A memo alleging racism by the Miller County judge has been turned over to the Arkansas State Police to investigate as forgery, says Miller County Prosecuting Attorney Brent Haltom.
The memo also may be investigated by federal authorities as voter fraud since it attempts to persuade voters, said Haltom.
Miller County Judge Roy John McNatt denies writing the memo dated March 30, 2005, describing the memo as "bogus" and an "unadulterated lie."
The county judge's stationery was used and a copy of his signature appears at the bottom.
The date and the type used for the text of the letter appear different from the other type used on the stationery.
The memo was to Road Foreman J.W. Crabtree. Underneath Crabtree's name, the word foreman is misspelled as "Forman."
The memo reportedly is from McNatt and the subject of the memo is "Black Employees."
The text of the memo reads, "I need your help in getting rid of Blacks in the Road Dept. All I need Blacks for is votes, nothing else pass that. This letter is confidential between you and I, once read please destroy."
The word "pass" was used instead of the correct "past."
The memo has the signature of Roy John McNatt.
"The letter is a complete lie. I've seen the letter someone else turned over to the prosecutor and you can see lines on the copy where it looks like it was pasted together," said McNatt.
"The letterhead is mine and the signature is mine. Everything else is completely bogus. I heard of this kind of stuff going on 20 or 30 years ago to slander people to get votes," he said.
"I did not and would not write a memo like that. It hurts me to think someone would put something out like that. The people of Miller County don't deserve this kind of politics," said McNatt.
Crabtree said he never received the memo in 2005.
"The first time I saw it was last week. One of the road department employees showed it to me. He is black and said someone delivered the letter to his wife during the day. It made him mad. It upset him. We're friends and he said 'I know you're not that kind of guy,'" Crabtree said Monday morning.
"This has upset me. Some of my best friends are black people. I think more of them than some of my white kinfolks," said Crabtree.
"It upset me someone would stoop so low at election time. I assume that's why it was done. The prosecuting attorney has talked to me and I told him I knew nothing about it," said Crabtree, who has worked for the county 17 years.
He has worked for three county judges including McNatt, Hubert Easley and Haskell Hedrick.
"We've always hired blacks. No judge has been like that. They've all been fair. I worked just six months under Hedrick and worked 10 years for Hubert Easley. I think he (Easley) had four, five, maybe six blacks in the road department. I would have to look at the files to make sure," said Crabtree.
"I hope they get to the bottom of this and it sets a good example in the future for people trying to do this," he said.
"All I want to do is my job on the roads. I can deal with the predicaments on the road. Then they make stuff up to stir up people and it's twice as hard and you can't concentrate on what you need to concentrate on," said Crabtree.
McNatt said he has hired three blacks to work in the road department. The department has about 28 employees.
"I don't hire them because they're black. I don't hire them because they're white. I hire them because they work. If they don't work, they get fired," he said.
A bookkeeper for the road department who works in the county judge's office is Creichton Hill. She is black.
McNatt said copies of the memo had been taped to the front doors of some black churches on April 27.
He also said a man in a pickup had reportedly been distributing the memo to black employees of a Texarkana car dealership Thursday.
McNatt also owns a dairy and employs Chester George, who is black.
"He has worked with me at the dairy for 39 years. The only person who knows me longer is my wife and we've been married 40 years," said McNatt. "I'm not a racist.
"I've had people calling me wanting to hear what I will say. I tell them all the same. It's not me, not my family," said McNatt.
Haltom said Friday a forgery investigation has started regarding the memo.
"The county judge is cooperating to the fullest extent that he can. We're looking at it as forgery and maybe federal authorities will look at it as voter fraud. For our part, we will look at it to see if he did write the memo, it would be public corruption. If he didn't and someone used the stationery, it would be forgery," said Haltom.
"We're committed to fully investigating it. Several people have brought copies of it to our office," he said.
Haltom said an Arkansas State Police investigator has been assigned to the case.
"We're trying to expedite it. Obviously it is getting close to the election," said Haltom.
McNatt is the incumbent county judge and is being challenged by Jerry Sewell in the May 20 Democratic primary.
Sewell would not comment about the memo.