LITTLE ROCK– Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge announced the conviction of Glenwood Mayor Billy T. Smith who pleaded guilty to a Class A misdemeanor of Theft of Property and Abuse of Office. Smith will pay restitution to the City of Glenwood in the amount of $3,000, a $250 fine and court costs. Billy Smith tendered his letter of immediate resignation as the Mayor of the City of Glenwood. In August 2021, the Attorney General’s Public Integrity Division revealed Smith hired a private company to transport $4,000 worth of asphalt millings from the Arkansas Highway 70 resurfacing project to his home and to the home of his son-in-law to resurface their private driveways.
“Mayor Smith was elected to serve the people of Glenwood and instead he chose to use his position to privately and financially benefit himself,” said Attorney General Rutledge. “I urge any Arkansans concerned with potential fraud committed by public officials to contact our public integrity division immediately.”
In February, Smith was arrested and charged with Felony Theft of Property, a class D Felony, in addition to Abuse of Office, also a class D Felony. He surrendered himself to Special Agents of the Attorney General’s Office at the Pike County Jail, where he was taken into custody. Smith was sworn in as Glenwood’s Mayor in January 2019.
The case was prosecuted by Pike County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Alwin A. Smith in Circuit Court Judge Bryan Chessir’s courtroom.
Arkansans can report public corruption to the Public Integrity Division by calling 833-45-TRUST (833-458-7878) or email [email protected].
About Attorney General Leslie Rutledge
Leslie Carol Rutledge is the 56th Attorney General of Arkansas. Elected on November 4, 2014, and sworn in on January 13, 2015, she is the first woman and first Republican in Arkansas history to be elected as Attorney General. She was resoundingly re-elected on November 6, 2018. Since taking office, she has significantly increased the number of arrests and convictions against online predators who exploit children and con artists who steal taxpayer money through Social Security Disability and Medicaid fraud. Further, she has held Rutledge Roundtable meetings and Mobile Office hours in every county of the State each year, and launched a Military and Veterans Initiative. She has led efforts to roll back government regulations that hurt job creators, fight the opioid epidemic, teach internet safety, combat domestic violence and make the office the top law firm for Arkansans. Rutledge serves on committees for Consumer Protection, Criminal Law and Veterans Affairs for the National Association of Attorneys General. She also served as the former Chairwoman of the Republican Attorneys General Association.
A native of Batesville, she is a graduate of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law. Rutledge clerked for the Arkansas Court of Appeals, was Deputy Counsel for former Governor Mike Huckabee, served as a Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in Lonoke County and was an Attorney at the Department of Human Services before serving as Counsel at the Republican National Committee. Rutledge and her husband, Boyce, have one daughter. The family has a home in Pulaski County and a farm in Crittenden County.