Cold Case-Murder in Saline County(Ives/Henry Article)

[boco357]

Here's something I found that was aired on KTHV in Little Rock a few years back.

http://209.157.64.201/focus/f-news/790016/posts


After eight years, numerous investigations and two grand juries, the investigation into the murders of Don Henry and Kevin Ives was officially closed in 1995. Kevin's mom, Linda believes it's a case of police protecting police.

Linda Ives however, continues to search for the truth about how her son died. Linda co-produced a documentary titled "Obstruction of Justice." Integrity films released it in 1996. The film portrays a botched investigation and a cover-up involving an alleged drug ring with Saline County authorities. "And I think Kevin and Don stumbled upon a drug drop that was protected by law enforcement officials." Ives believes Kevin and Don came upon the scene and were grabbed and interrogated for information they didn't have and ended up being beaten and put on the railroad tracks."

At the end of the documentary the narrator says, "Eyewitnesses have implicated several people in the murders and subsequent cover-up including, Dan Harmon, Richard Garrett, Jim Steed, Jay Campbell, Kirk Lane and Danny Allen.

In 1997, Jay Campbell and Kirk Lane, both undercover narcotics deputies for Pulaski county sued the filmmakers for defamation. A jury ruled in their favor and awarded them 600-thousand dollars." Then last year, an 8th Circuit U.S. Court of appeals overturned that verdict. Ives says it was a victory. "It validated everything we have been saying for years. Yes, there are eyewitnesses. Yes, this case is solvable."

Ives says for the first time through this ruling, the government acknowledged eyewitness reports, which possibly link Jay Campbell and Kirk Lane to Don Henry and Kevin Ives the night they died. "I believe that there were two police officers that killed Kevin and Don. That they were the actual hands-on killers,” says Ives.

The ruling highlights three reports, which were included in State Police records handed over in the defamation trial. Those reports place the teens and some deputies near a grocery store near the tracks where Kevin and Don died.

According to the ruling, Ronnie Godwin, returning home from a nightclub, saw two men believed to be police officers pushing a teenage boy up against the telephone booth. Another teenage boy was lying or kneeling on the ground. He says he then saw the men put the boys in the back of the car. Later, Dan Harmon said the descriptions fit Campbell and Lane.

Another witness, Alan Smith also says he saw an undercover police car near the store. And finally, Mike Crook, who managed a local nightclub, reports a conversation with a friend he knows as Jerry. He says jerry saw Kevin and Don, then an unmarked police car pulled up and two men in plain clothes got out. One of them he says was Kirk Lane. The other guy he didn't know, but says he was a large man. Jerry says the two boys and the two cops got into an argument and the two cops beat the boys unconscious and threw them into the car."

Jay Campbell is now the Chief of Police in Lonoke. He calls the eyewitness accounts a far stretch. "They submitted records and there was not one eyewitness statement that said Jay Campbell and Kirk Lane were seen, heard or did anything." he also discredits Ronnie Godwin's account of what happened that night. "Ronnie Godwin’s own family testified that you can't believe anything Ronnie says when he's been drinking, and by his own account, he was leaving a nightclub. He had been there all night." Campbell denies he or Kirk Lane had any involvement in the deaths. "Working as undercover officers, it would be asinine for us to be driving an unmarked police car with spotlights and antennas all over it." In fact, he's still not convinced anyone murdered Don Henry and Kevin Ives. He believes Linda Ives is relying on disreputable witnesses to support what she believes. "I wouldn't believe anything Ronnie Godwin said,” says Campbell. "I wouldn't believe anything Mike Crook said, Mike Crook is a known drug dealer and has been since I've been in law enforcement." The ruling also pointed out that Campbell and Lane testified they did not kill the boys, but neither could offer an alibi.

Despite what Linda Ives calls solid evidence, no law enforcement agency has re-opened the case. "I think people have been threatened with their lives. I think people have been threatened with their jobs," But this hasn't stopped Linda from Hoping. "One of our rituals we go through whenever a new sheriff, or new Prosecuting Attorney comes in, we usually go talk to them and try to get them interested in re-opening the case."

Linda Ives says Kevin and Don never received the investigation they deserved. And though she will never see her son alive, she wants to see his killers brought to justice. "I think about Kevin every day. Often times, it's the first thing I think of when I wake up, and the last thing I think of when I go to bed. He’ll always be part of our lives, whether he's here or not."

