Photo: Courtesy Areawide Media
A circuit court jury has found Fulton County Judge Jimmy Kendrick guilty of a felony count of theft of property with a fine of $10,000.
The jury of seven women and five men deliberated about an hour Thursday afternoon after being seated Wednesday.
Last August, Judge Kendrick was arrested and charged, after county employees and equipment were reportedly used to work on his private driveway. His arrest followed an Arkansas State Police (ASP) investigation.
According to the probable cause affidavit in the case, the two-day road project was completed in mid-June with county employees using a road grader and two dump trucks. The work involved 18 loads of fill dirt, with the grader used to smooth the driveway.
The following week, Kendrick reimbursed the county $1,812 for equipment, material and labor used for the work on his private driveway.
On June 24, an ASP investigator interviewed the county judge. Judge Kendrick told the investigator since taking office in January 2019, he has “been operating under a state of emergency ever since because things have been so bad.”
Kendrick reportedly said he had noticed his driveway was in rough shape, and he would have to take off time to fix it. He said the driveway was so bad his wife could barely get her car down it.
He explained to the ASP investigator how he determined the amount to reimburse the county, concluding by saying it was the “best guess” he had to determine the cost to the county.
The investigation included interviews with four county employees and the owner of the property where the fill dirt was obtained.
In addition, the ASP investigator contacted three locally owned and operated private contracting companies to obtain estimated charges for road grader and dirt work. Based on the three estimates, the investigator determined the average cost for completing a project like the county judge’s private driveway was approximately $5,620.
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