‘Nothing to it’
Reece responds to police report, tax liens

By Scott Loftis

SLoftis@cherryroad.com

Former Green Forest mayor Charlie Reece, who is seeking a return to that office in the November general election, said he received “some bad tax advice” that led to federal tax liens totaling more than $20,000.

Charlie Reece

Reece, 79, also said there “was nothing to” an incident that led to his wife filing a petition seeking an order of protection against him in April 2021. The petition was later dismissed at the request of Reece’s wife, Carrie, who also had filed a report with the Green Forest Police Department.

“First of all, the restraining order was withdrawn,” Reece said Thursday, Aug. 25. “And so it should not be public information. I don’t know who the police report was. It was simple. There was nothing to it.” In an affidavit accompanying her petition seeking a protective order, filed April 12, 2021, Carrie Reece writes that she had recently discovered a letter from the Internal Revenue Service “detailing over $20,000 of unpaid taxes (with penalties & interest).”

“He kept this information from me & only discovered the IRS letter on my own approx. April 8, 2021,” Carrie Reece writes. She indicated that the IRS letter was dated March 26, 2020.

The Carroll County Circuit Clerk’s Office confirmed Thursday, Aug. 25, that it has documentation of two federal tax liens connected with Charlie Reece. One, listing only Charles Reece, shows a balance of $8,404.30. The other, which lists both Charles and Carrie Reece, according to the circuit clerk’s office, lists a balance of $14,826.03.

“As far as the tax thing, I had some bad tax advice, and I’m negotiating with the IRS to pay it off,” Charlie Reece said Thursday, Aug. 25. “But there are snakes in the grass out there, so you have to understand that there’s going to be some stuff. I will not even propose to do anything that will damage anyone. But I do know, I have a good idea who put that out there. They’ve already called me everything but a redheaded snake.”

‘RUINED MY CREDIT’

Carrie Reece, 66, also writes in the affidavit accompanying her petition seeking a protective order that Charlie Reece took out credit cards in her name without her knowledge or permission and “(r)uined my credit by racking up debt.”

“I got a couple of credit cards that came in,” Charlie Reece said last week. “They were sent to me, and I just sent it back in, and that was all. And they approved it.”

In her affidavit, Carrie Reece writes that between April 7 and April 11, 2021, she and her husband argued about the IRS letter and “evidence & partial admittance of an extramarital relationship.”

Charlie Reece then entered the couple’s bedroom and went to his nightstand drawer, where he keeps a handgun, Carrie Reece’s affidavit says. “I feared he would use it on himself or me,” Carrie Reece writes.

Carrie Reece writes that she blocked the drawer with her hip and asked Charlie Reece to leave the house but he repeatedly refused. After about two hours, Carrie Reece writes, her husband left to go to the store and she took the handgun and a rifle from a closet to a neighbor’s for safekeeping.

When she arrived home from work the following day, Carrie Reece writes, she checked the drawer and it had been “rifled through.” Charlie Reece had arrived home about an hour before his wife and “was in a bad mood,” the affidavit says.

“Later, near midnight or 1 a.m., he came to bed and found me crying,” Carrie Reece writes in the affidavit. “We talked for a short time, and then he lost his temper and yelled at me. He jumped from the bed & so did I. By the time I got around the bed, he had opened the drawers and was going through. He was using an aggressive tone & asked if I’d removed the gun.”

Carrie Reece writes that she was crying and scared.

“He came towards me and I could not get around him,” she writes. “While he did not hurt me, he did hold my arms, stood in front of me & would not let me go. I cried and said ‘please don’t hurt me.’” Charlie Reece would not let his wife stay in the living room, she writes, because he did not want her to leave the house because of the late hour and because it was raining. She did not want him to be in the living room alone, she writes, because he has two .22-caliber rifles somewhere in the house “and I was worried he might get them.”

After a while, Carrie Reece writes, her husband came to bed and stayed awake until he felt she was going to “stay put in the bed.”

Over that weekend, she writes, she “pretended to be OK but I was afraid.”

Charlie Reece stuck around the house but on Sunday he wanted his wife to go to Walmart with him, which was unusual, she writes.

“There were no harsh words or arguements,” Carrie Reece writes, “but … I felt he was keeping track of me.”

On Monday morning — April 12, 2021 — the couple drove separate cars to work at Eureka Springs schools.

“I consulted the resource officer at my campus and she advised me to leave and file a police report,” Carrie Reece writes in her affidavit.

POLICE REPORT

Carroll County Newspapers obtained a copy of the police report through a public records request to the Green Forest Police Department.

