Former Judge Roy Thomas of Batesville, AR; ethical troll

The state of Arkansas provided Mark R. Johnson with a law license in 1973 after he graduated from the University of Arkansas Law School.

It should be noted that this wasn’t Roy’s First bite at the Attorney/Judicial Misfit Apple Tree.

He previously received two complimentary cautions and one complimentary reprimand for engaging in a variety of misconduct.

The Arkansas Judicial Commission found Roy guilty of the following misconduct while he was serving as a part-time Blytheville Municipal Court judge.

• Presided as judge in proceedings involving his personal clients in eight cases
• Made threatening remarks to an individual who filed a judicial ethics complaint against him
• 3Attempted to use his judicial office to have a sheriff “help” him to have a speeding ticket issued to him dismissed
• 4Improperly used his judicial office to interfere with a police officer’s duties by directing the police officer not to arrest and to release a minor in possession of three kegs of beer
• Knowingly and without lawful authority, issued temporary driver’s permits to people whose drivers licenses had been revoked
• Used his judicial office to have a client released from jail, and at the same time threatened police staff with jail if they failed to release the client on his own recognizance
• After an improper ex-parte (one-sided) meeting with a defense counsel, he dismissed criminal charges against an individual, which then allowed defense counsel to use the dismissal issued by Roy to avoid a parole revocation on behalf of his client
• During a pretrial conference Roy was told by a deputy prosecuting attorney that a statutory rape charge was going to be nolle pross and later the charge would be refiled in circuit court, and did so without the presence of the prosecutor, nor without notice given to the prosecutor
• Accepted gifts and favors from a car dealership and at the same time he presided over cases involving that car dealership
• Roy ruled in favor of the car dealership 43 times and against it once
• Roy wrote approximately 166 checks with insufficient funds in the checking accounts (rubber)

As a direct consequence of his misconduct, the apologists for Attorney Misfits sitting on the Committee on Professional Conduct punished Mark by gifting him with a complimentary 30-day suspension from the bench.

As we speak (ca. May 2023), Roy practices his so-called brand of law at 255 Third Street in Batesville, Arkansas.