discount rate. There is also a maximum consumer rate of 17-percent.

“The city was defrauded,” Wilkerson said. “The Chicago guy knew he was a swindler, sold the loan to a bank … in Oklahoma.”

“We owe First State Bank $450,000 plus the interest rate that was fraud,” Wilkerson continued. “The bank wants more money than I’m willing to give them. They want terms that are unconstitutional. If we’re ever going to settle it we have to be very smart in the way we frame the deal.”

Asked about recouping payments Wilkerson said, “We could end up getting all of our money back and then some. But, I have a hard time believing a judge or jury is going to give that money back (to city). I think a fair thing to do, a way to move us forward from this, is to agree to pay the principal that remains, about $170,000, … in the next five years at 8-percent interest.”

In closing Wilkerson said the legal process could take another two to three years and may end up going to the Arkansas Supreme Court. The city could also be ordered to immediately pay the remainder of the loan causing the city to go bankrupt but, “The likely hood of that happening is pretty slim,” he said.

The next regular meeting of the Alexander City Council is Monday, September 21. Meetings are at 6 PM in the courtroom in city hall. The public is invited to attend.