Missing Baxter County woman found safe
The woman from Baxter County reported missing over the weekend from a night club in Little Rock has been found safe in southern Missouri.
Twenty-four-year-old Britney Brown of Big Flat was spotted on a traffic camera in Missouri according to Little Rock television station KARK. Brown’s brother Levi had Facebook posts from both Mount Vernon and Battlefield, Missouri Tuesday night saying they had found his sister safe and posted a picture of the two.
Britney Brown was reported missing Friday night after leaving the Electric Cowboy nightclub.
Little Rock police have not released any other details about her disappearance.
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Norfork man goes from victim to aggressor in recent famly fight involving firearms
Wesley Dickerson of Norfork, who was shot and wounded by his brother as part of a several-day-old dispute between the men about four years ago, is now himself charged with threatening to shoot members of his family.
He entered a not guilty plea Thursday in Baxter County Circuit Court to the charges against him through his lawyer, Mark Cooper. He was ordered to reappear August 2nd. He is currently free on $15,000 bond.
The recent incident involving Wesley Dickerson took place at the 71-year-old’s residence along Sheid Road in Norfork May 22nd.
Baxter County deputies were called to the residence to investigate reports of a potentially violent domestic altercation involving firearms.
When the deputies arrived, they found a number of people in the front yard of the residence. The people yelled at the deputies and told them to take cover because there was a person inside the residence with a rifle.
The wife of Wesley Dickerson told deputies her husband had been drinking and had gotten into an altercation with Daniel Dickerson. She said when the fight broke out, there were children present, but family members came to the residence and removed them from the property for their own safety.
In addition to having firearms pointed at him, it was reported Wesley Dickerson had hit Daniel Dickerson with a cane. Deputies reported Daniel Dickerson had a bloody cut across his face where the cane had struck him.
Wesley Dickerson’s wife reported she had tried to break up the fight between her husband and Daniel Dickerson. She said Wesley Dickerson had shoved her down and punched her several times.
After getting information from some of the victims, deputies moved the people who had been in the yard behind one of the barns on the property.
All parties on the scene told deputies they had seen Wesley Dickerson point weapons at people multiple times. They told deputies there was a number of weapons in the house to which Wesley Dickerson had access.
Once family members were in places of safety, the deputies began to establish a perimeter around the residence. They reported a male emerged from the house staggering and carrying bags and weapons. The male subject was reported to be slurring his speech and appeared to be under the influence of alcohol. The male was identified by those present as Wesley Dickerson.
Wesley Dickerson was alleged to have told deputies he had been involved in the altercation, but they reported nothing else he said beyond that statement “made much sense.”
Deputies took control of Wesley Dickerson, and the weapons he was carrying and placed him under arrest.
The tables were basically turned during in incident in early July 2014 when it was Wesley Dickerson who had been threatened and then shot by a relatives — his younger brother, then 58-year-old Charles Dickerson.
According to court records, Wesley Dickerson drove to the home of his younger brother on July 5, 2014. Charles Dickerson ordered his older brother off his property and threatened to shoot him if he did not comply.
Authorities believe Charles Ray Dickerson then fired a single shot from a 12-gauge shotgun while standing near the front door of his residence.
Deputies said evidence at the scene showed Wesley Dickerson was sitting in his pickup truck about 40-to-50-feet away from where the shot was fired. The blast damaged the truck’s doorframe and shattered glass while striking Wesley Dickerson in the face and upper body. The injured man drove himself to his residence off Sheid Road.
He was then airlifted to UAMS in Little Rock.
During the family squabble in 2014, Wesley Dickerson told officers there had been an on-going dispute between the two men over a $300 debt. Wesley Dickerson said he had driven to his brother’s home to see if the siblings could work out their differences.
Wesley Dickerson said he was prepared to forgive the debt if that would assist in repairing the riff between the brothers.
Charles Dickerson was sentenced to 10 years in prison in January 2105. He is currently reported out of custody.
