Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Councilman Guilty Of Harrassing Ex-Wife

A city council member has been found guilty of harassing communications.

Steve Crow entered a plea of Nolo contendere to the charge of harassing communications in municipal court Monday, June 3.

With the plea, Crow was placed on probation of one year with the following restrictions: he cannot communicate in any fashion with any of his ex-wife's, Lisa, current or future employers; he cannot communicate with her family in any form or fashion; and finally, he can only communicate with his ex-wife when absolutely necessary in order to exercise his visitation rights as ordered by chancery court.

Under the order, Crow can only communicate with his ex-wife on the issue of visitation.

He was also fined and required to pay court costs of $250.

However, the second part of the court's ruling poses a problem. Mrs. Crow's father is Prescott Mayor Howard Taylor, and Crow is a city alderman.

Prescott City Attorney Glenn Vasser said he was not familiar with the ruling and declined comment.

According to Municipal Court records, a warrant for Crow's arrest was issued Nov. 30, 1995 for harassing communications to his former spouse.

On Sept. 25, '95, the records show, Lisa Crow told authorities her ex-husband had been harassing her and her family with phone calls and written communications.

In fact, she lost a job at the Hospitality Care Center in Arkadelphia because of letters sent there by Steve Crow, according to court records.

Under Arkansas statute 5-71-209, a person commits the offense of harassing communication if done with the purpose of annoying or alarming another person they: 1) communicate with the person anonymously or otherwise, by phone, mail or other forms of written communication in a manner likely to harass, annoy or cause alarm; or 2) make phone calls or causes a phone to ring repeatedly with no purpose of legitimately communication, regardless of whether a conversation ensues; or 3) knowingly permits any phone under their control to be used for any purpose prohibited by this section.

Under the law, offenses involving the use of phones may be prosecuted in the county where the defendant was located at the time the calls were made, or in the county to which the calls were made.

This, by law, is a class A misdemeanor.

The Nevada County Sheriff's Office investigated the charges on Nov. 28, 1995, with Lisa Crow stating her former husband, Steve, had been harassing her and her family with letters.

According to court records, Lisa Crow recognized the printing on the letters and gave officers copies, along with samples of Steve's handwriting.

He was interviewed at the NCSO Nov. 28, '95 as well and told authorities he, too, had been receiving these communications. According to the records, he had no idea who was sending them.

In addition, Lisa Crow told NCSO officials Steve had listened in on a private phone call. She said he admitted taking a cordless phone from her residence, came back to her home, sat on a patio and listened to a call.

Information in the letters referred to Lisa Crow's legal problems.