The primary issue in this workers' compensation case is whether the statutory presumption of intoxication found in Ark. Code Ann. § 11-9-102(4)(B)(iv)(b) (Supp. 2009) is raised by a claimant's refusal to take the particular test requested by the employer. The parties do not dispute that appellant, Curt Bean Transport, Inc., requested that appellee, Lawrence Hill, take a hair-follicle test four days after he wrecked a large truck and that he refused. Curt Bean appeals the ruling of the...  

Appellant Ronnie Dean Davis was convicted by a jury of sexual assault in the second degree and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for engaging in sexual contact with an eleven-year-old girl who was sleeping in the home in which appellant and his girlfriend lived. On appeal, he contends that the trial court erred in denying his motions for directed verdict. We find no error and affirm appellant's conviction... In the early morning hours of March 20, 2008, the victim and her friend were...  

A jury in Faulkner County found appellant Richard Lea Colvin guilty of aggravated assault, felony fleeing, driving while intoxicated (second offense), first-degree assault, and resisting arrest. As a consequence, appellant received cumulative sentences totaling twelve years in prison. As his sole point on appeal, appellant contends that the evidence is not sufficient to support his conviction for aggravated assault. We affirm... Tracy McDermott, a police officer in Conway, was the victim of the...  

This is an appeal from summary judgment in favor of the appellee in an action to set aside a tax deed conveying property on which appellee held a mortgage. Appellee was not notified of the sale and discovered that it had taken place only after it attempted to foreclose the lien on the property for nonpayment. Appellant argues that no notice to appellee of the tax sale was required because the description in most of the deeds of trust filed by appellee in connection with the mortgage were void...  

Appellants appeal from the Arkansas Workers' Compensation Commission's decision that appellee Robert Newby is entitled to a ten-percent impairment rating to the left upper extremity. Specifically, appellants argue that there is not substantial evidence that the "major cause" of Newby's impairment to his left shoulder was his work-related injury rather than his preexisting arthritic condition. We conclude that substantial evidence supports the Commission's conclusion and affirm... The...  

This appeal follows the April 27, 2009 decision of the Workers' Compensation Commission affirming and adopting the November 18, 2008 opinion of the Administrative Law Judge, finding that on July 17, 2006, appellee sustained a compensable injury in the form of a myocardial infarction, or heart attack. Appellants' sole argument on appeal is that the Commission's decision is not supported by substantial evidence. We affirm... On July 17, 2006, an extremely hot day, appellee was performing his...  

This is a termination-of-parental-rights case. Joseph Bearden, Jr., appeals from the Washington County Circuit Court's termination of his parental rights to his son, T.W., born July 21, 2005.1 The circuit court based its decision on the ground that T.W. had been out of appellant's home for twelve months and, despite a meaningful effort by DHS to rehabilitate appellant, the conditions that caused the child's removal had not been remedied by appellant. We affirm the circuit court's decision......  

Appellant, Jason Shively, appeals from the circuit court order denying his petition for modification of custody of the parties' minor daughter. We affirm the decision of the circuit court... The parties were married on March 24, 2001, and divorced on January 21, 2005. The parties have one minor child, a daughter who was born in 2003. Appellee was granted sole custody of the child in the divorce, and appellant was granted standard visitation. Appellee has remarried and resides in Cleburne...  

Former North Little Rock police officer Robert Spriggs was denied retirement benefits by the Arkansas Local Police and Fire Retirement Board (LOPFI). An appeal to the Pulaski County Circuit Court was unsuccessful. Spriggs now comes before this court seeking reversal. He argues that the circuit court erred in not remanding his case for an additional hearing and that the decision of the board was in error. We order rebriefing, as Spriggs's brief does not comply with the rules of this court......  

SSI, Inc. and its insurer, Bituminous Insurance Company, appeal from a decision of the Arkansas Workers' Compensation Commission awarding appellee George W. Cates additional medical benefits. Appellants contend that the Commission's determination that appellee is entitled to additional medical treatment is not supported by substantial evidence. We affirm... Appellee was injured on August 8, 2005, while working for SSI, Inc. As a result of the accident, appellee suffered injuries to his head and...  

