The Arkansas state auditor's office has paid $21,019.07 through Wednesday for retired judges to substitute for suspended Division 2 Circuit Judge Wade Naramore, who is scheduled to be arraigned this morning on a negligent homicide charge in connection with the death of his 18-month-old son last summer.
The total doesn't include payments for 16 assignments served through Thursday. Retired judges appointed to serve as special judges receive $307.69 a day, or half the daily rate for a sitting circuit court judge, according to the auditor's office. The chief justice of the state Supreme Court issued through Tuesday 92 special judge assignments for Division 2, scheduling substitutes for Naramore into the middle of next month.
The scheduling includes 20th Judicial District Circuit Court Judge Troy Braswell's four assignments. Sitting judges don't receive extra pay for special assignments, according to the auditor's office.
Naramore hasn't presided over Division 2 court sessions since the July 24, 2015, death of his son, Thomas. The affidavit in support of Naramore's Feb. 11 arrest alleges he forgot to drop off his son at day care and left him in the back seat of a hot car for what Naramore said was approximately five hours. The boy was pronounced dead at the scene with a core body temperature of 107 degrees.
The state Supreme Court suspended Naramore with pay Feb. 18. following the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission's unanimous recommendation for suspension. The 14-percent pay increase the Independent Citizens Commission approved for circuit judges last year raised their salary to $160,000. All of the county's juvenile cases are assigned to Division 2, which also hears domestic relations and probate cases.
Retired Circuit Judge David Goodson was the first substitute assigned to Division 2 and has been assigned 43 times since his initial assignment Sept. 23 of last year. He is yet to be paid for 10 assignments served since Jan. 22 and is scheduled to appear eight more days this month. According to the auditor's office, payments from the state appropriation for special judges aren't released until the administrative office of the courts submits a payment request.
Retired Circuit Judge Stephen Choate has been assigned 23 times since his initial assignment Oct. 21 of last year. He has yet to be paid for four days he has served since the beginning of the month, and is scheduled to appear two more times in March. Retired Circuit Judge Ted Capeheart has yet to be paid for three days he's served since the beginning of the month and is scheduled to appear today and twice more in March.
The more than $21,000 paid through Wednesday includes a day's pay for local attorney Joshua Drake, who filled in for an ill Goodson Feb. 16. The state's administrative judicial rules allow practicing attorneys who regularly attend the court to nominate and elect by secret ballot an attorney who is present in the courtroom to serve as a special judge when the absence can't be covered by the other judges in the circuit or one assigned by the chief justice. The attorney with the most votes is declared special judge and sworn in by the court clerk.
Naramore is scheduled to appear in the Division 1 courtroom of the Garland County Court House at 9 a.m. today. He faces up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine for the Class A misdemeanor. Retired Circuit Judge John Langston has been assigned to the case, as the county's other three circuit judges have all recused.
He has been paid for three half days through Wednesday, with two stemming from a civil matter related to the case. Langston signed Naramore's Feb. 11 arrest warrant.
Local on 03/11/2016