Monticello Public Defender And Former Prosecutor Charged With Felony Hit-And-Run After Pedestrian Struck On East Oakland Street

MONTICELLO – A longtime Monticello attorney who has worked as both a deputy prosecutor and a public defender in the 10th Judicial District is charged with leaving the scene of a July crash in which a pedestrian was struck by the mirror of a passing SUV, according to records filed Thursday in Drew County Circuit Court.

David Raymond Cason, 70, is charged with failure to stop after an accident involving physical injury, a Class D felony punishable by up to six years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

The charge was brought by a special prosecutor. Frank Spain, the elected prosecuting attorney for the 10th Judicial District, asked the court in August to remove his office from the case because Cason “previously served as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in the Tenth Judicial District and is currently serving as a public defender [in] the Tenth Judicial District for over two decades, although he is currently on leave,” according to the motion.

Robbie Jones of the Office of the Prosecutor Coordinator signed the criminal information in September. It was filed Oct. 1, and a summons orders Cason to appear at 9 a.m. Nov. 2 at the Drew County Courthouse. The case is assigned to Circuit Judge Robert Gibson III.

The crash

Monticello police were called about 7:22 p.m. July 31 to the area of 1015 E. Oakland St., where a pedestrian said she had been hit by a car that did not stop, according to an affidavit by a Monticello police investigator.

The pedestrian told officers she was walking west on East Oakland Street when a black GMC Yukon passed her heading the same direction and its passenger-side mirror struck her left arm. She had scratches on the back of the arm and complained of pain, the affidavit says. An ambulance took her to a hospital for evaluation and treatment.

Officers looked for the SUV that night but did not find it.

The next day, the pedestrian gave police a photograph from a neighbor’s surveillance camera showing a black Yukon, the affidavit says. An officer forwarded it to Capt. Will West, who said it had been reported to him that Cason had been driving a GMC Yukon in the area that day “and may have been impaired.”

Officers went to Cason’s home on North Hyatt Street and found a black 2003 GMC Yukon with damage to the passenger-side mirror, including missing and shattered glass, that was consistent with what the pedestrian described, according to the affidavit.

Cason told officers he had been in the East Oakland area that day but did not recall hitting anyone while driving home. He said the mirror had not previously been broken and the damage “just recently happened,” the affidavit says.

On Aug. 2, the investigator obtained surveillance video from a home on Oakland Street that shows a black Yukon matching Cason’s traveling west at 7:20 p.m. on July 31, near where the pedestrian was struck.

Witnesses at a repair shop

Three women who were picking up a car at Hughes Auto Repair on Arkansas 138, about 2.5 miles east of the crash site, told the investigator they saw Cason there about 7:09 p.m. in the black Yukon, according to the affidavit. One said that when Cason left, he pulled out into the middle of the road in front of two other cars that had to go around him. Another said he “seemed disoriented.” A third said he appeared to be impaired and that she believed he had been drinking.

One of the women said Cason had been her science teacher and that she also knew him as a prosecutor.

The shop’s owner told the investigator that Cason came by between 6:30 and 7 p.m., “didn’t seem right,” stayed only a short time and left, saying he would come back the next day.

The affidavit notes that East Oakland Street is commonly used to reach North Hyatt Street from Arkansas 138.

Cason’s account

The investigator interviewed Cason on Aug. 5. Cason said he was unsure whether he had been in the area of Oakland Street or the repair shop that Friday but said he often takes his Yukon there for repairs, the affidavit says.

Cason said he noticed the mirror damage Saturday morning and did not know how it happened. He said he “could have been in the area and/or been in an accident but ‘just doesn’t remember,'” according to the affidavit.

Cason told the investigator he was on leave from work and under a physician’s care for testing and treatment of memory loss, and that he had recently begun taking a medication used to treat Alzheimer’s disease, the affidavit says.

Gibson signed an arrest warrant Aug. 7, with bail to be set at Cason’s first appearance. The Drew County Sheriff’s Office served it Aug. 10, according to the return. The court file does not show what bail was set.

Spain’s motion for a special prosecutor was filed Aug. 11.

Cason has been licensed to practice law in Arkansas since 1997, according to attorney directories. The 10th Judicial District covers Ashley, Bradley, Chicot, Desha and Drew counties.

The court file does not list a defense attorney for Cason.