Three federal trials in one week lead to guilty verdicts

LITTLE ROCK —The week of July 26, 2021, brought three guilty verdicts in separate federal trials. A combination of pandemic- related delays and a significant increase in caseload resulted in four simultaneous jury trials in federal court last week. One trial is expected to last several weeks, and the other three concluded last week with the convictions of three defendants.

The week’s first trial began Monday morning with a case in which Sparkle Hobbs, aka Sparkle Bryant, 33, of Little Rock, was charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin, methamphetamine, and fentanyl.

She was also charged with possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and fentanyl, possession of firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and misprision (concealment) of a felony.

The evidence at trial indicated that Hobbs sold methamphetamine to an informant, which led to a search warrant at her residence in February of 2018.

Law enforcement located five firearms, approximately $29,000 in cash, 103 grams of fentanyl, 497 grams of methamphetamine, and .049 grams of heroin in the residence. The jury returned their guilty verdict Tuesday evening.

The Drug Enforcement Administration; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF); and Arkansas State Police conducted the investigation, which is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation.

OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence- driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OC DETF. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Anne Gardner and Amanda Jegley and tried before United States District Judge Kristine G. Baker.

The second guilty verdict of the week was returned on Friday morning. A jury convicted Darby Leroy Williams, 30, of North Little Rock, of being a felon in possession of two firearms and ammunition.

Williams has prior felonies for distribution of drugs and is on parole because of those convictions. Law enforcement received information that Williams was dealing drugs from his residence. In March of 2018, North Little Rock Police Department (NLRPD) and Arkansas Community Corrections (ACC) conducted a parole search of Williams’ home and located two handguns, a Glock and a Ruger, both of which were loaded, as well as ammunition, methamphetamine, and marijuana. The case was investigated by NLRPD, ACC, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Cameron McCree and Lauren Eldridge and was also tried before Judge Baker.

The final guilty verdict arrived late Friday evening, when jurors deliberated for only 20 minutes after hearing the evidence against Ryan Kinsey, 35, of Beebe, who was charged with one count of Social Security fraud and one count of making materially false statements to the Social Security Administration (SSA). Kinsey was initially approved for Social Security Disability benefits in 2013 and had those benefits continued in June 2018. Part of the paperwork that Kinsey filled out in May 2018 to extend his benefits included sections where he affirmed that he was not working and was physically incapable of working based on his disability. But also in June 2018, a SSA employee with the Searcy field office noticed that, based on the physical appearance of Kinsey and the fact that he arrived at the office driving a truck with a large horse trailer attached, Kinsey appeared as if he had been working. A subsequent SSA-OIG investigation revealed that Kinsey had been working as a horse rancher on his family farm in Beebe. At trial, the United States called numerous witnesses who all testified that during the time periods alleged they had either bought horses or hay from Kinsey or had Kinsey transport livestock. In the 15 months prior to indictment, Kinsey received more than $100,000 in payments for his ranching activities. During that same time period, he fraudulently received more than $20,000 from SSA. The case was investigated by SSA-OIG, prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Bart Dickinson and Chris Givens, and tried before United States District Judge Lee P.

Rudofsky.

The fourth trial that began last week, United States v.

Gilbert Baker, is expected to last several weeks.

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LITTLE ROCK — Attorney Tom Mars of Northwest Arkansas filed a lawsuit late Monday in Pulaski County Circuit Court seeking a temporary restraining order prevent-

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ting the state from banning mask mandates.

The lawsuit names Sen.

Jimmy Hickey Jr., president pro tem of the Arkansas Senate; state Rep. Matthew Shepherd, speaker of the Arkansas House of Representative; and Gov.

Asa Hutchinson from enforcing Act 1002, which bars local school officials from mandating wearing face masks for school children.

Mars, who filed the suit for two women who have children in schools in Pulaski County, also seeks a permanent injunction and a declaratory judgment that Act 1002 is unconstitutional.

Mars is a former director of the Arkansas State Police.

The lawsuit says, “Children’s health is threatened by a legislative ban on mask mandates that removes from local officials the authority to decide what measures are needed to protect K-12 school children.”

On Tuesday, Hutchinson called a special session of the Legislature for today to create an exception to Act 1002 that would give public school boards flexibility to protect those school children who are 11 and younger and not eligible for a vaccine, according to a press release from the governor’s Office.

“I am supportive of the legislative remedy, and that’s the best, because if it’s up to the courts and the courts strike down that law as unconstitutional, then that could mean we could have counties and cities all doing their thing and different standards, and that would be confusing,” Hutchinson said. “It would be bad for business. It would be bad for the public understanding and our concentration on vaccination … so that’s why it’s preferable to the Legislature to remedy that issue.”

Last week, children’s daily census of 24 COVID-19 patients was a 50 percent increase over previous peaks, Hutchinson noted Tuesday.

“Because of this increased risk of illness in children, we see the necessity of allowing leaders in school districts the flexibility to decide whether students wear masks,” he said. “We must allow local school boards to make the best decision for the students in their schools.”

Two-thirds of both the House and Senate must convene for Hutchinson’s plan to remove the ban on mandates.

“I understand that some legislators are reluctant to allow school boards this freedom, even in this limited way,” Hutchinson said.

“But the exceptions for which I am asking are true to the conservative principle that puts control in the hands of local government.

“Some argue it should be up to the parents to decide for the children,” he added. “For that reason, school boards will have many options after listening to the parents. The goal is to be safe and to keep schools open. Local flexibility will help get us there.”

The governor also will ask members of the General Assembly to affirm the decision of the director of Workforce Services to terminate Arkansas’s participation in extraordinary federal unemployment benefit and relief programs related to COVID-19. A Pulaski County judge last week ruled the extraordinary funds must be paid to the unemployed in Arkansas. ***

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas started its fiscal year with revenue coming in $39.2 million above forecast, the state’s finance office said Tuesday.

The Department of Finance and Administration said the state’s net available revenue in July totaled nearly $515 million. The revenue came in about $151 million below the same month last year, but officials said that comparison was skewed because the state’s income tax filing deadline in 2020 was delayed to July because of the coronavirus pandemic.

All of the state’s major revenue categories came in above forecast. The state’s individual income tax collections came in nearly $28 million higher than forecast and sales tax came in $17.4 million above forecast.

Arkansas ended its last fiscal year with a nearly $1 billion surplus.