Calling it an opportunity “to restore trust and integrity to the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office,” De Queen City Attorney
Erin Hunter
announced Monday that she will challenge incumbent
Jana Bradford
for the Ninth West Judicial District prosecutor’s position.
Bradford, who was elected prosecutor in 2022, has been plagued by scandal since taking office. In March 2023,
a lawsuit filed by several sexual assault victims accused Bradford of using her position as a deputy prosecutor to help her uncle,
Barry Walker
, cover up decades of rape and sexual abuse against dozens of minors.
According to that lawsuit, Bradford used her previous position as a deputy prosecuting attorney to repeatedly protect Walker from legal consequences for his actions, including by
advocating for his early release from prison after he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting an 8-year-old
Fort Smith girl and
disputing the claims of a 4-year-old Clark County girl who accused Walker in 2014
of sexually assaulting her. Walker also
asked then-Gov. Mike Huckabee for a pardon for Walker in 2004
, barely three years after Walker was first convicted of sexual abuse of an 8-year-old girl and while Walker still had two years remaining on his sentence.
Walker pleaded guilty in October 2022 to more than 100 counts of sexual crimes, including 34 counts of rape against child victims as young as 2, and he received 39 life sentences with no possibility of parole.
The allegations led some in the area to call for Bradford to resign
, which she has refused to do. A civil trial against Bradford and other alleged enablers of Walker’s actions is scheduled for March in Arkadelphia.
Hunter’s announcement comes barely two weeks after Bradford announced she would seek reelection. Based on the announcement, it appears Bradford’s character and ongoing legal issues will be front and center as a campaign issue.
“The current lack of trust in the Prosecuting Attorney’s office is not only unacceptable, it puts public safety at risk,” Hunter said. “Our families deserve to know that justice is being pursued for the right reasons, not for political gain.”
According to a campaign press release, Hunter is originally from Newhope in western Pike County, and she graduated from Dierks High School before obtaining her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Arkansas – Fayetteville. She has practiced law in southwest Arkansas for nearly 15 years and is currently the elected city attorney for De Queen and a deputy prosecuting attorney in the 18th Judicial District.
Previously, she worked as a deputy prosecutor in Sevier County and, in 2021, then-Gov. Asa Hutchinson appointed her to serve out the remainder of former Ninth West prosecutor Bryan Chesshir’s term after Chesshir was elected judge. After Bradford was elected in 2022, Hunter worked under her for about two years as a deputy prosecutor.
The 9th West Judicial District covers all of Howard, Little River, Pike, and Sevier counties. Hunter’s announcement says she resides in De Queen with her husband, Stephen, a high school baseball coach and athletic director, and their two children.
In addition to her alleged actions on behalf of Walker,
Bradford has also been accused of inappropriately using her power as a prosecutor to protect criminals in at least one other instance
. Her intervention in a 2007 case led to a felony aggravated assault charge against a Pike County man named Ryan Nutt being reduced to only a misdemeanor after Nutt hit someone in the head with a baseball bat. At the time, Nutt was already on probation for felony domestic violence. This reduction in the charge likely prevented Nutt’s probation from being revoked, keeping him from serving the remaining six years on his original sentence and
leaving him free to murder Chris Palmer in 2011
.
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