SEE CORRECTION BELOW
Trevis Bentley is one of two candidates running against incumbent
Council Member Juanita Wilson. Wilson occupies the Ward-4 Pos-2 seat
on the Alexander City Council. The other candidate running against
Wilson is Stephanie Beck.
With
Early Voting in full swing, and Election Day next week, it’s
Bentley who’s doing most of the campaigning. He has been posting
information, he acquired through the Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA), concerning Wilson’s recent arrest.
According
to the ARCourts website, an arrest warrant was issued for Wilson on
June 20, 2026. She was charged with Forgery 2nd Degree.
Wilson turned herself in to the Saline County Sheriff’s Department
July 1, 2026. She was released the same day on a signature bond.
According
to the documents received by Bentley the forgery charge is based on
an allegation that Wilson had a resolution, that establishes who can
sign city checks, amended. The original resolution was approved by
the city council in November, 2022. Based on the evidence, after then
Mayor Paul Mitchell lost the run-off election in December to Crystal
Herrmann, his name was later removed from the resolution as a primary
signer and replaced with Wilson’s name. She was originally listed
as a secondary signer.
The
investigation was conducted by Special Agent Drake Champagne,
Arkansas State Police. In his report Champagne states, “During the
course of the investigation, I discovered that a falsified City of
Alexander resolution was used by City Councilwoman Lou Juanita Wilson
to obtain a credit card in Wilson's name for the City of Alexander at
the First Security Bank in Bryant.”
“The
falsified resolution contained the same resolution number as a
legitimate resolution that had been passed by the City Council,”
Champagne’s report continues. “The falsified resolution appeared
to have the signatures of former City Of Alexander Mayor Paul
Mitchell, as well as former Recorder Sharon Bankhead. The falsified
resolution is easily identifiable by its change in font,
misspellings, and missing hyphen in the resolution number
(R22-21-11-1) as opposed to the original resolution (R-22-21-11-1).”
Champagne
also says in his report that both Mitchell and Bankhead stated their
signatures appearing “on the falsified resolution does not belong
to” them.
In an interview with
Vice President of Lending/Merchant Services for First Security Bank
in Bryant, Jerry Ponder, Champagne’s report states Ponder
“confirmed that Wilson presented him with the falsified resolution
on April 11, 2023, to obtain the credit card.”
The
information concerning how the resolution was amended came from an
interview with former city employee Cheryl Kindervater.
The
report states, “Kindervater revealed that on December 30, 2022,
Wilson asked Kindervater to edit the previous City Council approved
resolution (R-22-21-11-I). Kindervater said that Wilson told her to
put Wilson's name in place of Mitchell's name, making her a primary
signature authority for the City of Alexander's banking activities.
Kindervater advised that she thought ‘something wasn't right’ and
slightly changed the font of the document to make it easily
discernible from the original.”
Some
time later Kindervater left the employment of the City of Alexander.
“I
obtained the documents presented to First Security Bank by Wilson,
which included the falsified resolution and a copy of the City
Council meeting minutes from November 21, 2022, which appear to have
been falsified as well,” the report concludes. “The minutes
presented to the bank appear identical to the original minutes
provided to me by Cheryl Kindervater, with the addition of a bullet
point stating ‘Authorized Sinage (sic): Juanita Wilson-Councilman,
JoAn Allen-Churchill-City Treasurer, Sharon Bankhead-City Recorder.’"
Prior
to charges being filed, Wilson stated at a city council meeting she
obtained the credit card for the use of then Police Chief Robert
Burnett. According to Wilson, Burnett told her Mayor Crystal Herrmann
wasn’t allowing him to make purchases using the city credit card
controlled by her. At that same meeting Wilson said since the city
automatically is allowed three cards she didn’t see a problem.
In the original
article covering the three candidates for the Ward-4 Position-2 seat,
Bentley commented on the charges against Wilson.
He said, “Let me
be clear…..an arrest is not a conviction, and every person is
innocent until proven guilty, but public officials should still
expect their public record, their participation, and their conduct in
office to be examined by the people they serve.”
In
regard to participation, Bentley has also reviewed Council Member
Juanita Wilson’s recent attendance record.
“According
to the City of Alexander’s council meeting minutes, our Ward 4
Position 2 representative has not attended a city council meeting
since April 20, 2026, and has missed 6 of the 9 council meetings held
this year. Why? That is a record the voters have every right to
question.”
Despite
rumors to the contrary, Wilson is still a member of the Alexander
City Council. On advice of her attorney Wilson says she was told not
to attend any council meetings until the completion of the trial. A
jury trial has been set for December 1, 2026.
Wilson
has also been advised to not comment on the charges or upcoming
trial.
EARLY VOTING
Early voting begins
October 19. A list of the early voting locations for Pulaski and
Saline counties can be found at these two websites.
Pulaski
County
Saline
County
CORRECTION (10/28/26 – 2:38 pm)
Based on new information the sentence, “Wilson later retrieved the
card from Burnett when she learned he was allowing other officers to
use it for department purchases.” has been removed. We apologize for the error.