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Arkansas

Former Arkansas legislator pleads innocent to bribery, conspiracy charges

LITTLE ROCK – A former Arkansas legislator indicted earlier this month on federal charges of conspiracy, bribery and wire fraud has pleaded innocent in federal court.

Former state Sen. Gilbert Baker appeared Thursday morning before U.S.

Magistrate Judge Patricia Harris. His attorney, Blake Hendrix, entered the innocent pleas on his behalf during the hearing at U.S. District Court in Little Rock.

Baker, 62, of Conway is a former chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party and a former top executive at the University of Central Arkansas.

Baker will be allowed to remain free, but Harris ordered him to undergo in-patient substance abuse counseling and said he will be subject to alcohol and drug screening. Baker tested positive for methamphetamine after he was stopped for drunken driving in Conway in 2016, a toxicology report showed.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Julie Peters objected at the Thursday hearing to Baker having a public defender appointed to represent him. Harris allowed him to keep the appointed attorney but said the issue could be taken up again when the case moves to U.S.

District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr.’s courtroom. A trial is scheduled there on Feb. 25, but those initial trial dates are usually delayed.

The indictment accuses Baker of one count each of conspiracy and bribery and seven counts of “honest services wire fraud.”

Baker could face up to five years in prison on the conspiracy charge, up to 10 years in prison on the conspiracy count and up to 20 years in prison on each of the seven wire-fraud counts.

Judge Lets Arkansas Law on Israel Boycott Stand

LITTLE ROCK – A federal judge on Wednesday let stand an Arkansas law requiring state contractors to pledge not to boycott Israel, ruling that such a boycott is not protected by the First Amendment.

U.S. District Judge Brian Miller dismissed the lawsuit the Arkansas Times had filed challenging the 2017 law. The newspaper had asked the judge to block the law, which requires contractors with the state to reduce their fees by 20 percent if they don’t sign the pledge.

Miller wrote that refusing to purchase items isn’t protected speech. He noted that the Times wouldn’t be barred from other protected forms of speech, including writing or picketing against Israel policies.

“It may even call upon others to boycott Israel, write in support of such boycotts, and engage in picketing and pamphleteering to that effect. This does not mean, however, that its decision to refuse to deal, or to refrain from purchasing certain goods, is protected by the First Amendment,” Miller wrote.

Arkansas’ law is similar to restrictions enacted in other states that have been challenged. The measures are aimed at a movement protesting Israel’s policies toward Palestinians.

A federal judge in September blocked Arizona from enforcing a similar measure. A federal judge also blocked Kansas from enforcing its anti-boycott measure, but lawmakers rewrote the measure so that it no longer applied to individuals and nonprofits and only applied to state contracts worth $100,000 or more. Arkansas’ law applies to contracts worth $1,000 or more.