Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

As Prescott Municipal Judge

Local attorney Gene Hale has announced his intention to seek the office of Municipal Judge in Prescott.

The position carries a four-year term and was originally not scheduled to be open until 1998.

However, Duncan Culpepper, who holds the post, has stepped down in order to seek the job as Eighth Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney.

Culpepper's resignation was made to Prescott Mayor Howard Taylor in a letter, which requested the effective date be March 1, 1996.

Hale, who has been licensed to practice law since 1963, is a lifelong native of Nevada County and will be seeking the office as a Democrat.

He has actively practiced law in Prescott for the past 10 years.

Hale will be resigning his current slot as public defender in order to seek the judgeship. However, he said, he will be working with the court system to find a replacement as public defender.

"If elected," Hale said, "I will be fair-minded, listen to the facts and make my decisions as the law applies. I want to be fair to everyone."

Hale and his wife, Kim, a teacher in Prescott Elementary School, have two children, Benjamin and Rachel.

The family also belongs to the First United Methodist Church of Prescott.

Hale graduated from Prescott High School in 1955, and earned his BSBA degree from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1959.

From 1960-63, he worked with the Arkansas State Insurance Department in Little Rock, and spent two years in the Army from 63-65.

He returned to the state insurance department after receiving an honorable discharge, but left later in 1965 to become administrative assistant to then-Gov. Orval Faubus.

In 1967, Hale was an assistant to former attorney general Joe Purcell, and went into private practice of law in Prescott from 67-72.

Hale has also worked in the banking industry, but returned to work in his chosen field of law in 1987.

During his law practice, Hale has experience with civil and criminal trials, and has served as special Municipal Judge and public defender.

He is a member of the Arkansas Bar Association, the Arkansas Trial Lawyer's Association, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America; is admitted to practice law in the United States Court of Military Appeals and in the United States Supreme Court.