Linda Ives says she plans to ask the newly elected Saline County prosecutor, Robert Herzfield, to investigate and she hopes another grand jury could get the case.

[boco357]

Well I guess Jay Campbell didn't last long in Lokone.

http://www.arkansasleader.com/2006/0...als-spend.html


In a sex and drugs case that has rocked the Lonoke community, the Campbells and two bail bondsmen plead not guilty and are slated to appear for pretrial motions on Thursday.

Pretrial motions are set for Thursday in the various drug and/or theft trials of former Lonoke Police Chief Jay Campbell, his wife Kelly and bail bondsmen Bobby Cox Jr. and Larry Norwood in Lonoke County Circuit Court at Lonoke.

All four defendants pled not guilty before Circuit Judge David Reynolds Monday morning to an array of felony charges brought in February, and the Campbells each also pleaded not guilty to 10 new drug or theft charges filed Friday.
Reynolds tentatively set at July 2 trial date.

Substituting for ailing Circuit Judge Lance Hanshaw at the plea and arraignment Monday, Reynolds deferred ruling on Lonoke County Prosecutor Lona McCastlain’s motion to revoke Kelly Campbell’s bond and lock her up. McCastlain argued that the defendant had improperly talked with witnesses and victims in her case.

Kelly Campbell’s attorney, Mark Hampton, said his client hadn’t intentionally violated the no-contact order, adding that in one instance, a victim who is also a neighbor had approached the Campbells with vacation gifts for their children.
“No contact means no contact,” said Reynolds, but he said retired Circuit Judge John Cole could hold a hearing on the matter Thursday, when the pretrial motions are heard, leaving her free on her $15,000 bond.
“I can control my client,” said Hampton.

Cole has been assigned to hear the charges against Jay Campbell, represented by Patrick Benca, and also has been assigned to hear whatever comes before the court in Hanshaw’s absence on Thursday.

That’s the date set for pretrial motions for all four defendants, according to Donna Gay, staff attorney for the Administrative Office of the Court.

No judge has been assigned yet to hear the cases of Kelly Campbell, Cox and Norwood, Gay said.
McCastlain told Reynolds Monday that the state would like all four cases joined.

Waiting to be called for arraignment, Jay Campbell look-ed relaxed, sitting with his arm around his wife in the front row of the courtroom.

Later they walked hand-in-hand to the sheriff’s office to be booked on the new charges.

Friday, McCastlain also filed sexual abuse charges against former Lonoke Police Department dispatcher Amy Staley, alleged to have had sex with an inmate. Staley is slated for arraignment April 3.

New charges against the Campbells include four counts of residential burglary, five counts of obtaining controlled substances by fraud and a count of theft by receiving.
Kelly Campbell is also charged with possession of drug paraphernalia.

A Department of Corrections investigation begun about seven months ago into whether or not some Lonoke city officials improperly used Act 309 inmate labor was later handed off to the State Police and subsequently resulted in charges that Jay Campbell conspired with the two bail bondsmen to manufacture methamphetamine, that his wife had sex with prisoners about two dozen times, and that the Campbells had stolen prescription drugs and jewelry from Lonoke residents.

These latest charges grew out of the same investigation, according to State Police Investigator Charles McLemore.

Jay Campbell’s February charges included not only the conspiracy to manufacture meth-amphetamine charge, but also two counts of hindering apprehension or prosecution, conspiracy to commit burglary, theft by receiving, theft of services and one misdemeanor, theft of property.

His wife was charged with five counts of furnishing prohibited articles, one count of second-degree escape, one count of residential burglary, four counts of obtaining controlled substances by fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit residential burglary, one count of theft of property and one misdemeanor charge, tampering.
Cox was charged with manufacturing methamphetamine, in-timidating a juror, a witness or an informant, and terroristic threatening.

Norwood was charged with a single count of criminal conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine.
At that time, Cox, Norwood and Chief Campbell each were released on $50,000 bond and Kelly Campbell posted a $15,000 bond.

