Machine politics in 1988

Another article from 1988 regarding the Byrd faction in Perry County. Not much has changed has it?



A dispute between Perry County Sheriff James Hester and a woman he fired as jailer and secretary was "just a feud between two political factions," Gene Worsham, the sheriff's attorney, said Tuesday. Hester dismissed Pam Edwards in December after she testified before a county Grand Jury investigating him, former Sheriff Ray Byrd and County Judge George Mc Neal. Hester was charged with violations of the state ethics code, but has been acquitted, and with using the facilities of his office for his own benefit, which is pending. Edwards, who last month married Byrd, sued Hester and Perry County in federal court last month, contending that the firing was retaliation for her testimony and that it violated her First Amendment rights. She is seeking $ 110,000 and reinstatement. Hester said he had other reasons for firing her. He alleged that she lost a receipts book, took sick leave when she was visiting persons in the hospital, used sick leave while working at another job, neglected official telephone calls while making personal calls on duty, authorized the release of police investigative information to civilians, and caused controversy by having "an affair with a married man," referring to Byrd. She denied those allegations under oath Tuesday during the first day of a hearing on her suit before federal Judge Elsijane T. Roy. The hearing will resume at 9 a.m. today. Hester is expected to testify. Worsham told Judge Roy that the investigation of Hester and the Grand Jury charges against him were the result of a political feud between Hester and Byrd. He said he would attempt to show that "the Byrd political faction had control not only of the county judge and the prosecuting attorney's office, but the Grand Jury." Dale Adams, assistant prosecuting attorney for Perry County, took issue with Worsham's statement. " I deny that my office is part of the Ray Byrd political faction," he testified.The Arkansas Gazette 262903 Dispute between sheriff, ex-worker part of political feud, lawyer asserts $01:Copyright Arkansas Democrat-Gazette