A Eureka Springs man has accused Carroll County Judge David Writer of threatening to kill him.
Eric Scheunemann, who addressed the Carroll County Quorum Court briefly during the public comments portion of the court’s regular meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 20, before Writer interjected, said the incident happened after the meeting had adjourned.
Scheunemann and Writer have engaged in a long-running dispute over maintenance of Spring Valley Road, with Scheunemann saying that the county had maintained the road for 50 years before Writer took office. Writer contends that the road is not a county road and therefore should not be maintained by the county.
In a written statement, Scheunemann said that he was speaking to a reporter from a Harrison newspaper about the Spring Valley Road dispute after the meeting had concluded.
“Suddenly, a man started talking directly in front of me between the row of benches, so I said to the reporter, ‘Excuse me please,’ ” Scheunemann wrote. “I turned to find that Judge David Writer was looking down at me telling me to make an appointment, and going on again. Not feeling comfortable with him over me, I stand up slightly to the left and face him squarely. I replied that: ‘Your first excuse was ‘bad weather’ — that other roads were more important — which failed when a drought came.’ He denied it.
“I said, ‘You are lying,’ I then said, ‘Another excuse for not grading the road was that the bottom 127 feet or something was private.’ He corrected me and said, ‘That’s right, the bottom 167 feet is private.’ I said, ‘Well, then you said the whole thing is private, and you didn’t grade any of it.’ He said, ‘That’s right, the whole thing.’
“I said, ‘Well there you go, you’re lying again. First you said that the first 167 feet is private, then you said the whole thing is private. You’re lying right now.’
“David Writer then stepped up to me with his belly pressing against mine, his face just inches from my face, ‘I’ll kill you. You son of a b****.’ I stared at him, without a word. He turned and walked back to the aisle.
“I turned to the reporter, still seated behind me and said, ‘Did you hear that?’
“He said, ‘I did.’ I said, ‘You have an amazing headline for the newspaper. He said, ‘I’ll kill you. You son of a b****.’ The reporter said, ‘Yes, I heard him say that. I have a recorder. It’s a bit noisy in here now, so it may not have recorded it, but I heard what he said.’
Scheunemann wrote that he told a deputy sheriff who was in the courtroom that he wanted to make a report that Writer had threatened him and the deputy advised Scheunemann of the hours when the sheriff’s office would be open the next day and told him he should speak with someone there. The deputy then pointed Scheunemann toward the door, according to Scheunemann’s statement.
Scheunemann said he had also provided copies of his written statement to the sheriff’s office and the Berryville Police Department.
Carroll County Sheriff Daniel Klatt referred questions to the Berryville Police Department. Berryville police chief Robert Bartos said he could not comment on an ongoing investigation.
Writer also said he could not comment.
During the quorum court meeting that preceded the alleged incident, Scheunemann attempted to speak during public comments, saying he was “here to discuss the abandonment of Spring Valley Road …” Writer interrupted Scheunemann after approximately 30 seconds.
“This is something that really doesn’t concern these JPs,” Writer said. “You need to make an appointment with my office and come and talk to me.”
“I have done so, sir,” Scheunemann replied.
“Yes, you have and you’re supposed to — listen, you didn’t come back at the appropriate time,” Writer said as Scheunemann tried to respond. “You tried to go around me to go to the prosecutor and everybody else. You didn’t even let me — look, I said: ‘If you’ll come back, if you let me have a little time to look at this and see, get the documentation, get everything. And you didn’t come back. You went, you tried to go around me. So just make an appointment with my office and we’ll try to get this …” “Sir, I’d like to start over my three minutes,” Scheunemann said at that point. “No,” Writer responded. “No.”
“I am petitioning the government for redress of grievances, sir,” Scheunemann said. “You’re violating my rights.”
“No,” Writer said. “Yes, sir,” Scheunemann responded.
Bystanders seated in the courtroom interjected briefly, saying: “You have an oath. Uphold it.”
Writer then said: “Listen, this is not an issue for the quorum court. This is a road issue. If you had have listened, if you would have come back and listened to me …” “I did,” Scheunemann said.
“No, you did not,” Writer replied.
“Yes, sir. You’re lying again,” Scheunemann said.
“You did not, and I’m not going to argue with you,” Writer said. “Go sit down.”
“I have three minutes,” Scheunemann responded.
“Go sit down,” Writer repeated.
“No, sir,” Scheunemann answered. “I have the right to petition the government for redress of grievances.”
At that point, two sheriff’s deputies left their seats in the courtroom’s jury box and approached Scheunemann, who returned to his seat. The deputies remained standing at the back of the courtroom for the remainder of the meeting.
“You can come and talk to me,” Writer said. “That’s what you can do.”
The confrontation at the Jan. 20 meeting wasn’t the first between Writer and Scheunemann. Writer ejected Scheunemann from a quorum court meeting on Nov. 21, 2023, again after Scheunemann spoke during public comments about the maintenance of Spring Valley Road.
At that meeting, Writer told Scheunemann: “I’m tired of your lying. You can tell one lie right after another.”
“It’s documented,” Scheunemann said.
Writer said he has a book that lists the county roads and Spring Valley Road is not listed.
As Scheunemann started to reply, Writer interrupted him.
“Goodbye. Get out. Go,” the judge said, raising his voice slightly.
“Thank you, sir,” Scheunemann said as he left the courtroom. “Happy Thanksgiving.”
