Justices Question Deputy Prosecutor’s Request

RISON - While a request by Deputy Prosecutor Eric Marks to add a shared staff person with two other counties to help file circuit court cases was met with some resistance, the Cleveland County Quorum Court was open to seeing how much the staff person would cost before making a final decision.In addition, the quorum court gave County Judge Jimmy Cummings permission to seek bids on building a new structure to store and test the county’s voting machines, and also gave him the go-ahead to build a new office at the Cleveland County Solid Waste Transfer Station on Hwy. 79 at Rison.Those issues and others were addressed during the quorum court’s regular monthly meeting Monday night at the Hall-Morgan Veterans Building in Rison.Marks, who serves as the 13th Judicial District’s deputy prosecutor for Cleveland County, asked the justices of the peace if they were receptive to the idea of paying the portion of a salary for someone to take care of filing criminal cases for Cleveland, Calhoun and Dallas counties. He said the position would also be shared with the district court, which hears misdemeanor cases.Currently, Marks said he along with the local sheriff’s departments has to do much of the leg work in putting cases together. In particular, he said the prosecutor’s office does not rely on the postal service to send sensitive documents or evidence, which means himself or someone with the sheriff’s department has transport those material to the 13th Judicial District’s main office in El Dorado.Marks’ proposal was to hire someone who would be based at Fordyce to handle those duties for Cleveland, Calhoun and Dallas counties. By doing so, he said it would expedite having the cases tried, take some burden off the sheriff’s department and could result in the county benefiting from the collection of more fines since more cases could be tried.During his presentation, Marks said the person they are considering for the jo...