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| JEREMY HUTCHINSON, CHRIS PALMER (Judge that heard one case in Circuit Court and now ABC Board member) AND TIM HUTCHINSON |
Former U.S. Senator Tim Hutchinson and his son Jeremy will face each other in a case before the Arkansas Supreme Court in cases that involves the ABC. The ABC will be represented by staff attorney Mary Robin Casteel.
Two NW Arkansas ABC permit holders, Sarah Gildehaus and Christopher Moore both filed suits against the ABC Board that involved permits issued to each other. A true life example of an Arkansas Pissing Contest.
Both cases have progressed through the court system to the point that they are going to be heard by the Arkansas Supreme Court.
The cases involves the arbitrary and capricious way the ABC Board approves and issues permits.
This story begins back in 2012 when a study conducted by the University of Arkansas estimated that Benton County was missing out on $33 million annually because of its “dry” status. The county was “dry” from 1944 until a major campaign garnered roughly 40,000 signatures to get on the general election ballot in November 2012.
The rest they say is history, and voters overwhelmingly supported the “wet” initiative. More than 300 applicants submitted applications for retail liquor stores, but less than one-third of those completed paperwork and submitted the $2,000 fee. Not everyone who wanted a permit and won a lottery spot got the go-ahead to move forward. There were a total of 15 applicants whose proposed sites were denied over a three days selection process by the ABC in July 2013.
Rick Crisman, then the ABC Deputy Director, told reporters that the major reasons applications were denied is because the locations were too close to schools, churches and daycare facilities or the applicant already owns an interest in another liquor state in the state.
Readers of this post will recall that Crisman resigned rather than get fired due to his illegal use of material obtained from his position in a smart phone application sold on Google Play and iTunes. This blog exposed Crisman's illegal activity.
(Read our previous posts about Crisman : post 1; post 2; post 3; post 4)
Gildehaus and Moore both received approval from the ABC.
However, Moore for some reason never opened a store at the 2090 W. Pleasant Grove Road location.
A former employee and friend of Moore, Michelle Marie Jameson, also received a permit and borrowed $4,0000.00 from him to pay rent for her location at (which was owned by Moore's wife and her father - more on that in a minute). Before Jameson could open her store, she wanted to transfer her permit to Moore. However the ABC told her that she would have to have the store open for at least one day and sell at least one bottle of liquor. A huge problem for Jameson was that she never obtained a sales tax permit from the state.
This is where the ABC made its first two mistakes. (1) Apparently they do not check to make sure that their permit holders have the sales tax permit issued by their parent agency, the Department of Finance and Administration to operate a business in Arkansas. (2) The ABC Enforcement agent did not take the time to go to the store to verify that it was actually ready and did in fact open for the one day of business, he had Jameson email her some pictures to make it appear that he went to the site. Good work former agent Bill Kruse!
The Arkansas Legislature made it very clear in a bill approved into law in March of 2013 that "a person, firm or cooperation shall not have an ownership interest in more than one (1) retail liquor permit" and "no retail liquor permit shall be issued, either as a new permit or as a replacement of an existing permit, to any person, firm or corporation if the person, firm or corporation has an ownership interest in another retail liquor permit."
Moore did not open a liquor store using his permit, but that does not matter, he still had a permit when he took over Jameson's permit. Moore even admitted in a hearing that he held two permits at the same time.
To further complicate this situation, Moore's wife, Katherine, had filed for a permit (which was denied) under the name Tipsy's Wine and Fine Spirits.
Katherine subsequently filed documents with the Arkansas Secretary of State in November 2013 under the name of the store in which the ABC permit had been issued to Jameson, Spirituex Wines and Liquors. And Katherine owned the site where the store was located.
A blatant Straw Man operation!
Jameson in fact admitted to the Straw Man operation in a hearing before the ABC Board.
Any reasonable person can see that the Moore's wanted to open as many liquor stores as they could in NW Arkansas, in spite of Arkansas law. And the ABC Board was more than happy to accommodate them.
Both cases have progressed through the court system to the point that they are going to be heard by the Arkansas Supreme Court.
The cases involves the arbitrary and capricious way the ABC Board approves and issues permits.
The rest they say is history, and voters overwhelmingly supported the “wet” initiative. More than 300 applicants submitted applications for retail liquor stores, but less than one-third of those completed paperwork and submitted the $2,000 fee. Not everyone who wanted a permit and won a lottery spot got the go-ahead to move forward. There were a total of 15 applicants whose proposed sites were denied over a three days selection process by the ABC in July 2013.
Rick Crisman, then the ABC Deputy Director, told reporters that the major reasons applications were denied is because the locations were too close to schools, churches and daycare facilities or the applicant already owns an interest in another liquor state in the state.
Readers of this post will recall that Crisman resigned rather than get fired due to his illegal use of material obtained from his position in a smart phone application sold on Google Play and iTunes. This blog exposed Crisman's illegal activity.
