Devil's Knot_ The True Story of the West Memphis Three - Mara Leveritt [224]
414. In its ruling remanding the petition to Burnett, the state Supreme Court had rejected Mallett’s contention that the judge should have recused himself from the Rule 37 proceedings. The court ruled that Mallett’s argument that there was an inherent conflict in asking a judge to rule on the fairness of a trial over which he himself had presided was “insufficient to overcome the presumption that the trial judge is impartial.”
415. Ironically, at the same time the high court was being asked to evaluate the performance of Damien’s original lawyers, it was quietly taking action to disbar one of the lawyers who had represented Jason. On June 21, 2001, the Arkansas Supreme Court, citing “serious professional misconduct,” issued an order barring George Robin Wadley from the practice of law. The court cited Wadley for accepting payment for legal work he never performed and for lying to the court and to his clients. None of the complaints for which Wadley was censured, however, involved his work on Jason’s case. The following year, the Arkansas Public Defender Commission fired Damien’s lead lawyer, Val Price. In April 2002, the commission accused Price of using office funds to pay for personal items, such as Christmas cards and trips to Arkansas Razorback football games. According to a letter made public by the commisison’s executive director, Price admitted to the allegations.
416. In March 2002, the Arkansas Supreme Court did, however, designate Judge Burnett as chair of its Committee on Criminal Practice.
417. “When I started on this,” Mallett reflected, “I thought, ‘I have a child who someday will be eight years old.’ Now, I have a child and he was eight years old. He’s ten. And these boys are still in jail. And those eight-year-olds who were killed don’t get any older.”
418. Mayor Keith Ingram, announcing that Gitchell would be missed “by all but the criminal element he dealt with,” proclaimed May 19, 1994, as “Gary Gitchell Day.”
419. “The Fight to Free the West Memphis 3,” by Stephen Lemons, August 10, 2000.
420. “Did Arkansas Town Go on a Witch Hunt, or Are Activists Playing the ‘Red-neck’ Card?” by Drew Jubera, February 11, 2002.
421. The total found to be missing was $28,757.19. Driver was chief custodian of the fund, which was set up to hold fees paid by juvenile probationers. The audit covered a three-year period that had begun in September 1993, three months after Damien, Jason, and Jessie were arrested. State auditors reported that during those three years, sixty-eight unauthorized checks had been written to or endorsed by Driver, while two other unauthorized checks had gone to Steve Jones, Driver’s assistant.
422. In an interview in November 2000, Driver, who was then living in Michigan, said he remained convinced that Damien, Jason, and Jessie had killed the eight-year-olds. When asked why he thought they’d done it, Driver said, “I think it was probably a cross between what they thought was a ritual and a spur-of-the-moment thing.” Driver dismissed the convicts’ supporters as ill-informed “hangers-on” who’d been influenced by documentaries that were “weighted heavily toward the defendants.” Driver was less willing to discuss his own legal troubles. His explanation was simply this: “The politics of Crittenden County are very convoluted, and evidently, I got on the wrong side of them.” “I pled nolo contendere” Driver stressed. “I didn’t plead guilty.” He described the audit and the resulting charges as “a long, involved situation,” adding that he felt he was “kind of a political target,” but he declined to elaborate. However, he said, “I will tell you this. I did not have enough money to fight this.”
423. The officer now responsible for the evidence locker was Reginia Meek, who had taken the missing-person reports for Christopher and Michael on the night they disappeared. Meek had also taken the call to the Bojangles