HUMP DAY HUMOR

ABC BOARD ENDORSES ADULTERY AND NON-PAYMENT OF TAXES, FEES

On March 16th, the ABC Board approved the permit for the 1836 Club in spite of  nearly an hour of testimony and evidence regarding the lack of moral character of the three principal investors, of which two are officers in the club. Evidence was also presented that a false document (bogus membership list) had been included in the application.  Both moral character and submission of false documents are reasons to deny issuance of a permit.

 

 

FROM THE ABC RULES & REGULATIONS

Over 20 exhibits were introduced at an ABC appeal hearing regarding the 1836 Club's permit that shed light on the lack of good moral character of Mark Camp, Jeremy Hutchinson and Rodney Damon.

 READ ABOUT THEM HERE 

 

CAMP, HUTCHINSON AND DAMON

 

Usually long-time board member Mickey Powell asks the applicant if they will follow the laws and pay taxes, but he skipped that usual spiel after hearing testimony that Camp, Hutchinson and Damon has problems with paying taxes, fees, unpaid debts and misuse of campaign funds.

 

The story of Camp, Hutchinson and Damon could be storyline a for a soap opera or a reality show. Adultery, domestic violence involving a stuffed alligator head, lawsuits concerning unpaid debts and vehicles, suspension of law license and warrants for failure to appear at a hearing will guaranty high ratings. 

Camp and his third wife, Nordina (the listed COO for the club) worked at Crews & Associates. Camp was an investment banker, a/k/a bond salesman and Lalmond was in their IT Department. 

 

 

NORDINA BINTI LALMOND-CAMP

Ah...love in the workplace. Sometimes that leads to divorce and details of a dalliance.

CAMP'S DEPOSITION IN HIS CURRENT WIFE'S DIVORCE PROCEEDING

Camp was a witness in Lalmond's divorce proceeding and even provided an affidavit to boost her case. How did Camp know that she had been living separate and apart from her estranged husband?  You figure it out.  And guess who represented her?  Hutchinson. Hutchinson also represented Camp when he was sued for a $10,000 credit card debt.

LESS THAN A MONTH AFTER HER DIVORCE, SHE HAS A BUSINESS OPERATING FROM CAMP'S HOME

Crews & Associates was involved in some shady business during Camp's time as an employee which resulted in a Consent Order from the Arkansas Securities Commissioner and a Cease-and-Desist Order from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. We don't know if Camp was connected to the shenanigans but he left around the time these orders were filed.

You might find all that interesting, but hang on a minute...Damon is married (his third wife as well) to Camp's second wife, Michelle. Strange business partner bedfellows.

MICHELLE AND RODNEY DAMON

Hutchinson has had his own share of marital discord and his adulterous relationship made headlines.

Add a newly appointed ABC Board member (Chris Palmer) that is a drinking buddy of theirs to the mix and you have a Lifetime movie in the making.

Palmer smartly stepped out of the proceedings citing a conflict.  That was  disappointing as the photographic evidence to urge him to recuse would have proved entertaining.

Maybe Dillard's has a good reason to be worried about the goings on at the 1836 Club.  We understand that they are installing extra security cameras to be pointed at the club to document the illicit activity their letter of opposition mentioned.

 CLICK TO READ DILLARD'S LETTER OPPOSSING THE CLUB

The ABC needs to apply their Rules and Regulations to all applicants in a fair and consistent manner. But when political appointees, and the nephew of the Governor that has power over them remaining in their positions, are involved in a situation like this you know what the outcome will be.

Maybe there will be an appeal filed of the boards decision to issue the permit. Stay tuned.

ENJOY THE ABC ANTICS 2015 EDITION DURING SPRING BREAK

CLICK TO READ CLICKBOOK VERSION


CLICK TO VIEW THE PDF VERSION

CANADA TAKES NOTE OF ABC ENFORCEMENT DIRECTOR FALLING FOR SCAM. THANKS OUR BLOG FOR PUBLIC SERVICE.

Back in February, we posted a story about tainted ABC Enforcement Director Boyce Hamlet falling for a scam and wasting state resources to collect law enforcement memorabilia for a "lady" in Georgia.

We received some emails from agencies in different locations that had been contacted by the scammer, but one from outside the United States stood out.  We received a thank you email from a fire department in Canada for our post.

We are pleased that we could help our neighbors to the north.

Check out the Big Lakes County website. It looks like a great place to visit.

