Fed Files Appeal Against Mountain Pure’s John Stacks

U.S. Attorney Chris Thyer

As expected, federal prosecutors in Little Rock have filed an appeal with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in hopes of preserving the seven convictions it won against John Stacks, owner of the Mountain Pure bottled water company.

U.S. Attorney Chris Thyer and assistants Patrick Harris and Angela Jegley filed the notice of appeal on Dec. 29, four weeks after U.S. District Judge J. Leon Holmes issued an order acquitting Stacks of two counts and ordering a new trial on five other counts.

The jury that heard six days of testimony in September and October was unable to reach a verdict on three additional counts, and Holmes had dismissed one other count before the case went to the jury.

All 11 counts in the original indictment concerned Stacks’ application for and use of a Small Business Administration disaster loan following a tornado that hit his property in Van Buren County in 2008.

In a 46-page order, Holmes acquitted Stacks of two counts of making false statements, saying there was not sufficient evidence to convict.

The judge ordered a new trial because “the evidence preponderates sufficiently heavily against the verdict that a serious miscarriage of justice may have occurred.”

That case would reexamine five remaining counts.

Three are linked with charges of wire fraud. The other two counts? Making a false and fraudulent claim and making a false statement.