Lawsuit involving Gov. Sanders and Arkansas Board of Corrections postponed until Jan. 4 | Camden News

The first hearing in a lawsuit challenging laws that the state Board of Corrections says infringe on its authority under the state Constitution was postponed Thursday after the wife of an attorney representing the board went into labor.

Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Patricia James granted the continuance in an order shortly after 8:30 a.m., less than an hour before the hearing was scheduled to begin.

The new date for the hearing is Thursday of next week.

The plaintiffs in the case — the Board of Corrections and Board Chairman Benny Magness — are asking James to extend a temporary order she issued on Dec. 15 that has blocked the enforcement of Act 185 and portions of Act 659, which were passed during this year’s legislative session.

Act 185 requires the secretary of corrections to serve at the pleasure of the governor and Act 659 will require directors of the department’s Divisions of Correction and Community Correction to serve at the pleasure of the secretary.

Act 185 went into effect in July while the sections of Act 659 that were challenged in the lawsuit were slated to go into effect Monday.

Prior to Acts 185 and 659, the secretary of corrections and the aforementioned directors served under the auspices of the Board of Corrections.

The board’s lawsuit contends the two laws violate the state constitution’s Amendment 33, which was ratified in 1942. The amendment prevents the Legislature and governor from making certain changes to boards or commissions that oversee the state’s charitable, penal or correctional institutions, as well as institutions of higher learning.

The defendants in the case are Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Corrections Secretary Joe Profiri and the Department of Corrections.

The board wants James to convert her temporary restraining order into a preliminary injunction, which would stay in place until the resolution of the lawsuit.

James stated in her order granting the continuance on Thursday that the temporary order would be extended until next week’s hearing.

Abtin Mehdizadegan, an attorney representing the board in the suit, said in a court filing Thursday that his wife, who was 36 weeks pregnant and due Jan. 23, called him “in a panic” around 5:32 a.m. to notify him that she was going into labor.

Senior Assistant Attorney General Carl F. “Trey” Cooper III, one of the defendant’s attorneys, did not object to the request for a continuance.

Attorneys on both sides have been combative with each other in recent days, but Mehdizadegan told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Thursday that he appreciated the “grace” shown by Cooper in the wake of the sudden news.

Mehdizadegan asked for the continuance because his staff was “not adequately prepared to proceed” in his absence and had only recently been assigned to assist him, according to court documents.

Several witnesses were scheduled to be called Thursday by Mehdizadegan to testify about what he described as Profiri’s “misconduct” and the “dangerous conditions” the corrections secretary has caused at many of the state’s prisons.

Earlier this month, at the behest of Sanders, Profiri called for almost 500 additional beds at the Barbara Ester Unit in Pine Bluff, the McPherson Unit near Newport and the Maximum Security Unit in Jefferson County.

The board approved adding beds to the Ester unit, but raised concerns about the new beds at McPherson. The board declined to vote on adding more beds at the Maximum Security Unit. Sanders ordered Profiri earlier this month to add the beds at all three facilities without the board’s approval.

Sanders cited Acts 185 and Act 659 as legal justification for adding the beds without the board’s approval.

Board members have contended that the state’s prisons don’t have enough manpower to add more beds and more inmates.

As of Thursday, 1,670 prison inmates were housed in various county jails across the state due to a lack of space in state lockups, said Dina Tyler, a Department of Corrections spokeswoman.

On Dec. 14, the same day the lawsuit was filed, the Board of Corrections voted 3-2 to suspend Profiri with pay. He has been banned from the office building and from using his state-issued computer and phone.

Last week, Magness called on Sanders to activate 138 National Guardsmen to bolster the staff at prisons where the vacancy rate for entry level officers exceeds 40% and enable 124 beds to be opened at the Tucker Re-Entry Center in Jefferson County.

Sanders dismissed the request as a “publicity stunt” and called on Magness to resign. Magness refused.

Adding another wrinkle to the matter, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin filed a separate lawsuit against the board earlier this month alleging it had failed to comply with a records request his office made that was related to the board’s decision to hire outside counsel, Mehdizadegan, during a Dec. 8 executive session. No hearing has been set in that case.

The ongoing wrangling among Sanders, Griffin and the board has elicited comments from state Democrats and Republicans alike.

Last week, Democratic Party of Arkansas Strategic Director Will Watson said Sanders has engaged in “nearly a year of disgraceful conduct.” He also said that her “absurd call” for Magness’ resignation was only the latest example of such conduct.

Watson accused Sanders of picking “a fight with the Board of Corrections in an effort to overcrowd and endanger law enforcement and prisoners, throwing the state into Constitutional peril.”

Meanwhile, Seth Mays, the executive director of the Republican Party of Arkansas, called Sanders a “governor of action” who isn’t going to “stand by as convicted criminals and those awaiting trial” flood overcrowded jails.

“Arkansans overwhelming elected Gov. Sanders and Attorney General Tim Griffin to spearhead these bold reforms,” Mays said. “Arkansans aren’t looking to the Democratic Party for their policy positions.”