Lonoke Mayor Thomas Pri-vett, arrested in February, is free on $500 bond for his misdemeanor theft of services charge.
He will be arraigned April 3.
posted by THE LEADER at 1:29 PM

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[boco357]

Gets better...

http://www.arkansasleader.com/2006/0...noke-jail.html


No wonder the Lonoke jail is always overcrowded. There’s a party atmosphere over there, according to Prosecuting Attorney Lona McCastlain, who accuses the police chief and his wife of serving up more than just baked beans and day-old bread for the prisoners.

McCastlain accuses Police Chief Jay Campbell and his wife Kelly of handing out alcohol and drugs to inmates, while Mrs. Campbell is also charged with having sex with prisoners.


Good to hear from Linda Ives' again(mother of Kevin)
Article continues


It’s a mess, I know, but the story gets even more complicated. We’ve heard from Linda Ives again. She has accused Campbell, when he was with the State Police, of being responsible for the death of her son Kevin, who died under mysterious circumstances on some railroad tracks near Benton, along with another boy, back in 1987.

She’s been leading a campaign against Campbell and former Saline County Prosecutor Dan Harmon for years, but we haven’t heard from her in a long time. Both have dismissed her allegations, although Harmon served time on drug and corruption charges.

Ives sent us this e-mail on Tuesday with the heading “I told you so:”

“Years ago, long before he was convicted and sent to prison, I tried to tell the media and the public about Dan Harmon. Everyone in the media pretty much wrote me off as a conspiracy nut. But I was right.

“I tried to tell you and the citizens of Lonoke about Jay Campbell, and you did the same thing — pretty much called me a nut case. Well, time has proven me right again.

“But the things that have been exposed are only the tip of the iceberg — the least of which Campbell and Harmon are guilty of. I am certain in my own mind that both of them are involved in the murder of my son, Kevin Ives. Perhaps someday I can tell you ‘I told you so again.’

“I just hope that Lonoke County doesn’t start raining dead bodies first.”

She should contact Saline County Prosecuting Attorney Robert Herzfeld if she has serious evidence against Campbell and Harmon.

Herzfeld met with Ives three years ago when he was elected prosecutor, but he doesn’t think he can reopen the case now. He says several grand juries have looked into the deaths and have come up empty.

“I would like nothing better than to solve the boys on the tracks case,” Herzfeld, who is running for attorney general, told us Tuesday. “Unfortunately, without a major break, such as a confession or murder weapon, I don’t see how that would be possible at this point.”

Mr. Herzfeld's comments rival [former state Medical Examiner] Fahmy Malak's accidental death ruling in obsurdity. I want the public to understand that despite the fact that Jay Campbell's and Kirk Lane's names appear all over the place in the case file of [the Ives and Henry deaths], they have NEVER, EVER been questioned - not by Saline County officials, not by state officials officials and not by federal officials.

If I had been implicated in a murder, as they have, I would have been hauled down, interrogated, polygraphed and probably asked to provide DNA - and rightly so.

Three years ago when Hertzfeld first took office, my husband and I met with him and begged him to look at the case - especially the information involving Jay Campbell. We gave him information on how to contact various witnesses, etc. Mr. Herzfeld chose a date for one month later and put it on his calendar to call us to give us an update. We have never heard back from him and not one witness has been contacted to this day.

Mr. Herzfield should understand: 1. You can't solve a murder if you never investigate; 2. You don't wait for murderers to come jump in your lap. 3. An unsolved murder case should NEVER be closed.

Also, [Herzfeld Chief of Staff] Ken Casady and [former Deputy Prosecutor] Jack McQuary, both of whom are running for Saline County prosecutor, sat in on our meeting with Herzfeld. Can we, as taxpayers, expect the same interest in solving murders from either of them should they be elected, or will they make hot checks their big focus?

Linda Ives, Benton

[CanadianUMFan]

I would love to see that documentary that Linda Ives co-produced. It sure sounds like there might be some substance to her allegations, doesn't it?

[DarkDante]

I've seen it - its well done but its very one sided which makes it seem like some sort of a spook piece. It really makes you think our government are out to get us. I understand Ives' anger but personally I think she went a little overboard in this one.

The best moment in the film - the wife of a patient that Dr. Malak performed an autopsy on confronts him outside his clinic.

Woman in her best horror film voice "DR MALAK! YOU KNOW ME!!!!!"

Dr. Malak (in a thick middle eastern accent) "What don't you understand I have no time."

If it wasn't so tragic, it would actually be really funny.