Appellant Pedro Lopez appeals his conviction for possession of a controlled substance (marijuana) with intent to deliver after a bench trial in Lonoke County Circuit Court. Appellant challenges the denial of his motion to suppress the drugs, over one hundred pounds of marijuana concealed in the gas tank of the vehicle he was driving. There was no question that the police officer had cause to pull the vehicle over along I-40 for a speeding violation and had cause to arrest appellant for failure...  

Appellant Trudy Matlock challenges the trial court's distribution of marital property claiming two points of error: (1) The trial court erred in not distributing the remaining personal property; (2) The trial court abused its discretion in the amount of alimony and the length of the alimony award. The crux of her argument is that the trial court erred in not distributing certain items omitted from the parties' agreement and in establishing the parameters of the award of alimony, asserting that...  

Appellant Leonard McCracken brings this appeal from a decree entered by the Conway County Circuit Court divorcing him from appellee Tammy McCracken. For reversal, appellant contends that the trial court erred in determining that the parties' home and surrounding acreage are marital property. We find no error and affirm... Before the parties' marriage in 1999, appellant inherited the family farm in north Arkansas from his father. In 2005, appellant sold the farm and used the proceeds to purchase...  

At a bench trial in Craighead County Circuit Court, Juvenile Division, the trial court adjudicated as true one count of battery in the second degree in violation of Arkansas Code Annotated Section 5-13-202, and one count of disorderly conduct in violation of Arkansas Code Annotated Section 5-71-207 for appellant, M.T., a minor. Appellant was sentenced to six months supervised probation; an 8:00 p.m. curfew; outpatient counseling; and ordered to pay $35 in court costs, $50 in public defender's...  

This is a boundary dispute, which arose in 2003 between appellees, Sidney and Lela Ann Owen, and appellants Jeff and Angela Nix. Appellant Daphne McGregor is Angela Nix's grandmother. At issue are 3.24 rural acres. Appellees filed a quiet-title action, relying upon a 1973 warranty deed conveying the property to them. Appellants countered by arguing that they had acquired the disputed property by adverse possession. At the first trial, the court granted a directed verdict in favor of appellees,...  

Petitioner Rickey Dale Newman petitions this court to reinvest jurisdiction in the circuit court to allow him to seek a writ of error coram nobis. He offers two grounds for which he claims the writ is warranted: (1) that he was incompetent at the time of trial, and (2) that the prosecutor withheld material exculpatory evidence in violation of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963). We grant the petition... Newman was convicted in Crawford County Circuit Court of capital murder and sentenced to...  

Appellant Efrain Viveros appealed his judgment of conviction, resulting from a jury trial, on charges of possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver, possession of drug paraphernalia, and two counts of failure to appear. The Arkansas Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment. Viveros v. State, CACR 06-173 (Ark. App. Mar. 14, 2007). Appellant timely filed in the trial court a pro se petition for relief under Arkansas Rule of Criminal Procedure 37.1 that was denied, and he now appeals that...  

This court denied a pro se petition filed by Robert T. Maxwell, who is also known as G-Doffee, to reinvest jurisdiction in the trial court to consider a petition for writ of error coram nobis with respect to a judgment of conviction entered against him in 2007. Maxwell v. State, 2009 Ark. 309 (unpublished per curiam). Now before us is petitioner's pro se motion for reconsideration of that decision... In the motion for reconsideration, petitioner attempts to recast one of his previous arguments...  

Appellant, Ronald Jay Campbell appeals his jury conviction for engaging in a Continuing Criminal Enterprise ("CCE") and his convictions for additional multiple crimes alleged committed through the CCE. We hold that the circuit court erred in failing to grant appellant's motion for a directed verdict based on the State's failure to present substantial evidence to prove the CCE. We further hold that the circuit court erred in failing to grant appellant's motion to exclude evidence of...  

Appellants, Joy Danielle Dachs, individually and as special representative of the estate of Elizabeth Anne Dachs, deceased, and Joshua Allen Dachs, individually, appeal the order of the Greene County Circuit Court granting summary judgment to Appellees, Barry D. Hendrix, MD; Family Practice Clinic; Hendrix Medical Services, PLLC; Paragould Physicians... ... ... Management, LLC (collectively, "the physician defendants"); and Rebecca Fisher, LPN; Cynthia A. Bartholomew, RN; Arkansas...