LITTLE ROCK—A Supreme Court justice won’t face criminal charges over claims that he assaulted his 63-year-old sister at their father’s home last year, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

Pulaski County Prosecutor Larry Jegley said that his office decided not to pursue any charges against Justice Jim Gunter over a reported altercation with his sister in Hope. Jegley was appointed as a special prosecutor last year to handle the case.

“The victim didn’t want to go forward with it because she felt like it would be difficult for (Gunter’s) father,” Jegley said. “She just decided to let it go.”

According to a police report, Gunter asked his sister, Janet Gibson, for some genealogy papers he had left with her for a family reunion on Sept. 2, 2007. When Gibson told Gunter that she was not through with the papers, he began “screaming at her about bothering his stuff,” the report said.

Gibson told police that Gunter, 65, backhanded her across the mouth and shoved her to the floor when she attempted to get up.

Gunter did not immediately return a call to his home in Hope on Tuesday. There was no answer at Gibson’s home in Dade City, Fla.

Gunter, a former Hempstead County circuit judge, was elected to the state’s highest court in 2004 and sworn in the following year. Jegley has said that Gunter would have faced a misdemeanor battery charge if his office had decided to pursue the case.

Gibson sent Jegley a letter dated Sept. 27, 2007, that said she wanted the case against her brother dropped, and said she would not cooperate in an investigation.

But, in a letter dated Aug. 5, 2008, Gibson wrote Jegley that she was “greatly disappointed” in her brother and accused him of not telling the truth about the altercation. She also said in the letter that she wanted to “lay this issue to rest.” In a letter dated Monday, Jegley told Gibson of his plans to not file any charges against the justice.

The letters were among documents related to the investigation that were released Tuesday by Jegley. Jegley also released photos of Gibson’s injuries, which included a swelled and cut lip and a large bruise on her lower back.

“The greatest tragedy is that my brother is in a position of authority over other people’s lives and my greatest concern is not necessarily for justification in my case, but how this instability in his character might impact the lives of others,” Gibson wrote.

Jegley said he had been contacted by the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission, which had asked the prosecutor to notify them when his investigation of the justice was completed. Jegley described the call as “courtesy call” and said he didn’t know if the panel was investigating Gunter.

David Sachar, deputy executive director of the Arkansas Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission, said he could not comment on whether the disciplinary panel is investigating any complaints stemming from the assault claim. But Sachar said that any investigation or proceedings by the panel would not be affected by a prosecutor’s findings.