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The Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission meets in a small conference room in downtown Little Rock. There's little space for spectators, but that's not a problem -- the commission does most of its business in secret. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette used investigation records, interviews and computer analysis to look behind the agency's veil of secrecy.
Part-time judge
a full-time conflict
A couple of nervous youths stood before Marshall Municipal
Judge Jerry D. Patterson in March in Searcy County's small, neatly paneled
courtroom. A boyfriend-girlfriend spat had gotten out of hand. The young
man had been charged with misdemeanor assault. The judge order them to
stay away from each other. Patterson knows how hard it is to avoid conflict
in a small town. He was before the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability
Commission in January, accused of allowing his private law practice to
interfere with his part-time judicial duties.