(Read our previous posts about Crisman : post 1; post 2; post 3; post 4)
Gildehaus and Moore both received approval from the ABC.
However, Moore for some reason never opened a store at the 2090 W. Pleasant Grove Road location.
A former employee and friend of Moore, Michelle Marie Jameson, also received a permit and borrowed $4,0000.00 from him to pay rent for her location at (which was owned by Moore's wife and her father - more on that in a minute). Before Jameson could open her store, she wanted to transfer her permit to Moore. However the ABC told her that she would have to have the store open for at least one day and sell at least one bottle of liquor. A huge problem for Jameson was that she never obtained a sales tax permit from the state.
This is where the ABC made its first two mistakes. (1) Apparently they do not check to make sure that their permit holders have the sales tax permit issued by their parent agency, the Department of Finance and Administration to operate a business in Arkansas. (2) The ABC Enforcement agent did not take the time to go to the store to verify that it was actually ready and did in fact open for the one day of business, he had Jameson email her some pictures to make it appear that he went to the site. Good work former agent Bill Kruse!
The Arkansas Legislature made it very clear in a bill approved into law in March of 2013 that "a person, firm or cooperation shall not have an ownership interest in more than one (1) retail liquor permit" and "no retail liquor permit shall be issued, either as a new permit or as a replacement of an existing permit, to any person, firm or corporation if the person, firm or corporation has an ownership interest in another retail liquor permit."
Moore did not open a liquor store using his permit, but that does not matter, he still had a permit when he took over Jameson's permit. Moore even admitted in a hearing that he held two permits at the same time.
To further complicate this situation, Moore's wife, Katherine, had filed for a permit (which was denied) under the name Tipsy's Wine and Fine Spirits.
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| CHRIS & KATIE MOORE |
Katherine subsequently filed documents with the Arkansas Secretary of State in November 2013 under the name of the store in which the ABC permit had been issued to Jameson, Spirituex Wines and Liquors. And Katherine owned the site where the store was located.
A blatant Straw Man operation!
Jameson in fact admitted to the Straw Man operation in a hearing before the ABC Board.
Any reasonable person can see that the Moore's wanted to open as many liquor stores as they could in NW Arkansas, in spite of Arkansas law. And the ABC Board was more than happy to accommodate them.
The Moore's opened up Spiritueuex Wines and Liquors and then Foster's Pint & Plate right next door in February 2015.
Spiritueux Wines and Liquors
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| FOSTER'S PINT & PLATE |
We are not sure if Michelle Jameson is working for the Moore's but her hubby Frank is.
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| FRANK & MICHELLE JAMESON |
Gildenhaus filed a complaint/appeal with the ABC and when they denied her appeal and approved Moore's assumption of Jameson's permit in September 2014 she filed an appeal of that decision in Benton County Circuit Court. In March 2015, The Benton Circuit Court found she lacked standing and she then appealed to the Arkansas Court of Appeals. They upheld the lower court and she then proceeded to the Arkansas Supreme Court.
In June 2016, her petition for review by the Arkansas Supreme Court was granted. Justice Paul Danielson recused and Governor Asa Hutchinson appointed and in July 2016, Gov. Hutchinson appointed Steven Brooks as a Special Associate Justice for the case. Gildenhaus is represented by Jeremy Hutchinson. We posted a lot of information about Jeremy in a previous post. You can read that post here.
Now on to Sarah Gildehaus and her ABC permit. Sarah's and her husband Roger, were partners in the company that owned the Macadoodles in Springdale and six others locations in Missouri.
CLICK TO VIEW THE MACADOODLES WEBSITE
CLICK TO READ ARTICLE ABOUT MACADOODLE FRANCHISE
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| ROGER GILDEHOUSE |
Roger got sideways with the ABC when he wanted to establish a liquor franchise using the Wal-Mart model (Roger worked for Wal-Mart for 26 years) . Roger thinks the ABC administration appointed by Governor Asa Hutchinson (brother to Tim and uncle to Jeremy) will "work in his favor."
It is apparent that the Gildehaus' are indeed thumbing their noises at the ABC as both Macadoodles and Guess Who are laid out exactly the same and use the same internal documents. The shape of the exterior sign and color are the only differences.
We are getting ahead of ourselves....
Sarah wanted to open a liquor store that would be called Guess Who? - and she will lease the building from her hubby. Nice.
But Sarah had some problems with the ABC and her application. The building that she wanted to put her store in was owned by Gild Corporation, the company she and Roger owned. So she had to divest herself of any interest in that company and in another company, Gild Holdings. Right.
Apparently only the ABC Board has the ability to discern how a married couple, living together can keep finances separate and not derive any financial benefit whatsoever from each other. Totally absurd.
With assurances from Sarah that she gains no financial benefits from any liquor business that Roger has she received approval for a permit.
