The Brimhall Files: Father of Witnesses Recounts Night as Prosecution Builds Case

This part two of a series. If you have not yet already, read part one here.

JONESBORO, Ark. – Jeremy McKelroy is the father of the juvenile witnesses in the Brimhall case and was one of the first to become aware that something was wrong the night of the incident.

At about 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, May 4, McKelroy received an alert on a phone app telling him his daughter was out driving, according to the recently released reports obtained through FOIA. A chiropractor in Jonesboro by day, McKelroy assumed the role of concerned father that night and immediately called his daughter. When he asked what was happening, she handed the phone to his ex-wife, Brimhall’s current wife, Brittany Brimhall. McKelroy recalled her telling him Doug had become very intoxicated and was acting crazy, so she got everyone and left the home.

So, McKelroy invited them to his home. One of the juveniles stayed at his house while the other returned with Brittany and the juvenile victim.

McKelroy said the daughter who stayed explained what happened. However, her nerves were upset to the degree that it made her physically sick. Later, McKelroy got the “complete story” from her. She said Brimhall came home from the country club drunk. He had been joking around with her and went up to the victim’s room. McKelroy said he found out that Doug had been in his boxers the entire time – a detail Brimhall disputes.

From his understanding, McKelroy told the detective Brimhall went upstairs, sat on the victim’s bed, and began to curse saying she does not love him. He then poured a water bottle all over her, the report said. They ended up downstairs and were pushing on each other, McKelroy told police. That’s when Brimhall’s wife took the juveniles and left.

According to McKelroy’s statement, the initial story was that when they returned, Brimhall had pushed the victim in the head and then put his hands on her throat. The story was then changed that he did not choke her but just touched her. McKelroy said he believed his daughters had been coached on what to say.

There is a complicated history between McKelroy and others in the case. Brimhall’s current wife, Brittany, is McKelroy’s ex-wife and the mother of his children. Brimhall’s ex-wife, Lark, went out several times with McKelroy after getting divorced. McKelroy has since remarried.

After the explosive night of May 3/early May 4, McKelroy wanted to have a face-to-face discussion with Brimhall. The conversation was recorded and provided to the detective, who listened to it and summarized it in his notes.

The conversation includes McKelroy, McKelroy’s wife, Brimhall, and Brimhall’s wife. McKelroy stated he was there for the well-being of his children. He said that he did not want his children around Brimhall until – and the next section is redacted. He then told Brimhall he needed to go to rehab for the “drinking and drugs,” adding that he had “heard things.” There are redactions, but McKelroy said that those “things” don’t affect him, but they do affect the witnesses. McKelroy was worried his daughters would look at men differently from now on, saying how that was a “fu*ked up thing.”

McKelroy said he told Brimhall he had drunk too much. “The mistake is getting drunk, coming home, and pissing in the corner,” before the rest of the sentence is redacted. Brimhall can be heard asking if he can respond.

Brimhall stated he appreciates and can sympathize with that, adding that there are two sides to every story. More redactions block out most of the rest of the sentence, but it is visible that Brimhall said, “…investigation, I can’t say anything about it.”

Brimhall asked McKelroy what would make him feel better, to which McKelroy responded rehab or anger management. Brimhall’s wife mentioned that anger management and AA were discussed. Brimhall said he was not drinking anymore, but McKelroy responded that was not easy for an alcoholic to do.

Brimhall stated, according to the recording, that his problem is that he does not know his limit, saying he can “drink and drink and drink.” McKelroy responded, “The problem is, how old are you? Fu*k, you learn that sh*t in your 20s.”

It was eventually agreed upon that the two juvenile witnesses would not be in the home while Doug Brimhall was there.

Prosecution

The prosecution of Judge-elect Doug Brimhall was complicated from the beginning.

Officers knew the case to be a sensitive one and wrote in the reports they had to “make some phone calls due to who the suspect was,” given Brimhall’s position as a deputy prosecutor and a judge-elect. Along the way, a special judge was appointed to oversee the case and a special prosecutor was appointed.

The prosecutor’s notes were released to NEA Report as part of a Freedom of Information Act request.

On May 8, the special prosecutor wrote that he spoke with Detective Nicholas Dumond who was hoping to finish the report “this week.” Dumond was the primary detective on the case and completed much of the work in the report.

On May 16, notes begin under the label “Convo w/ Lark Montgomery.” saying “crazy 2 weeks.” Under that, it is written that the {redacted} subjects are doing okay or better, with one seeing a therapist to help.

On May 17, Detective Dumond received an email from the special prosecutor advising him to draw up an arrest warrant for Brimhall on the charges of Aggravated Assault on a Family or Household Member and Third-Degree Domestic Battery, according to unredacted investigative narratives from the incident report.

On May 20, Detective Jeremy Wheelis met with the special judge in Searcy to have the arrest warrant and probable cause affidavit signed. Judge Robert Edwards ordered an own recognizance bond for the defendant.

Also on May 20, the prosecutor noted speaking with the judge about approving a gag order and a motion to redact. The prosecutor also spoke to attorney Bill Stanley, who was leading Brimhall’s defense team. The prosecutor spoke with investigators and with the ex-wife, Lark, too.

On the morning of May 21, 2024, Detective Wheelis contacted Brimhall’s attorney and asked when he would like to turn himself in. It was decided they would meet at the jail at 10 a.m.

At 10:15 a.m., Brimhall was arrested and booked into the Craighead County Detention Center on a charge of aggravated assault on a family or household member. Sixteen minutes elapsed before Brimhall was released from jail on the OR bond.

Notes show the prosecutor notified the ex-wife and alleged victim on the same day of his arrest.

On May 23, the prosecutor noted he spoke with Emily Abbott, the Judicial Disciplinary and Disability Commission’s (JDDC) executive director. The JDDC is the entity that will most likely decide if Brimhall can take the bench as a judge in 2025.