Maybe Hamlet will take an extended visit there or relocate there after he is jettisoned from the ABC.

HUMP DAY HUMOR

ABC AGENT SHELBY CLARK PREFERS TO DO ANYTHING BUT ASSIGNED JOB DUTIES

Last week we exposed the shenanigans of ABC Enforcement agent Shelby Clark. 

We're back this week with another installment.  Clark didn't chase another bank robber, but this time was playing traffic cop in Operation Plastic Castle, part of the effort by the U.S. government to stamp out crime in east Arkansas, particularly in Helena. 

Apparently Clark doesn't have much to do in his ABC position and can freelance and do grunt work for other agencies.

Since Agent Clark seems to have quite a bit of time on his hands, we are requesting record to see exactly what he has been doing. 

Maybe tainted ABC Enforcement Director Boyce Hamlet will make Agent Clark handler for the alcohol sniffing dog we hear that he wants to obtain for his elite law enforcement agency to sniff out bootleggers.

ABC ENFORCEMENT AGENT SENDS MASS EMAIL CONTAINING INAPPROPRIATE CONTENT

AGENT DAVIS 

One of tainted ABC Enforcement Director Boyce Hamlet's agents, Charlie Davis, now retired, sent an inappropriate email to other ABC employees. 

It's amazing that Davis was able to cut and past the tasteless joke and send it in an email as he had great difficulty with technology.

The use of state equipment and email to send an inappropriate email disparaging the Jewish State, religion and culture should have resulted in ABC Enforcement Director Hamlet firing off a terse response condemning Agent Davis' poor judgment. Hamlet calls it a shit-o-gram.

What else can you expect from an agency (ABC Enforcement) that is headed by an incompetent  imbecile, that lacks the necessary qualifications and experience to hold the position of director.

HUMP DAY HUMOR

ABC ENFORCEMENT AGENT ABANDONS JOB TO LOOK FOR BANK ROBBER

ABC ENFORCEMENT AGENT CLARK

Rookie ABC Enforcement Agent and former long time Arkansas State Trooper, Shelby Clark, abandoned his assigned ABC job duties to look for an alleged bank robber back in November 2015.

On the  slow Monday afternoon of November 30, 2015, Clark had just finished his lunch at Kelly's Restaurant in Wynne and was heading out to make some compliance checks.  Suddenly, over the Arkansas State Police radio that is in his ABC vehicle, Clark heard an announcement about a Bank robbery in Brinkley, AR.

Clark took it upon himself to drop his official duties as an ABC Enforcement Agent and head out to Brinkley some 40 miles away. Mind you that several local, county and state law enforcement agents were already on the case.

Clark stopped a truck on the highway because the driver fit the description of one of the robbers (white redneck, wearing a ball cap - a description that fits most of eastern Arkansas).  Nevermind the fact that the suspects were stated to have left the bank in a blue Nissan sedan.

Clark contacted his brother, Ark. State Police Captain Jackie Clark and started giving him ideas on what to do (Shelby held the rank of corporal when he left the state police, they don't usually boss a captain around).

Clark drove all around Brinkley, Cotton Plant and Des Arc trying to catch the alleged bank robbers.  When he heard on the radio that the suspects were at a Brinkley motel, he hauled ass back to Brinkley.

CLARK BRAGGING HOW HE SOLVED THE BANK ROBBERY

Just so you know, most bank robberies only net the robbers less than $3,000.00 (the average amount in a teller drawer).  It appears in this robbery it was closer to $1,000.00. 

Clark sent a memorandum (containing several spelling and grammatical  errors) to his boss to claim that if he had not been involved in the hunt, the robbers would have gotten away.

It appears that besides leaving behind half of his state trooper salary (he made $62, 383 as a trooper and makes $33,861 as an enforcement agent), Clark finds leaving behind real police work for compliance work difficult as well.

Bank Robbery Story #1

Bank Robbery Story #2

We understand that tainted ABC Enforcement Director Boyce Hamlet wants his agents to write speeding tickets, etc.  This is what happens when an idiot like Hamlet gets appointed to a position to which he is not qualified, nor has the experience to make sound decisions.

ABC COMING UNDER FIRE FOR PROCEDURES USED TO MEASURE DISTANCES

The ABC is having a lot of problems due to the way they physically measure distances from booze outlets and schools/churches.

We've posted several stories about the ABC's lack of tools for its agents and the lawsuits that have resulted.

The ABC uses Google Earth and a measuring wheel to verfiy distances, neither which are very accurate.

