DE QUEEN – Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge today held office hours in Sevier County which concludes the fourth consecutive year she has hosted mobile offices in all 75 counties.

“My mobile office initiative has expanded over the years, but making the office accessible to Arkansans where they are remains the goal,” said Attorney General Rutledge. “It is important that Arkansans know they do not have to drive to downtown Little Rock to file a consumer complaint face to face, or a safe location to drop off their prescription drugs. Each year, my mobile office initiative has expanded and it will continue to evolve as I see more opportunities to educate and protect Arkansans statewide.”

Since 2015, over 325 statewide mobile offices have provided Office of Attorney General services to over 3,400 Arkansas consumers providing unprecedented levels of access. Rutledge has also personally met with 3,240 Arkansans at Rutledge Roundtables during her term.

Mobile offices provide a location to personally assist consumers in filing consumer complaints and answer questions about the full range of services provided by the Attorney General’s Office. This year, the Cooperative Extension Service was also on hand at each mobile office to offer information on its services.

Attorney General Rutledge created the mobile office initiative in May 2015 so that her office and staff would be accessible to everyone, and after the success of the initiative in 2015, Rutledge expanded to include Prescription Drug Take Back boxes. The officer partners with local law enforcement agencies across the State to handle a secure box and properly dispose of the prescriptions collected. Since the addition of this service, the boxes have allowed authorities to properly dispose of nearly 620 pounds of old or unused medications.

For more information about services provided by the Attorney General’s office, visit ArkansasAG.gov or call (501) 682-2007. Rutledge can also be found on Facebook at facebook.com/AGLeslieRutledge and on Twitter at twitter.com/AGRutledge.

LITTLE ROCK – Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge today announced the arrest of a Benton County woman and a Randolph County woman on unrelated Medicaid Fraud charges.

Angela Miller, 36, of Bentonville, is accused of stealing hydrocodone and oxycodone pills while working at a northwest Arkansas facility in December 2017 and January 2018. Following an investigation by the Attorney General’s Office, Miller was arrested. She is charged with one count of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud, a Class D felony.

Cindy Bass, 32, of Pocahontas, is accused of fraudulently billing for unauthorized services and for altering documents in order to bill for services prior to authorization, in an amount totaling $12,132.00. Bass is charged with one count of Medicaid fraud and turned herself in to the Pulaski County Sherriff’s Office.

“As Arkansas has been devastated by the opioid epidemic,” says Attorney General Rutledge. “I will continue prosecuting prescription drug theft as well as fraudulent activities that take away essential services from Arkansans in need.”

The Miller case is being prosecuted by Fourth Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Matt Durrett. The Bass case was referred to the Attorney General’s Office by the Office of the Medicaid Inspector General and the Attorney General’s Office is prosecuting in cooperation with the 6th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley.

Medicaid fraud occurs when providers use the Medicaid program to obtain money to which they are not entitled. To report Medicaid fraud or abuse or neglect in residential care facilities, contact the Attorney General’s Medicaid fraud hotline at (866) 810-0016 or oag@arkansasag.gov.

Offering livestream at six UAMS facilities

LITTLE ROCK – Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge today announced that the seventh annual Arkansas Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Summit will be held Nov. 1 at the Hot Springs Convention Center.

This year, Attorney General Rutledge is also livestreaming plenary sessions and the clinical track to six locations across the state to reach more health care providers who may come in contact with prescription drug abusers. The sessions will be livestreamed to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in Little Rock, UAMS North Central in Batesville, UAMS East Campus in Helena-West Helena, UAMS West Campus in Fort Smith, UAMS Northwest Campus in Fayetteville and UAMS Campus in Magnolia.

A record 1,025 have already taken advantage of early bird registration. Registration is open, but seating is limited for the event, a free training and educational opportunity for law enforcement officers, medical professionals, pharmacists and educators. Members of the general public may also attend and will have the opportunity to hear from experts regarding prescription drug abuse prevention and treatments.

“I am proud to offer these educational opportunities for Arkansans who combat addiction every day,” said Attorney General Rutledge. “This annual event brings together over 1,000 Arkansans from every corner of the State to learn and work together.”

The all-day summit will include breakout sessions on timely topics, including e-prescribing and opioids in the workplace. After lunch, additional breakout sessions will discuss local and statewide efforts to fight the epidemic, along with a survivor’s panel.

Rutledge will host a luncheon, which will include a presentation from State Drug Director Kirk Lane.

Afternoon plenary sessions will highlight over-the-counter medications. The final session will feature a panel of parents who have lost children to the epidemic or who have children now battling addiction.

