Arkansas State Police arrest Augusta Mayor Jeff Collins on charge of theft of property

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Arkansas State Police arrested Augusta Mayor Jeff Collins Thursday afternoon on charges of misdemeanor theft.

An ASP release stated Collins was arrested and booked into the Woodruff County jail on a Class A misdemeanor theft of property charge. Officials said Collins was released with bond waived after booking.

ASP officials said the investigation into Collins occurred after the agency received a letter from Woodruff County senior deputy prosecutor John Bell in March.

In the letter, Bell references an Arkansas Legislative Audit of Augusta for 2020 through 2022, claiming findings of the audit showed “certain city officials may have engaged in unlawful conduct in a number of areas.”

Bell outlined the audit findings of extensive utility write-offs, $300,000-plus in expenditures without authorization, thousands of dollars in questionable credit card charges, and “thousands of dollars in unexplained or inadequately documented disbursements.”

A review of the state legislative audit report confirmed the details in Bell’s letter, including utility write-offs of over $167,000.

Auditors also noted the city did not “timely select an accounting firm to complete financial audits of the City for six calendar years” through 2022.

The city’s response to the audit finding was included in the report. It stated that the city had addressed all the lapses and was developing policies and procedures to prevent them from occurring again.

State police noted that Collins’ first court date is Oct. 15.

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