Sheriff Scott Finkbeiner arrested Hot Spring County Arkansas

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Hot Spring County Sheriff Scott Finkbeiner charged with obstruction of justice tied to federal drug investigation

The Hot Spring County sheriff was officially charged with obstruction of justice in federal court Friday afternoon.

www.kark.com

 

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Hot Spring County Arkansas is my county. I don’t know what to make of this. SF has only been sheriff since January & had no prior experience when he was elected. He won because people wanted to see someone make some progress in reducing crime (primarily theft of property) and drug sales in the county and others who were running had previously held the position and failed to do so. SF won overwhelmingly in the general election and has been making arrests and seemed to have a lot of support from the local community for doing so.

However, there have been several things that makes you raise your eyebrows in suspicion too. Not the lease of which was when he disappeared from a Sheriff’s Conference in Little Rock and never accounted for his whereabout for that 22 to 24 hours. See the video of the LRPD body cam linked below. He’d been in office less than 3 weeks at the time.

 

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The PDF linked below is the affidavit by the FBI officer. It would appear that some of the actions of the sheriff were audio recorded and support the statements from the confidential informant.

It’s a little hard to try to give the sheriff the benefit of the doubt if there’s an audio recording. The obstruction charge doesn’t concern me nearly as much as the alleged meth use and coercion of sex acts.

If these allegations are true, he sure had a lot of people fooled. Community response on social media for now is very mixed with some determined to support the sheriff and calling it a frame up and others saying they knew it all along and this is the tip of the iceberg.

https://arktimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/02912637252.pdf

 

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According to the plea agreement, Derek” Scott” Finkbeiner, the elected Sheriff of Hot Spring County, admitted that from approximately Aug. 19-24, 2023, he intentionally misled and concealed material facts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) about the true nature of his relationship with a target of an FBI investigation.

Hot Spring County sheriff pleads guilty to misleading FBI -

Finkbeiner’s sentencing is expected to take place in approximately four months

arkadelphian.com

 

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According to the plea agreement, Derek” Scott” Finkbeiner, the elected Sheriff of Hot Spring County, admitted that from approximately Aug. 19-24, 2023, he intentionally misled and concealed material facts from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) about the true nature of his relationship with a target of an FBI investigation.

Hot Spring County sheriff pleads guilty to misleading FBI -

Finkbeiner’s sentencing is expected to take place in approximately four months

arkadelphian.com

I’m not convinced that he’s gonna show up for that sentencing in a few months and he’s still facing state charges here in Hot Spring County as well. Most of those who were adamantly supporting him on social media took down their posts the minute it was announced that he requested a change of plea hearing after his last arrest on more charges. A few are still saying he’s innocent and that he only took the plea deal to bring this to an end but I think most realized that he’s been lying to his supporters all this time telling them he was being framed and that the truth would come out at trial. Well at least now he has to resign and we can stop paying him and get another deputy hired. We’re a small county and don’t have enough deputies as it is and one has had to fill in as acting sheriff all this time but because we were paying Finkbeiner all this time, we couldn’t hire anyone else. I think that’s what has upset me the most the entire time - that he was still getting paid while awaiting trial and banned from the sheriff’s office or driving a department vehicle or carrying a gun so we were basically paying him to sit home and wait for the trial - except of course when he was busy breaking more laws!

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Finkbeiner had also been arrested in April 2024 on state charges of sexual solicitation, a misdemeanor; and unauthorized use of the Arkansas Criminal Information Center, a felony. Rosenzweig said those charges have been negotiated and a resolution is pending

Other federal charges against Finkbeiner had included:

–Tampering with a witness, victim, or an informant / obstruction of justice.
–Misprision of a felony, meaning he allegedly knew about a felony and did not report it.
–Unlawful drug user in possession of a firearm.

Hot Spring County sheriff pleads guilty to felony, will resign from office - Arkansas Times

Hot Spring County Sheriff Scott Finkbeiner pleaded guilty Friday to misleading the FBI in a case involving drugs and sex and plans to resign from the office he has held […]

arktimes.com