By Ray King
Stephens Media
PINE BLUFF — A former chief of staff for ex-Gov. Bill Clinton pleaded no contest to two misdemeanors today in a deal with prosecutors to avoid prison time on felony charges of attempting to smuggle contraband onto Arkansas’ death row.
Betsey Wright, 66, of Rogers faced 51 counts of furnishing prohibited articles into a correctional facility following her May 2009 arrest. She pleaded no contest to one misdemeanor count each of possession of a Swiss army knife and a box cutter, and was sentenced to a year’s probation and a $2,200 fine.
Circuit Judge Jodi Dennis also ordered Wright, a volunteer prison counselor to death-row inmates, to have no contact with the state Department of Correction or with any inmate in the system without prior approval of the department.
“We think this is an appropriate resolution,” Wright’s lawyer, Jeff Rosenzweig of Little Rock, said after the court proceeding. “We conceded by pleading no contest that a jury could have decided that the knife and the boxcutter were somehow improper.”
Wright said the items were on a key chain.
Prosecutors dropped 48 felony counts related to tattoo needles Wright said she found in a vending machine and one other felony count involving tweezers.
The items were discovered when Wright tried to go through an X-ray machine and metal detector at the Varner Maximum Security Unit, and was stopped by a corrections officer who found an ink pen and knife.
The tattoo needles were found inside a bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos.
In a statement released after the proceeding, Wright said she was gratified prosecutors agreed to drop all charges involving the tattoo needles which she maintained were in a bag of chips she got from the vending machine.
“I have said all along, and reiterate here, that I did not realize that the needles were in a bag of chips I got from the basin of the vending machine,” the statement said. “I thought I had a free bag of chips. Instead, I inadvertently intercepted a smuggling operation by some other, unknown person. I would also mention that I do not approve of tattooing.”
Wright was at the prison to visit death-row inmate Don Davis, who was scheduled to be executed April 12. U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes stayed Davis’ execution and that of Stacey Eugene Johnson on Monday pending appeal of Holmes’ dismissal of a lawsuit they joined with other inmates challenging the constitutionality of Arkansas’ lethal injection procedure.
Wright had been scheduled for trial in Lincoln County on May 25 and, if convicted, could have been sentenced to three to 10 years on each of two Class C felony charges and up to six years on each of the 48 Class D felony charges, and/or fined.
