Hoxie City Attorney under investigation by Office of Professional Conduct

Has already made false statements to the investigator

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The Arkansas Supreme Court Office of Professional Conduct is looking into a grievance against former Walnut Ridge and current Hoxie City Attorney Nancy Hall which involves NEA Report.

Stark Ligon, the executive director and chief disciplinary counsel, was assigned a grievance file last week against Hall, emails we obtained show. The grievance was filed by Adam Finley, the railroad worker who was roughed up by a Walnut Ridge Police Department officer before being ticketed for trying to file a complaint. Finley filed the grievance after Hall contacted NEA Report in spring, 2018 to suggest we not cover the story because Finley was a “wife abuser,” among other unfavorable descriptors.

Last week, Ligon reached out to Hall, who replied from her Yahoo! email address at 2:35 PM Saturday, Feb. 2, 2019. In her reply, she made several false statements, which we have boldly italicized.

I did not represent Heather (now Threlkeld) in the divorce from Adam Finley… She was pro se, but did represent her in a modification/contempt (default), then a contempt (he was found in contempt), and a current contempt against him (pending).

Nancy Hall

In her first paragraph, Hall stated Finley had been found in contempt three times, including a pending instance. Finley states this is untrue.

The next section Hall addressed was the source of the complaints. Hall sent several unsolicited text messages in a frenzy to this reporter after NEA Report titled a video an officer “Gives A Hard Time” to a railroad worker.

Hall’s explanation for these messages was mired in dishonesty.

The message sent to you was part of an “off the record” private comment to a (now former) friend, who ended up making several public attacks against me using his “media site”. I questioned his “gotcha” techniques and his bias in matters. Privately. Nothing was ever stated publically. I think he continues to put me on his “front page” as recently as a couple weeks ago.

Nancy Hall

Hall’s first dishonest statement is that these messages were part of a broader conversation. They were not. She initiated the conversation with the above texts.

Secondly, she says these were comments between friends. We were both professional acquaintances who met while working and never conversed beyond work topics.

Third, Hall said she never made public statements. This is not true. She called Finley’s lawsuit a “nuisance” at a city council meeting, as reported by The Jonesboro Sun, and publicly* discussed the incident with several others, we’ve been told.

When that occurred I pulled my advertising from NEA Report, blocked Mr. Morris’s email, blocked his personal number, and advised all future requests for comment as City Attorney be directed thru the office.

Nancy Hall

Everything in this paragraph is untrue.

Hall has NEVER advertised with NEA Report. We asked her to but she said she didn’t want to waste money when Rees Law Firm advertised because he would get all of the attention. It seemed to be a sore spot. She even made a comment about Rees advertising in the text message above.

Second, she’s never to this day blocked this report through email or text message, which is proven by the third item: How would she have advised someone to stop contacting her if she had first blocked them? She mixed the order up in her untruthful story. But it gets worse.

Mr. Morris would call me at all hours of the night, etc. I assume he was drunk. He has past convictions. He demanded I fire someone whom I did not have in my employ. He threatened me and put out a public call for others to threaten me. I had a death threat from third parties for to these actions of Mr. Morris.

These events were reported to Mayor Snapp when they occurred.

Nancy Hall

Untrue and she proved it herself. How could we call her when she had blocked our number?

We did call Hall once after 9 PM, which is very rare for us. This was to demand her intern stop contacting and harassing NEA Report staff. Hall refused to stop him.

This reporter does not drink or have “past convictions.” Unfortunately, these are dishonest personal attacks on a journalist who tried to hold her accountable.

Next, this reporter never threatened Hall or anyone else. If this had been even close to true, I would have been arrested or blocked from attending public meetings. Text messages show she was the one initiating conversations about the subject while seeming to be upset. Hall lied again.

However, we have no way of knowing if someone sent her a threat and we condemn any type of harassing behavior by our followers and readers.

I am no longer City Attorney for Walnut Ridge, my term having ended on Dec. 31st 2018. I am the City Attorney for Hoxie.

Nancy Hall

Hall lives in Walnut Ridge and serves as the City Attorney for Hoxie. This violates the exact law she claimed her 2018 election opponent, Ethan Weeks, had violated. Weeks defeated Hall and Hall began claiming Weeks lived outside of the city limits (Weeks does live inside the city limits but Hall employed “friends” to stalk Weeks, according to her own comments to The Jonesboro Sun).

I currently represent Heather Threlkeld.

Mr. Finley was recently served with papers for contempt (3rd time). He has not responded to date.

Nancy Hall

Again, Finley denies this is true.

In the City of WR matter, (Finley v. City) I did not have a part in any matters regarding Mr. Finley’s complaint. I did not prosecute for the City, and did not instruct the officers to cite him. I do not practice in Federal District Court and therefore when the Mayor was served, I immediately notified him I could not assist. The Municipal League handled this matter from the start.

Nancy Hall

Hall updated the city council on the lawsuit during meetings and once called it a “nuisance lawsuit.” She then attempted to influence press coverage of the event in her official capacity with media contacts.

I have not made a public comment regarding Mr. Finley on social media though I have made plenty directly to him in the course of pursuing the interests of Heather Threlkeld in having the terms of the divorce followed. I likely was brutal in my cross examination of him.

Nancy Hall

Impromptu texting a news reporter that Finley is a “wife abuser” could be seen as a public comment. So could calling the lawsuit a “nuisance” at a public meeting while describing it to a city council.

Hope this clarifies things.

Sincerely,

Nancy L. Hall

NEA Report covered the incident last year and reported that Hall had reached out to this reporter to imply Finley deserved his abuse due to a history of domestic violence. She hoped to stop our coverage which was largely driven by a video of the traffic stop and video of the now-resigned police chief ticketing Finley for trying to file a complaint. But nothing Hall said reflected the incident shown in the video.

Several days after our report which exposed what she did, she told this reporter she realized she had been wrong in her actions.

But, Hall also began obsessively saying “off the record” before every sentence in the phone conversations which followed our story involving her. She asserts that her initial comments were made “off the record,” but she never stated this once prior or during her messages about Finley. Further, Hall failed to mention to this reporter she had a professional relationship with Finley’s ex and she misrepresented events in the video, even after we showed it, as though she had not watched it at all.

Depositions are set to begin this week in the civil rights lawsuit against Walnut Ridge and relevant parties, stemming from this incident:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRbjc068wts