In steps Christopher Moore who files a petition for judicial review in August of 2013 in Pulaski County Circuit Court (because the ABC is a state agency and in Pulaski County). The case is assigned to Judge Chris Palmer. Yep the same Chris Palmer that is now an ABC Board member and running buddy of Jeremy Hutchinison.
In April 2014, Judge Palmer finds for Moore and sends the matter back to the ABC Board.
At the ABC Board meeting in August 2014, Sarah introduces documents that were not introduced at her previous board hearing and the ABC Board accepts them over the objections of Moore's attorney, Tim Hutchinson. Yes, that's Jeremy's daddy.
Sarah also claims that Macadoodles, her husbands store in Springdale, did not want her to open and considers her competition. *BULLSHIT ALERT*
Sarah also admits that her husband intended to open another Macadoodles at the site where her store is located and that he had submitted plans to the city of Bentonville. She stated that their was a sign on the building that had "Macadoodles Coming Soon" on it that was taken down about 10 days before she obtained her permit to open Guess Who? at the site.
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| IN MARCH 2013, TV STATION KFSM CAPTURED THE "MACADOODLES COMING SOON " SIGN AT THE LOCATION WHERE GUESS WHO? ULTIMATELY OPENED |
Sarah further stated that she used the Macadoodles employee handbook but changed the logo and replaced "Macadoodles" with "Guess Who?" in the handbook. She also admits she did not pay any rent to her husband from when her lease began in April 2013 until May 2014. Sarah stated that she opened the store in March 2014 and finally began paying rent in May 2014. Sweet deal if you can get it.
So as expected the ABC Board does not change their earlier decision (not wanting to admit they made a mistake), so Moore files another petition for review in Pulaski County.
The case is assigned to Judge Mackie Pierce (the same judge that ordered the Arkansas State Police in September 2015 to release tainted ABC Enforcement Director Boyce Hamlet's internal investigation file to the publisher of this blog - see our post here) and on December 20, 2015, he dismissed Moore's petition finding that there was adequate evidence in the record to support theABC Board's decision to grant the permit to Sarah Gildehaus.
So in January 2016, Moore then filed an appeal to the Arkansas Supreme Court.
The Arkansas Supreme Court accepted the case in March 2016. And briefs were filed by July 2016.
Then on August 22, 2016 Justice Paul Danielson recused, no reason was given.
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| JUSTICE PAUL E. DANIELSON |
In May 2016, Danielson announced that he would not seek re-election after his term ended in December 2016. This is so he would avoid forfeiting his retirement benefits. Arkansas Code 24-8-215 requires justices to retire by age 70 or else they lose their retirement benefits.
So the Supreme Court sent a letter to Governor Hutchinson requesting that a Special Associate Justice be appointed to replace Danielson.
As Steven Brooks had been appointed in the other case, Governor Hutchinson gave the green light to Brooks for this case on September 15th.
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| BROOKS APPOINTED AS A SPECIAL ASSOCIATE JUSTICE TO HEAR CASES |
It will be interesting to see how these two cases play out. The ABC Board has played fast and loose with the law when issuing permits for husbands and wives and parents and children when it is all too clear there is a financial connection between these parties and they want to have multiple liquor stores as a family business.
CLICK TO VIEW GILDEHAUS' CASE FILINGS
CLICK TO VIEW MOORE'S CASE FILINGS
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In previous posts we pointed out some of the problems that Jeremy Hutchinson had that should have precluded his involvement with the 1836 Club.
Readers will recall that we pointed out that Jeremy had a little problem with not paying his state income taxes when due and had a lien filed against him by the Department of Finance & Administration.
Jeremy quit paying for an automobile and was sued by the car dealership.
Jeremy also failed to pay bar dues and had his license to practice law suspended. His law license suspension was also mentioned in a legal malpractice lawsuit filed against him by a former client.
That lawsuit was recently settled for an undisclosed amount. Poor Jeremy was beaten by a Pro Se plaintiff!
Poor Jeremy also holds the dubious honor of being the only person in Arkansas to ever been the victim of domestic abuse via a stuffed alligator head.
He also was cited and fined by the Arkansas Ethics Commission for funneling campaign funds to his mistress and later girlfriend.
Finally, Jeremy admitted to being unfaithful to his wife with that same mistress/girlfriend that wacked him on the head with the stuffed alligator.
Perhaps he learned how to treat women from his father, a former reverend and former U.S. Senator, Timothy Hutchinson.
Tim was reported to have been unfaithful to former wife Donna Hutchinson by fooling around with a staff member, Randi Fredholm. The affair was publicized by a former campaign and congressional aide of Hutchinson's, Sam Sellers.
Sellers made the allegation in a short-lived magazine he published titled Arkansas Review. Tim married Randi less than a year after his divorce from Donna. Tim sure knows how to pick them.
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| TIM & RANDI HUTCHINSON |
