FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas Justice Reform Coalition filed a lawsuit back in June against Washington County, claiming that officials misused federal COVID relief money on plans for a jail expansion. Now, AJRC is giving an update on the legal battle that is quickly becoming costly.
Sarah Moore, the executive director of AJRC, said the vote for a jail expansion failed back in 2019, and that the people gave their answer.
"Voters said no in Washington County, their response immediately the very next month, in December of 2022, was that the county judge and the quorum court said that they were going to spend almost $19 million of American Rescue Plan, Money for a jail expansion," Moore explained.
The lawsuit claims that during the pandemic, the county allegedly opted to divert funds from nonprofits to the jail expansion.
"These are incredible, possible investments. We were told by the quorum court at the time to just be patient," Moore said. "Every organization like ourselves that actually waited, were patient, went through the process and at the end of the day, none of these organizations were awarded any money. And so again, that was something that we named in the lawsuit, because there wasn't an equitable process."
AJRC has put $20,000 towards the lawsuit so far, and the Washington County Quorum Court voted to spend $100,000 to fight the lawsuit. She said almost three months after the lawsuit was filed, they're planning to need more funds.
The group met on Aug. 22 to discuss a path forward.
"We'll kind of get into that deeper discovery. We'll have depositions, and we've got a date in court in September, and so we're going to continue to proceed forward again," Moore said. "Unfortunately, court costs are incredibly expensive, so we probably have a goal of raising somewhere north of $70,000."
Moore said the county has filed two motions to dismiss the case. She believes the ARPA funds could be used to support other projects and resources the county needs.
"There's not enough housing. The county could be a part of the solution and build housing with this money. That's eligible with this money. They can expand healthcare. That's allowed with this money," Moore said. This ARPA money, is once in a lifetime money, I mean, it could be very life changing for so many of our families."
Washington County Judge Patrick Deakins declined comment to 5NEWS when the lawsuit was filed, as they generally don't talk about ongoing litigation.
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