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A member of the Arkansas Board of Corrections wants to represent himself in a lawsuit filed over the panel’s alleged public records law violations, telling a judge the terms of a possible settlement would violate his constitutional rights.
Board member Lee Watson filed a motion in state court Friday, citing an “imminent risk” that the board may meet and vote on the proposal. Special called meetings only require a two-hour notice period.
Attorney General Tim Griffin sued the corrections board over two years ago, arguing that it had violated the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act when it hired the Hall Booth Smith law firm to represent it in its challenge to a state law that would have taken away the panel’s authority to hire and fire top prison officials.
The lawsuits have been part of an unusually public dispute with Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and other top Republicans since the governor’s first year in office.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Timothy Fox gave the board and Griffin’s office 45 days to discuss whether any points still required litigation in February, after Fox dismissed Griffin’s complaint against Hall Booth Smith and Abtin Mehdizadegan, the attorney hired by the board in 2023.
The board fired Mehdizadegan and his firm earlier this year, after Sanders appointed several new board members at the end of 2025.
According to Watson’s filing, attorneys working for Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office “communicated a settlement proposal” to the board’s staff attorney on March 18. Watson wrote that one of the conditions of the proposal “would require the Board to admit that ‘Lee Watson and Benny Magness violated the FOIA by having a discussion in a parking lot in regard to Hall Booth Smith.’”
In a text message to the Advocate, Watson called the proposed admission false, saying he “had no familiarity with the existence” of the law firm in April 2023 and had never heard of Mehdizadegan until that fall.
“The attorney general’s settlement offer created a conflict between me and the Board of Corrections in that I would be personally harmed if the current board (all of whom have no knowledge of the claimed event referenced in the offer) accepted the offer,” Watson wrote.
A spokesperson for Griffin said in a text message that no written settlement offer had been made to the board. Jeff LeMaster said the office “communicated with the board’s attorney regarding a proposed settlement, but he does not have a copy.”
“Mr. Watson’s filing continues his inflammatory conduct, is improper, and reflects his misunderstanding of the facts and the law,” LeMaster wrote in a text message.
LeMaster was referring to Thomas Burns, a staff attorney employed by the corrections board, in his filing, though Burns has said in legal filings that he is unable to represent the corrections board himself. The board has not yet hired new legal counsel.
Watson, an appointee of former Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson and a licensed attorney, asked Fox not to approve any settlement requiring the board to admit Watson is a “FOIA violator” without his written consent and a court hearing.
If the board agreed to the terms, Watson wrote it “would create a public record branding him as a FOIA violator” and damage his reputation as a public official and attorney without his consent, since the proposal specifically names him, even though he is not named individually as a defendant in Griffin’s lawsuit.
Board of Corrections Chairman Jamie Barker declined to comment.
Arkansas Advocate is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arkansas Advocate maintains editorial independence. This article was published with permission from the Arkansas Advocate. Contact Editor Andrew DeMillo for questions: [email protected]. Follow Arkansas Advocate on Facebook and Twitter.
