Legislative panel questions corrections board member Alonza Jiles on hiring of outdoor lawyer

The state Legislature’s Joint Efficiency Evaluate committee met once more Monday to overview a subject that’s already consumed two prolonged committee conferences this month: The state Board of Corrections’ hiring of lawyer Abtin Mehdizadegan to signify the board in two lawsuits pitting it against Gov. Sarah Sanders and Attorney General Tim Griffin.

On April 4 and 11, Republican legislators grilled corrections board members for hours over whether they’d followed public transparency and procurement laws in hiring Mehdizadegan. On Monday, the committee heard from one extra member, Alonza Jiles, and tried to sanction the board. A movement by Sen. Jim Petty (R-Van Buren) aimed to preemptively block any contract with Mehdizadegan, declare the board had disregarded state regulation, and refer the matter to the state Division of Inspector Normal for additional investigation. (The inspector basic is a governor-appointed workplace tasked with stopping, detecting and investigating fraud and abuse inside the authorities.)

However Petty’s movement failed for lack of help, maybe as a result of some members being absent. The Legislature is again in session tomorrow, and committee chair Rep. Mark Berry (R-Ozark) — who’s been extremely vital of Mehdizadegan and the corrections board — mentioned the committee will convene once more tomorrow.

The corrections board has been embroiled in battle with Sanders, Griffin and different state officers for months now, and the dispute over Mehdizadegan’s hiring is just one subplot amongst many. Jiles, the board member testifying Monday, is on the heart of one other. He’s one in all a number of defendants being sued by dozens of anonymous plaintiffs who say he helped cowl up baby sexual abuse whereas working as a senior administrator on the Lord’s Ranch, a now-closed behavioral well being facility in northeast Arkansas.

Sanders, Griffin and some legislators have called on Jiles to resign over the allegations, although the politics of the scenario are fraught for Arkansas Republicans: The previous head of the Lord’s Ranch, Ted Suhl, is a detailed affiliate of Sanders’ father, former Gov. Mike Huckabee, and was launched early from jail in 2019 because of a commutation from then-President Donald Trump. (He was serving a seven-year sentence for bribing a state medicaid official.) Suhl can be a defendant within the lawsuits and is accused of conspiring to hide horrific acts of abuse for many years.

Although Jiles testified earlier than legislators for nearly half an hour at this time, no lawmaker tried to carry up the Lord’s Ranch allegations. The questions (and his testimony) targeted solely on the Board of Corrections contract situation.

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