In an incident report form, under a section labeled “Offenses,” the form lists “False Imprisonment - 2nd Degree,” and indicates that the offense was attempted rather than completed. Green Forest Police Chief John Bailey said it appeared that Carrie Reece later declined to pursue criminal charges and none were ever filed. The most likely charge would have been false imprisonment, Bailey said. Second-degree false imprisonment is a Class A misdemeanor in Arkansas.

In a narrative included with the incident report, Green Forest detective Allen Phillips writes that he met with Carrie Reece at the police department.

Phillips writes that Carrie Reece told him that her marriage “had been going through a rough point.”

“Mrs. Reece told me that she has been noticing that Charlie had been ‘slipping’ and he had been drinking more than usual,” Phillips writes.

Carrie Reece told Phillips that about a year and a half earlier, she came across a credit card bill addressed to her that she knew nothing about. When she looked into the situation, she found more credit card bills in excess of $15,000, Phillips writes that he was told by Carrie Reece.

“Mrs. Reece told me that she ran a credit check on herself and found that her credit score had dropped from the upper 700s to about 545,” Phillips writes. “Mrs. Reece told me that when she confronted Charlie about the bills he attempted to blame her for them.”

Carrie Reece went on to tell Phillips that Charlie Reece had gotten involved in a job “to where he was buying items from online using his American Express card and then he would create a new shipping label and ship the items overseas,” the detective’s narrative says.

“Mrs. Reece said that she was not happy about this and she and Charlie got into an argument,” Phillips writes. “Mrs. Reece said these purchases were approximately $18,000 to $20,000. Mrs. Reece stated that she also found Credit cashes in her name that she had not made. Mrs. Reece told me that over the course of the year Charlie tried to convince her that she was the person who signed up for the cards but approximately 2 weeks ago he admitted that he would receive the credit card offers in the mail and he would sign her name to them and get a credit card.”

Carrie Reece told Phillips that she spent a year and a half working to pay off the credit card bills and told her husband that she would give him an allowance of $700 to $1,000 a month from her salary to pay for utilities, food and gas, Phillips writes.

“Mrs. Reece told me that when she was trying to resolve the financial situation she found that they owed $20,000 in back taxes that have not been paid,” Phillips writes. “Mrs. Reece said that she confronted Charlie about the back taxes and he became angry and the two of them started arguing. Mrs. Reece said that Charlie told her he had it under control.”

Carrie Reece also told Phillips that she noticed text messages from a family friend on her husband’s phone, Phillips writes.

One message read “hey sweetie are you asleep?” and the next message was about the woman’s “to do list,” Phillips writes.

“Mrs. Reece said she confronted Charlie about the text and he tried to pass it off as a friendly conversation,” Phillips writes. “Mrs. Reece said she told Charlie that she knew that wasn’t the case and Charlie later admitted the two had kissed.”

Carrie Reece said she called the woman, who admitted to kissing Charlie Reece, Phillips writes.

Carrie Reece went on to describe the incident detailed in her affidavit accompanying her petition for an order of protection, Phillips writes.

Phillips writes that after meeting with Carrie Reece, he accompanied her to her house where she retrieved some belongings while he waited outside. Carrie Reece then returned to the police department where she provided a written statement, Phillips writes.

“Mrs. Reece was unsure if she wanted to pursue criminal charges,” Phillips writes.

REECE’S RESPONSE

When asked to comment on the tax liens and his wife’s statements during a telephone interview on Thursday, Aug. 25, Charlie Reece responded: “I have never purposely harmed a soul, and that includes my Vietnam service. That includes everything I’ve done in my life, and for someone to take something that was withdrawn. My wife and I just had an argument and she, for some reason — she’d been married before and her previous husband abused her and she felt that, she was afraid. But I will take very serious if that, if everything in that is put out in the newspaper.”

Carrie Reece could not be reached for comment.

COUNTY JUDGE BIDS

Charlie Reece, a Green Forest native, served as mayor from 2009 through 2018. He ran unsuccessfully against then-incumbent Sam Barr for Carroll County Judge in 2016 and two years later opted not to seek re-election as mayor in order to run again for county judge. He was defeated for a second time by Barr.

Reece currently serves as chairman of the Carroll County Republican Committee. He filed as a candidate for mayor during the municipal filing period earlier this month. His opponents in the Nov. 8 general election are longtime Green Forest City Council member Willa Kerby and longtime District 8 Justice of the Peace Don McNeely.

Mayor Jerry Carlton, who was elected in 2018, is not seeking re-election but instead is running unopposed for a city council seat.