CORRECTION: This article and its headline were updated on Dec. 12, 2024, to reflect state Supreme Court Justice Courtney Hudson’s statement denying that she entered the office of Marty Sullivan, the director of the Administrative Office of the Courts, and instead stood in the doorway.
The chief justice-elect of the Arkansas Supreme Court recently entered the office of a top court official when he wasn’t there, prompting the Supreme Court to adopt a new rule last week, Arkansas Business learned Wednesday.
Arkansas Supreme Court Justices Karen Baker and Courtney Hudson, along with Commerce Department Chief of Staff Allison Hatfield, were seen visiting the unlocked office of Marty Sullivan, the director of the Administrative Office of the Courts, on Dec. 4, after Baker learned Sullivan was not in his office, sources told Arkansas Business.
The office was reportedly “disheveled” when Sullivan returned, the sources said, though Baker in an interview denied that she or the other two officials moved anything in the office.
Still, the episode prompted reports to Supreme Court Police and a vote by the Supreme Court to implement new rules restricting access to Justice Building offices for Hatfield and Supreme Court justices.
Baker told Arkansas Business that she first went to Sullivan’s office to arrange a tour of the AOC office and extension, but he wasn’t there.
“I stepped into the office and looked around at his office, as I had not been there before,” she said.
Baker said that she later returned to the office with Hudson and Hatfield, “who was my guest in the Justice Building. And once again, I don’t think we actually went in, or I think I might have, to look at some architectural drawings that he had of the building.”
She said that Hudson and Hatfield might have been standing in the doorway, but “they might have stepped through, I’m not really sure. They didn’t really go further than where I was looking at the architectural drawings that were leaned up against the wall, and that’s it.”
Hudson said in an email to Arkansas Business after this article was published that she “stood at the doorway to Mr. Sullivan’s office upon learning that he was not present to give a tour of the new AOC workspace.”
She said she didn’t make an “unauthorized office entry.”
Surveillance camera video from Dec. 4, obtained after a public records request, shows Baker, Hudson and Hatfield walking down a hallway to Sullivan’s office. At the time, Sullivan was attending a national conference out of state.
Last month, Baker was elected the state’s next chief justice, a term that begins in January.
Baker said that she wanted a tour of the building because she’s going to be the chief justice in about 20 days.
“I wanted to get an idea of what goes on down there, so that I would be ready to go on … Jan. 1,” she said. “The fact that it’s triggered such a response is beyond me. I can’t imagine why, unless there is genuinely something to hide.”
The matter unsettled multiple employees at the Justice Building, and several people reported to the Arkansas Supreme Court Police that the justices and Hatfield were in Sullivan’s office, the sources said. Court police locked Sullivan’s door after they left.
The next day, Baker returned to Sullivan’s office and asked to be let in, the sources said.
Baker said that she asked one of the AOC employees to see if she could unlock the door, but couldn’t and offered to get the security.
Baker said that she told the employee that it wasn’t that important. But later she said the head of the Supreme Court police told her that Chief Justice John Dan Kemp had said to lock the office and not to let anyone in.
“So I’m not asking for access to anything else until Jan. 2,” Baker said.
Hatfield is a former law clerk for Baker.
“I don’t have anything to say,” Hatfield told Arkansas Business. “I was invited to the court.”
Sullivan told Arkansas Business he doesn’t have a comment.
When Sullivan returned to his office on Monday, he found items in his office and on his desk had been “disheveled,” sources said. The sources asked not to be named for fear of retaliation.
Baker said that “I hope they fingerprinted it. Now I looked at the architectural drawings that he had leaned up against the wall of the new building but that’s all.”
On Dec. 5, the Supreme Court sent a memo to employees in the Justice Building, which sits on the state Capitol grounds and houses the Supreme Court and Arkansas Court of Appeals.
The memo, titled “Building Access,” said that the state’s highest court voted to adopt two new rules related to the Justice Building.
One rule said that justices are not allowed to enter the locked office of anyone outside of their immediate chamber staff without permission.
The other rule directly targeted Hatfield.
“Allison Hatfield is not authorized to have access to nonpublic areas of the Justice Building unless she is accompanied by a security officer. Yet she may be in an individual Justice’s chambers, upon invitation by that Justice, if she is escorted to and from the chambers.”
Chief Justice Kemp, who provided the memo to Arkansas Business in response to a public records request, did not respond to an emailed question asking about what prompted the memo.
The ordeal is further evidence that tensions at the Supreme Court remain high.
In September, a civil lawsuit filed by Justice Hudson revealed an intracourt fight over the public release of certain emails and led nearly all members of the court to file ethics complaints against other members. Baker was allied with Hudson in that dispute, which was dismissed by the court’s majority before Baker defeated fellow Justice Rhonda Wood in the statewide election to succeed Kemp.
The recent building memo says the new rules aim to keep the peace.
“We appreciate the wonderful workplace environment of the Justice Building. It is the court’s intent to maintain this,” the Dec. 5 memo states. “Please report any behavior that is jeopardizing this environment.”
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