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Jim Bolt Transferred to Washington County, Still Behind Bars

2 min read

James W. “Jim” Bolt is no longer a guest of the Benton County Detention Center. But contrary to a rumor that was circulating last week, he has not been set free.

Instead, the Rogers businessman was moved to the Washington County jail in Fayetteville on Dec. 23, where he’s being held in anticipation of his trial on 14 counts of wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering.

His trial, which was scheduled for Jan. 13 in front of U.S. District Judge Jimm Larry Hendren in Fayetteville, has been moved to Jan. 29 in U.S. District Judge Robert Dawson’s court in Fort Smith.

Exactly why Bolt was moved is not explained in any court filings, but it is clear that he wasn’t happy with the medical attention he was receiving at the Benton County jail. His Fayetteville attorney, Herbert C. Southern, filed an emergency motion in November claiming that the jail’s registered nurse had refused to release him long enough to see a neurologist about the Lyme disease that had required him to have a pacemaker since 1994.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Erin Setser denied the motion after being informed by the jail nurse, Darla Watson, that a lab test for Lyme disease was negative and that Bolt’s vital signs were normal.

Watson also told the magistrate that the jail hadn’t received any records verifying the Lyme disease diagnosis.

We can tell you that Bolt’s cardiac complaints are well-documented and long-standing.

When he was first booked into the Benton County jail in August, he complained of chest pains and was taken to Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas at Rogers.

And back in 2004, the Tulsa World reported that Bolt complained of chest pains while on the witness stand to testify about some photographs in a preliminary hearing in the state murder trial of Terry Nichols, who had already been convicted for his role in the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.

Bolt never returned to finish his testimony.

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