Dale Bartlett
Dale Bartlett, a co-owner of the defunct Turner Grain Merchandising Inc., had his 2019 felony hot check conviction overturned Wednesday by the Arkansas Court of Appeals.
Judge Stephanie Potter Barrett said in her decision that hot check law Bartlett was found guilty of didn’t apply in his case because it is not applicable to pre-existing debts.
In 2019, a Monroe County jury sentenced Bartlett to five years in prison and ordered him to pay $401,900 in restitution.
His conviction stemmed from a $401,900 check issued by Turner Grain of Brinkley to farmer David Wilkison for 41 loads of Wilkison’s medium-grain rice that the company took in 2014. The check, however, was worthless because of insufficient funds, and the farmer never received payment for his grain, according to court records.
Bartlett argued that the check was for a pre-existing debt, which is excluded from the state’s hot check law.
Barrett and Judges Robert J. Gladwin and Mike Murphy agreed and reversed the conviction and dismissed it.
Bartlett was represented by Erin Cassinelli of Lassiter & Cassinelli of Little Rock and Deborah Truby Riordan of the Appellate Solutions of Little Rock.
The Arkansas attorney general’s office represented the state in the appeal.
Turner Grain’s other co-owner, Jason Coleman, had been charged as well, with felonies in connection to $1.2 million worth of hot checks. But he committed suicide at the age of 44 while his case was pending.
Turner Grain filed for bankruptcy in 2014. It listed $13.7 million in assets and $39.7 million in debts, millions of which were owed to farmers.
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