A special judge presiding over a lawsuit against Mayor Butch Berry and other city officials in connection with actions by the City Advertising and Promotion Commission has ordered the defendants to turn over information regarding insurance policies to the attorney representing the plaintiffs.
In an order issued Tuesday, June 13, Special Circuit Judge William Randall Wright ordered defendants Berry, Patrick Burnett, Jeff Carter, James DeVito, Lacey Ekberg, Melissa Greene, Harry Meyer, Kim Stryker and Carol Wright to “produce copies of … any insurance policy including home owners, business, corporate, or rental,” in which they were listed as the insured party or covered.
Wright noted that the defendants’ attorneys objected to the plaintiffs’ request for the insurance information, arguing that any insurance policy pertaining to individual defendants is not relevant to their immunity defenses. The judge also noted that the production of the insurance policies is not a determination of their admissibility.
Judge Wright ordered that the policies be provided to the court and to attorney Tim Parker, who represents the plaintiffs in the lawsuit that originally was filed more than two years ago. He ordered Parker not to disclose the policies to anyone, including his clients, until further orders from the court.
Parker filed the lawsuit in March 2021 on behalf of former CAPC events coordinator Tracy Johnson, former finance director Rick Bright, former interim director Gina Rambo, former group sales coordinator Karen Pryor and former commissioner Greg Moon.
Bright and Pryor were still employed by the CAPC when the suit was filed but both later left their positions. Rambo was demoted from the interim director position and later fired in February 2021.
Carroll County Circuit Judge Scott Jackson, who presided over the case until he recused at Parker’s request in January 2023, ruled later in 2021 that the commission had no authority to vacate Moon’s seat, as it had done in January 2021, and he rejoined the commission but later resigned.
Defendants in the suit are Berry, Burnett, Carter, Lonnie Clark, DeVito, Ekberg, Greene, Meyer, Stryker and Carol Wright and an insurance company that provides a policy to the city. A second insurance company was dismissed from the suit in January 2022.
Burnett, Carter, De-Vito and Carol Wright are former CAPC commissioners. Clark is the city’s finance director. Ekberg is a former executive director of the CAPC. Greene and Meyer are Eureka Springs City Council members and former CAPC commissioners. Stryker is Berry’s administrative assistant.
Burnett, Clark and Ekberg were not named as defendants in the original complaint but were added later in amended complaints — most recently on May 30, when Parker filed a third amended complaint to add Clark as a defendant.
The most recent amended complaint enumerates 24 causes of action and seeks a total of more than $37 million in compensatory and punitive damages as well as attorney’s fees. It also asks that the court issue an injunction ordering that any adverse entries related to the facts of the case be removed from the city and CAPC personnel files for Bright, Johnson, Pryor and Rambo.
The plaintiffs originally were represented by attorney Amanda LaFever, who was an employee of the Arkansas Municipal League. LaFever withdrew from the case in January after leaving the Municipal League. The plaintiffs are now represented by attorneys Susan Keller Kendall and Thomas N. Kieklak of the Springdale law firm of Harrington, Miller, Kieklak, Eichmann and Brown.
Kendall filed a response to the most recent amended complaint on Monday, June 19, denying the causes of action listed in the complaint and asking the court to dismiss the suit.
