Legislative panel questions corrections board member Alonza Jiles on hiring of outdoors lawyer

Abtin Mehdizadegan
Brian Chilson

The state Legislature's Joint Performance Review committee met again Monday to examine a subject that's currently consumed two lengthy committee conferences this month: The state Board of Corrections' hiring of attorney Abtin Mehdizadegan to represent the board in 2 claims pitting it versus Gov. Sarah Sanders and Attorney General Tim Griffin.

On April 4 and 11, Republican lawmakers grilled corrections board members for hours over whether they 'd followed public openness and procurement laws in working with Mehdizadegan. On Monday, the committee heard from one additional member, Alonza Jiles, and tried to sanction the board.

But Petty's motion stopped working for absence of support, perhaps due to some members being missing. The Legislature is back in session tomorrow, and committee chair Rep. Mark Berry (R-Ozark)-- who's been highly vital of Mehdizadegan and the corrections board-- said the committee will convene again tomorrow.

The corrections board has been embroiled in conflict with Sanders, Griffin and other state authorities for months now, and the conflict over Mehdizadegan's hiring is only one subplot amongst lots of. Jiles, the board member affirming Monday, is at the center of another. He's one of several defendants being taken legal action against by lots of confidential complainants who say he assisted cover up kid sexual assault while working as a senior administrator at the Lord's Ranch, a now-closed behavioral health facility in northeast Arkansas.
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Sanders, Griffin and some lawmakers have actually gotten in touch with Jiles to resign over the accusations, though the politics of the scenario are laden for Arkansas Republicans: The previous head of the Lord's Ranch, Ted Suhl, is a close partner of Sanders' dad, previous Gov. Mike Huckabee, and was released early from jail in 2019 thanks to a commutation from then-President Donald Trump. (He was serving a seven-year sentence for bribing a state medicaid authorities.) Suhl is also a defendant in the claims and is accused of conspiring to conceal dreadful acts of abuse for years.
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Jiles testified before lawmakers for practically half an hour today, no legislator attempted to bring up the Lord's Ranch accusations. The concerns (and his statement) focused solely on the Board of Corrections contract problem.
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