Instead of purchasing a subscription to a professional  GIS or GPS mapping service (or using a free one), the ABC will spend unnecessary funds on hiring a surveyor to measure distances in the event information is presented their agents messed up. Maybe tainted ABC Enforcement Director Boyce Hamlet should hit up his former boss Cody Hiland for more of that forfeiture money for some law enforcement tools like he did for bullet resistant vests.

This happened recently in the matter of Backdoor Liquor in Haskell (Saline County).

The ABC approved a permit for Backdoor Liquor Store in August 2015. 

Not too long after Mt. Harmony Baptist Church complained to the ABC that the liquor store was too close the their church building and had a survey to back up their claim. 

 

THE CHURCH'S ORIGINAL SURVEY

THE CHURCH'S UPDATED SURVEY

 

It is important to note that the Church initially objected to Backdoor's application and sent a letter in June 2015 that stated the distance was over 1000 feet.

Based on the new allegations, an administrative hearing was held in October 2015 and the ABC Board found that two different ABC Enforcement agents, Darrel Talley and Sharon Reed, both ascertained the distance to be over 1000 feet. The surveyor for the church told the ABC Board that his survey measured the distance from the church to the corner of the building that housed  an adjoining convenience store, not the point of the building where the liquor store was located. That was considered a "geographical" error by the ABC Board.

So the Board found that to allow the surveyor to go back an remeasure would do Backdoor Liquor "an injustice" and stated that the evidence indicated that the distance between the two was over 1000 feet.

  

Hang on a minute...a funny thing about this is that the law was changed in early 2015 concerning how distance was to be measured in regard to the issuance of ABC permits.

And  the ABC should have known about it before a memo went out in October 2015.
 

 
Prior to the change, the distance was measured from building to building. As of the date the current law went into effect, the distance was to be measure from property line to property line.

The ABC did not change their own rules & regulations to reflect the change in the law until February of 2016. Almost a year after the law was changed. Incredible.

Back to the story...the Church also hired a lawyer and sued the ABC and Backdoor Liquor. The church alleged that the distance between the buildings was less than 1000 feet, 998 feet to be exact and that Backdoor Liquors permit should be revoked.

ABC Administration realized that ABC Enforcement agents Talley and Reed might have screwed up (remember agents have a history of getting incorrect measurements or even recognizing a church).  So ABC Administration Director Bud Roberts engaged the services on a surveyor to establish the distance.

The ABC surveyor found that the distance was less that 1000 feet.

Now that the ABC had "verified" measurements, they had a problem. They had issued a permit and Backdoor Liquor was now open and doing a booming business. The lawsuit was still active. What to do, what to do.

Tainted ABC Enforcement Director Boyce Hamlet requested another hearing.

 
At this point the official record becomes a little fuzzy.  We obtained the ABC's file on Backdoor liquor on February 18, 2016. There is little documentation about what transpired after the October ABC Board hearing.


KATV ran a story on February 12, 2016 that stated the store was closing in 10 days. Strange, the information the ABC gave us six days later made no mention of the permit being revoked.  No copies of letters, forms, etc. Nada. 

If not for emails obtained in another FOIA request we would not have any record of the ABC's actions with Backdoor Liquor. We did see emails about another administrative hearing set for January 13, 2016 and then reset for a February date due to weather.

But apparently Backdoor had its permit revoked as they had a liquidation sale on February 20, 2016. That means the permit was revoked on February 10, 2016.  Again, there was nothing in the copy of the file that ABC provided to us that had any mention of the permit being revoked.  Bad record keeping? Naw...ineptitude.

According to the KATV story Backdoor Liquor has an appeal hearing scheduled on March 16, 2016 and the lawsuit in Saline County remains active.

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We used one of the free GIS mapping services that indicate property lines and it shows that the distance from property line to property line is less that 1000 feet. There are maps like this available for every Arkansas county.

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The ABC and the ABC Board acts in arbitrary and capricious manner in dealing with permits and distances from schools/churches.

We previous pointed out an instance in NW Arkansas where ABC Agents screwed up and missed a church that would have prevented the issuance of a permit.  

Then when the same agents went back a short while later to work another permit near that location, they found that they missed a church and that prevented the issuance of the second permit.

The ABC should have revoked the permit issued in error.  By not revoking that permit, the ABC might be in for a little problem with revoking the one for Backdoor.  

 

HUMP DAY HUMOR