On July 1, emails from the ex-wife to the prosecutor ask if it is worrisome that Doug has such a large legal team now. The prosecutor replies, “Doesn’t bother me at all. He could hire 100 more attorneys and it wouldn’t change what the evidence shows.”

On July 17, an issue surfaced that would later be a source of controversy with some in law enforcement. Several court filings were made that left personal information for the juveniles involved, including the victim, publicly visible. The subpoena was for the minor’s medical records. The special prosecutor quickly asked Brimhall’s team if this could be sealed, to which attorney Bill Stanley replied thanking him for “catching that.”

It wasn’t the only time information about the juveniles in the case was included in a public filing. This would lead to some in law enforcement believing that the defense did this on purpose to shame the victim. The defense team has denied this, as did Brimhall.

On August 20, the special prosecutor called the ex-wife and the juvenile victim and talked about the potential plea offer. The first note is that they didn’t want him to serve in public office.

On August 23, the prosecutor emailed the defense team with an update, saying he had spoken briefly with Bill Stanley a few weeks ago about plea negotiations. The prosecutor wanted Brimhall to plead to the third-degree domestic battery charge, noting in an email that he did not think it would prevent Brimhall from running for elected office again. The impasse, the email notes, was that Brimhall would not take the bench as a judge in January 2025.

“I’m fairly steadfast in that condition being a part of a misdemeanor plea,” Jones wrote. “I certainly understand if that’s a deal-breaker, but I wanted to give everyone my perspective. If it remains a deal-breaker, then a plea discussion would likely be a waste of time for both of us.”

On Sept. 9, a notation reads that the special prosecutor called McKelroy, with the first bullet point saying “week and a half ago.” It suggested that a {redacted} name might have to testify. Also on Sept. 9, an email from Lark to the prosecutor said they would be on board with a plea.

On Sept. 10, the prosecutor talked with Lark. He wrote that she “doesn’t know what she wants to happen.” The next sentence is incomplete, but begins with “Thinks Doug thinks.”

Also on Sept. 10, the prosecutor formally extended a plea offer through email to the defendant. The prosecutor offered Brimhall to plea to third-degree domestic battery, a Class A misdemeanor, in exchange for dropping the aggravated assault charge. The proposed sentence would be one-year probation, fines, costs, domestic violence classes, an alcohol counseling program, and two days in jail or 40 hours of community service.

The most notable part of the plea offer was the prosecutor dropping the requirement that Brimhall not take the bench in January. Jones wrote:

“I had previously mentioned that any negotiated plea would include not taking the bench in January, but as I think about my appointment, the scope of it, and research I’ve done on a similar circumstance, I think that decision is best left to the JDDC,” Jones wrote. “That is not going to be a condition of this plea offer should he accept it.”

On Sept. 11, the prosecutor emailed Lark to say that he had not heard a “peep” out of his attorneys about the settlement offer.

On Sept. 17, the prosecutor spoke with one of Brimhall’s defense attorneys, Paul Ford. “Reconciliation” was noted, with the next note saying, “wants plea of disorderly…” Jones wrote that he said no.

That day, Jones emailed Lark to say he had a long conversation with one of Doug’s attorneys. The prosecutor understood he would be willing to plea to disorderly conduct and public intoxication, but anything involving his admission that he injured his daughter is not something he sounded interested in.

On Sept. 18, Brimhall’s defense team filed several new briefs in court, including a response to the state’s Motion in Limine to preclude mental health records. A brief in support was included with the filing and initially, not sealed. This drew the ire of law enforcement. Given the previous mistakes in the case, authorities were skeptical that this could have also been an accident.

On Sept. 19, the prosecutor wrote that he had been in conversation with the defense team, including Bill Stanley. An agreement was reached. Count one, aggravated assault would be nolle prosequied. Count two, third-degree battery, would be amended to harassment, a Class A misdemeanor.

The prosecution would recommend a one-year suspended imposition of sentence, a form of probation that is unsupervised. Also, he would pay a $1,000 fine, pay court costs, take a domestic violence class, complete the JLAP AA program, do 40 hours of community service by the end of 2024, and write an apology letter to the victim by October 1. Just as he had decided on Sept. 10, the prosecutor did not include a stipulation related to Brimhall taking the bench as a judge.

Brimhall’s legal team also, again, agreed to seal the sensitive information related to his juvenile daughter to the public. Brimhall mentioned this in his statement to KAIT, saying, “While I have wanted to tell my story, I have also wanted to protect my daughter, which is why I agreed to seal my legal team’s response to the filing of the State’s Motion in Limine, which included a detailed years-long timeline of the events leading up to the event.”

Law enforcement contends that it could have been filed under seal, to begin with.

The Aftermath

The end of the legal proceedings, in most cases, would have meant the end of the conversation surrounding the case. This instance was different, especially after a statement from Brimhall said he intended to take the bench as a circuit judge, anyway.

That letter led to several in the community, including Brimhall’s former boss, Prosecutor Sonia F. Hagood, calling for him to reconsider his plans to be judge while also calling on the JDDC and judiciary to step in.

As of today, the JDDC has not announced a decision on Brimhall’s eligibility.

However, after our first story, Brimhall’s legal team reached out and agreed to do a sit-down interview with NEA Report. The interview was conducted on Tuesday, October 22, and includes everything related to the case, the calls for him not to be judge, and how he feels he is actually more qualified now to be a judge than he was before May 3.

No questions were off-limits. The interview lasted over two hours and was very emotional.

In part three of the Brimhall files, for the first time, Doug Brimhall responds to everything.

The Brimhall Files: Judge-Elect Believes He is More Qualified Than Ever Following Arrest