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Man who threatened famly members with gun makes appearance in circuit court
Dustin James Blair of Cotter, charged with threatening family members with a handgun, entered a not guilty plea during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday.
According to the probable cause affidavit, the incident occurred in late May when Blair, reportedly intoxicated and under the influence of drugs, began arguing with his brother and threatened to kill him.
Blair then allegedly pulled out a .25-caliber automatic handgun, pointed it as his father and also threatened to kill him. The father wrestled the gun away from Blair who bolted from the residence and ran from the scene before officers could arrive.
Blair returned to the residence several hours later and was taken into custody.
Blair’s bond was set at $100,000. His attorney, Jeremy Friend, asked the court to approve a bond reduction for his client. He told the court Blair could bond out and live in another residence so as not to violate the court’s order that he have no contact with the victims.
The state objected to the bond reduction. Fourteenth Judicial District Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Kerry Chism argued, given the serious nature of the crime, the state felt the bond was appropriate.
Judge Gordon Webb agreed with the state and let the $100,000 bond stand unchanged. He said if Blair did bond out of jail, he was to have absolutely no contact with the victims.
Blair is due to reappear in circuit court July 12th.
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Izard County man arrested for crimes against children
An Izard County man, 63-year-old Steven Eldridge of Melbourne, has been arrested and charged for crimes involving children, according to Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge.
Eldridge was arrested by the Cyber Crimes Unit of the Attorney Generals Office on four felony counts of distributing, possessing or viewing of matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child. He was released from the Izard County Detention Facility Thursday after posting a $2,000 bond.
Special agents in the Attorney Generals office had previously seized multiple computers and external hard drives from Eldrige’s residence. The file will be turned over to 16th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Holly Meyer when completed.
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Decision in water rate dispute upheld
The Arkansas Court of Appeals has upheld a July 2017 ruling finding the City of Mountain Home did not breach its contract by overcharging for water it sells to the Northeast Public Water Authority.
The water authority, which provides water to about 1,800 residents, filed a lawsuit in November 2015 contending the city had overcharged for water it sold to the authority under the terms of an agreement updated in 2012.
In his ruling in 2017, Judge Gordon Webb wrote the city did not breach its agreement with the water authority, and the price charged by the city for water purchases was permitted by the agreement and was appropriate.
An appeal was filed in January in response to Judge Webb’s ruling.
The contract between the city and Northeast Public Water Authority calls for the city to sell potable water in an amount not to exceed 250,000,000 gallons a year under a formula establishing the per-one-thousand gallon purchase price for the water. The formula takes a number of factors into consideration, including the buyers share of expenses the city incurs in connection with the production and delivery of water.
Just what expenses are to be counted in arriving at the wholesale purchase price was at the heart of the appeal.
In the appeal, Attorney Keith Billingsley of Little Rock maintained agreements between the city and the authority in 1982 and 2012 are quite different with respect to wording and terms, with the later version specifying Northeast is to be charged only the actual expenses incurred in connection with the production and delivery of water.
Since the execution of the 2012 contract, Northeast has been charged a pro rata share of the salaries and expenses of the Mountain Home City Council, Planning Commission, four city officials, two departments and other expenses including maintenance on hundreds of miles of water lines.
In the appeal, attorney Billingsley wrote water to Northeast comes from the treatment plant to the Wallace Knob tank, a distribution line constituting 1.4 percent of the total water system. During a seven-hour daily window when the plant is offline, the city contends Northeast obtains water from the entire system, which the attorney says is an effort to legitimize its charges.
In upholding Webb’s decision, Court of Appeals Judge David Glover wrote in the 11-page decision the contract, drafted by the attorney for the Northeast Water Authority, specifically defines actual expenses to include general and administrative expenses separate for those not actively engaged in water production from the “general and administrative expenses associated with the production of water.”
Judge Glover wrote a court cannot make a contract for parties but can only construe and enforce the contract the parties have made. In this case, Judge Webb did just that–construed and enforced the contract made by the parties.
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