Arkansas Reporter
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Easter Seals property The former Easter Seals training center at the east end of Lee Avenue has long been a festering sore for the surrounding residential neighborhood in Hillcrest and for Easter Seals, which has tried repeatedly to unlock some value from the abandoned building and land lease since moving to new quarters in western Little Rock years ago. Neighbors have always thrown up a roadblock of objections. At 5 p.m. Thursday, the Board of the Arkansas Schools for the Blind and Deaf has an opportunity to lance the boil. It will consider two proposals for the almost 10-acre tract on which the building sits. Little Rock businessman John Chandler has offered $240,000 to Easter Seals for the building and to take over its $1-a-year 50-year lease with the School for Blind for the property, which sits across a wooded ravine from the school. Chandler wants to use the building for offices, including his own small clothing company. Neighbors oppose commercial use of the building. A competing offer has arisen from Doug Martin, a Stephens Inc. executive who lives nearby on Hill road, who’s proposed to pay $480,000, split equally between the school and Easter Seals, to buy the land and building outright. He’d spend up to $500,000 to remove the building and put eight acres of the property into a permanent conservation easement, meaning it could never be developed. He’d build a single-family home on the remaining property. The Hillcrest Residents Association has endorsed Martin’s proposal. Some would favor converting the space to green space, but the state has never shown an inclination to do that. Nor does it have the money to clear the property.
History, for a price You never know what might turn up on eBay. Like the doors to law offices that housed, among others, U.S. Sen John L. McClellan and Hamilton Moses, the former head of Arkansas Power & Light Co. The doors were once in the Union Life Building and, according to the listing on eBay, are being sold as part of an estate. The starting bid is $9,995; no bid has been made yet. They don’t come with the clout McClellan once wielded. Sorry. The teak doors were taken down when the building was remodeled and given to former Little Rock Mayor Haco Boyd. He later gave them to John Dotson, who kept them in his garage for about 40 years. CONTINUED ON PAGE 13
12 NOVEMBER 16, 2011 ARKANSAS TIMES
Fighting at Ferneau Officer caught on tape involved in earlier incident. BY DAVID KOON
T
he video of Chris Erwin being struck repeatedly in the face by Little Rock Police Lt. David Hudson outside Hillcrest’s Ferneau restaurant on Oct. 29 isn’t much to look at. The footage — shot with a cellphone camera by a Denver attorney who was in town visiting friends — is grainy, tinted yellow by the streetlights, punctuated by the wail of a car alarm. While the video clearly isn’t going to win any awards, an attorney who represents Erwin believes it will be enough to exonerate his client against multiple criminal charges that have been filed against him. What’s more, it’s the second time this year that Lt. Hudson has been involved in an incident at Ferneau that led to violence. When the film begins, Hudson — who was working off-duty security at the restaurant — is talking to Erwin on the sidewalk. After exchanging words with Erwin and attempting to push him against a wall, Hudson grabs Erwin by the collar and punches him in the face at least six times as Erwin tries to deflect the blows. As a crowd gathers, Hudson lifts and flips Erwin, sending him sprawling onto the pavement. Erwin was later charged with resisting arrest, criminal trespass, and disorderly conduct. His friend Blake Mitchell, who an incident report says grabbed Hudson’s arm, was charged with obstructing governmental operations, criminal trespassing, public intoxication and disorderly conduct. Photos taken later show Erwin’s face was left a swollen and bloody mess. According to a police report about the incident, a witness told police that Erwin, Mitchell and two women entered a private party at Ferneau and refused to leave after being asked. Little Rock attorney Keith Hall, who is representing Erwin, said that after Erwin and his friends sat down and had some drinks, Erwin was approached by Hudson, who informed them it was a private party and they needed to leave. After asking Hudson to specify who wanted them to go, and being told again
ERWIN: Beaten and arrested.
by Hudson to leave, Hall said, Erwin paid his group’s tab and they left the premises. Once they were outside, Hall said, Erwin approached Hudson again to ask who had complained that they were in the private party room. At that point, Erwin told his attorney, Hudson began shouting at him, grabbed Erwin by the neck and told him get up against the wall. This is around the time the video begins. “If citizens had done what Lt. Hudson has done to my client, somebody would be coming after them with a warrant,” Hall said. It’s not the first physical altercation Hudson has had this year at Ferneau. According to an LRPD incident report filed Feb. 6, Hudson told police that he was working security there when three patrons, including 21-year-old Chase Cooper, became disruptive and refused to leave. Hudson told officers that Cooper pushed him before trying to strike him with a closed fist. The report states that Hudson suffered a scraped knee and a scrape above his left eye in the ensuing altercation, while Cooper received “minor injuries to his left eye and nose.” The two other suspects left the scene, the report says, but Cooper was arrested and charged with thirddegree battery, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. A clerk at Pulaski County District Court said there are
currently no criminal cases on file which list Chase Cooper as a defendant. Attempts to reach Cooper and his attorney in the case were unsuccessful. Sgt. Cassandra Davis, spokesperson for the LRPD, said that while she couldn’t comment directly on the altercation between Erwin and Hudson because of the ongoing investigation, the department has clear policies on use of force. “We do have a force continuum, and if the officer feels that there is a need to move up on that continuum, then that’s what he does,” Davis said. “You have to be in the officer’s situation to determine what level on the continuum you want to move up to, and each incident is different. We’re always one level above the threat.” Davis said there are cases where something a suspect says can warrant a justified physical response from an officer. “If somebody is threatening that, ‘I have a weapon, and I’m going to shoot you with it,’ then of course you’re going to escalate,” Davis said. “If they say ‘get out of my face and leave me alone,’ it depends on whether an officer is trying to effect an arrest or not.” That Hudson was making an arrest because Erwin, according to the incident report, refused to leave Ferneau, isn’t a typical outcome in local bars, where most private security focus solely on getting troublemakers outside. Midtown Billiards owner Maggie Hinson employs private security staff at her bar, and tells them to never follow an altercation outside. “I instruct my people that our business is inside, and we can’t go outside for our business,” she told the Times recently in a story about local bouncers. “If we have to put someone out for the night, we can walk them outside the door, but our liability insurance doesn’t cover anything that happens outside.” Davis said that Little Rock officers working off-duty security have the same powers as those who are on-duty and are allowed to wear their uniforms and badges while working private security. A copy of the LRPD’s use of force policy states that “reasonable physical force” may be used by an officer if alternatives have been considered. Officers are allowed to use “Hard EmptyHand Control” techniques, which may cause bruises, contusions or lacerations, “when lower forms of control have failed CONTINUED ON PAGE 46