Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Wright To Seek Job As Prosecutor

BY JOHN MILER

Hope attorney Randy Wright has tossed his hat into the political arena seeking the position of Prosecuting Attorney for the 8th Judicial District North.

This district is composed of Hempstead and Nevada counties. Formerly, the 8th Judicial District was made up of Hempstead, Nevada, Miller and Lafayette counties.

Wright has been a deputy prosecuting attorney for Hempstead County since Jan. 1, 1987, and was recently appointed drug prosecutor for Hempstead and Nevada counties.

He is a graduate of Hope High School, and Hendrix College in Conway, where he majored in accounting and economics. He holds a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, having graduated in 1978.

Wright has been practicing law in Hope since February, 1979, after serving as a law clerk with the Arkansas Supreme Court.

His reasons for seeking the office of prosecuting attorney are, he said, his desire to work with the public and law enforcement in the new judicial district. He also wants to carry forward and improve the various programs of the prosecutor's office and strongly believes those programs will better serve the citizens of Hempstead and Nevada counties in the new district.

Wright is seeking the office as a Democrat.

He and his wife, Nan, have four children, Brad, 20, Kimberly, 18, John, 14, and David, 12. The Wright family is members of the First United Methodist Church in Hope.

Wright's legal experience includes working from 1979 to 1988 with Graves and Graves as a partner in a four-man law firm; Wright and Burke, from 1988 to now, where he is the managing partner of the firm.

He was also the assistant city attorney for Hope from 1979-84, the Hempstead County Juvenile Referee from 1982-84; and has been the deputy prosecuting attorney since Jan. 1. 1987.

Wright is licensed to practice law in all state courts in Arkansas, the U.S. Federal Court in the Western District of Arkansas and Eastern District of Texas; and the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

He is a member of the Arkansas Bar Association, the Debtor-Creditor Bar of Central Arkansas and Arkansas Volunteer Lawyers for the Elderly.

On the military level, Wright was a member of the Arkansas Army National Guard from 1972 until 1982, and was a JAG Corps officer from 1979-82.

He was a member of the Hope School Board from 1984-89; president of the Hope School Board from 1987-89; a member of the Hope Kiwanis Club since 1979, serving as president in 1986-87; and on the board of the Hope Baseball Association since 1989, serving as president from 1990-92. Wright has also been a district director of the Dixie Baseball Association since 1996.