In addition to the Attorney General’s Office, the Summit is being sponsored by the Arkansas Board of Pharmacy, Arkansas Division of Adult Aging and Behavioral Health Services, Arkansas State Nursing Board, Arkansas State Police, Gulf Coast High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, Office of the State Drug Director, Rotary Clubs of Arkansas, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, and the University of Arkansas Criminal Justice Institute.

A complete agenda can be found at ArkansasAG.gov.

Says, ‘the FCC needs to urge telephone service providers to protect consumers from illegal robocalls’

LITTLE ROCK – Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge today joined a bipartisan coalition of 37 states calling on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to allow telephone services providers to block more illegal robocalls being made to consumers.

“Arkansans have long suffered the abusive and pesky robocalls by scammers, and the FCC needs to urge telephone service providers to protect consumers from illegal robocalls,” said Attorney General Rutledge. “I hear from Arkansans regularly asking to eliminate these unwanted and unlawful calls. Ending these types of calls will save Arkansans from being scammed out of thousands of dollars and undue stress from burdensome daily calls from con artists.”

The formal comment to the FCC explains that scammers have found ways to evade an order allowing providers to block certain calls entered last year by the FCC. Despite efforts by federal and state regulators and the telecommunication industry, robocalls continue to be a major irritant to consumers in Arkansas and across the United States. In 2017, the Federal Trade Commission received 4.5 million illegal robocall complaints – two and a half times more than in 2014.

Last year, the FCC granted phone service providers authority to block certain illegal spoofed robocalls. But now the states seek added authority for the providers to work together to detect and block more illegal spoofed robocalls, including “neighbor spoofing.”

“Spoofing” allows scammers to disguise their identities, making it difficult for law enforcement to bring them to justice. “Neighborhood spoofing” is a technique that allows calls, no matter where they originate, to appear on a consumer’s caller ID as being made from a phone number that has the same local area code as the consumer. The manipulation of caller ID information increases the likelihood that the consumer will answer the call.

“Virtually anyone can send millions of illegal robocalls and frustrate law enforcement with just a computer, inexpensive software and an internet connection,” the attorneys general wrote in the formal comment filed with the FCC.

The added authority sought by the attorneys general will allow service providers to use new and existing technology to detect and block illegal spoofed calls – even those coming from what are otherwise legitimate phone numbers. Service providers will be ready to launch this new authentication method in 2019.

To date, the FCC has not issued a notice of proposed rulemaking concerning additional provider-initiated call blocking. The attorneys general anticipate that further requests for comments will take place on this subject.

Attorney General Rutledge was joined on the comment by the attorneys general of Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and the Hawaii Office of Consumer Protection.

LITTLE ROCK – Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge released the below statement following today’s Arkansas Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutionality of Act 633, which establishes procedures for verifying voter registration.

“Successfully defending our Voter ID law is a huge win for everyday Arkansans and our election process,” said Attorney General Rutledge. “Today’s decision protects the integrity of every voter’s ballot and ensures that your vote cannot be stolen by someone pretending to be you at the polls.”

Says, ‘Allowing a government such control sets a dangerous precedent’

LITTLE ROCK – Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge today joined 16 other states in an amicus brief supporting the Second Amendment in response to New York City’s “premises permit” gun restrictions.

“The Founding Fathers ensured our right to bear arms with the Second Amendment, and it is important that no government try to take away that right,” said Attorney General Rutledge. “Allowing a government such control sets a dangerous precedent.”

New York City requires a costly and restrictive “premises permit” to own a personal handgun for self-defense. The permit prohibits taking the weapon outside the home for any purpose other than to practice at one of the New York City shooting ranges and entirely prohibits leaving the state with the weapon. The costly “carry” permit is required to remove the weapon from the home for other purposes and is difficult to obtain.

The 17-state coalition urges the Supreme Court to review the case and provide clear guidance on the scope of the Second Amendment and specifically to confirm that the right to self-defense is not limited to the home.

The states argue that while city and state governments have an interest in public safety and crime prevention, New York City offered no evidence that demonstrated its regulations actually enhance public safety and crime prevention. In fact, its restrictive scheme has the opposite effect by arbitrarily limiting a gun owner’s ability to become proficient with his or her own weapon, requiring thousands of people to buy additional weapons and causing thousands of weapons to be left in unoccupied houses.

The states also point out the significant economic impact of hunting and shooting sports.

“New York’s regulatory scheme discriminates against interstate commerce because it ‘deprives out-of-state businesses of access to a local market’ by forbidding its citizens from hunting and patronizing ranges outside the state with their own guns,” the states wrote.

The 16 states joining Arkansas in the brief through their Attorney Generals are Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin, and the Governors of Mississippi and Kentucky.