Suit against lawmaker set for trial
BY LINDA SATTER ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

   A federal jury will hear a lawsuit accusing a term-limited state lawmaker of trying to steal Cathryn Hinshaw’s nearly $85,000-a-year job overseeing the Arkansas Local Police and Fire Retirement System.
   U.S. District Judge Bill Wilson Jr. set a trial date of Dec. 20-23 after cutting short a hearing Thursday in which Hinshaw sought to stop the system from hiring a permanent replacement for her until her wrongful termination case is resolved.
   She was executive director of the system for 22 years and claims its board of trustees told her in December 2003 that she had to resign or she would be fired.
   Her lawsuit contends that Rep. Roger Smith, R-Hot Springs Village, conspired with a lobbyist, Ted Mullenix of Hot Springs, and some of the trustees to fire her so that Smith could take over the job when his term expires at the end of this year.
   Smith, Mullenix and the trustees have denied the allegations, but Wilson told attorneys Thursday that based on what he had heard of the case so far, Hinshaw’s prospects of winning looked good.
   Wilson denied Hinshaw’s request for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order because he said they weren’t necessary. He noted that if she ultimately wins her case, he has the authority to reinstate her, even if doing so would oust a replacement.
   Hinshaw’s attorney, Morgan "Chip" Welch of Little Rock, said the case was moved up on the court’s calendar because it involves a "matter of public interest."
   Last December, Hinshaw resigned without explanation from the job that pays $84,659 a year. The trustees had twice suspended her without pay earlier in 2003 after legislators complained she wasn’t "responsive enough."
   But her lawsuit said the trustees had rated her performance "excellent" or "satisfactory" in all respects in a March 2002 evaluation. It also contends that the complaining legislator was Smith.
   Welch said that Smith and Mullenix, a former state representative, began conspiring in July 2003 to get Hinshaw fired. Welch has cited a Sept. 5, 2003, email message that trustee Bill Milburn of Conway wrote to fellow trustee JoAnne Bush of Lake Village and system attorney Rick Ramsay. Last week, Milburn testified about the e-mail message in Wilson’s Little Rock courtroom.
   Milburn wrote in the e-mail — and confirmed on the witness stand last week — that Smith met him at a restaurant in Conway a few days after a meeting of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Retirement and Social Security Programs, of which Smith is a co-chairman.
   After discussing other issues, Smith "stated that he was term limited and could not run again," the e-mail message said.
   In the e-mail, Milburn wrote that Smith said, "If I could guarantee him CH’s job on Jan. 1, 2005, that he would put his life on hold."
   The e-mail message said that Mullenix, a lobbyist for the Arkansas Municipal Police Association, previously had tried to get commitments from Milburn and trustee Charles Lawrence of Texarkana that "when we got rid of [Hinshaw], we would name an interim administrator for a long enough period of time to allow Roger Smith to complete his term as representative and have enough separation time to be legally eligible to accept an appointment to the position."
   "There is no question in my mind that these contacts by Mullenix, a lobbyist, and Smith, an elected official, to try and influence the firing of one employee for the expressed purpose of giving the position to Rep. Smith were at best unethical and may border on illegal," Milburn said in the e-mail.
   After the e-mail message was publicly disclosed, Smith told a reporter that he didn’t tell Milburn he wanted to be guaranteed the job or that he wanted Hinshaw to be fired, but that he knew people were "unhappy" with Hinshaw "and there was an assumption that ultimately that would come to a head."
   Mark Hayes, a North Little Rock attorney representing Bush and another trustee, Mike Gaskill of Paragould, said Thursday, "There’s no validity to Ms. Hinshaw’s claim, and her employment ceased as a result of her own errors in her work."
   Ramsay said Thursday that the system has hired an interim executive director, David Clark, and now will begin trying to select a permanent replacement from six finalists, including Smith.
   Attorney Sam Perroni of Little Rock, who represents Mullenix, said the lobbyist "had nothing to do with Hinshaw’s termination." Perroni said Mullenix did lobby for Smith to get the job "because of [Smith’s] knowledge about retirement matters."
   Perroni said Mullenix has a First Amendment right to lobby on behalf of the police association. He said that in promoting Smith, Mullenix was "just doing his job."

This story was published Friday, September 03, 2004