CONWAY -- A former state senator faces another day in jail after pleading guilty Tuesday to drunken driving.
Gilbert Baker, a lobbyist from Conway, pleaded guilty in Faulkner County District Court to driving while intoxicated, first offense, and refusing to take a breath test. Baker, 59, was sentenced to two days in jail and ordered to pay $1,225 in fines and court costs.
The former Republican state senator was credited with one day served -- from the night and morning after he was arrested -- under the negotiated agreement and is to serve the remaining day in the Faulkner County jail within 30 days.
Baker's blood alcohol level tested 0.14 percent, Conway City Attorney Chuck Clawson said. The legal limit in Arkansas is 0.08 percent.
Baker fought efforts to allow Conway restaurants to sell alcoholic beverages for years when he was a state legislator. He opposed some private-club liquor permits in Conway. Faulkner County does not allow the retail sale of alcoholic beverages, but numerous restaurants in Conway now have permits to serve them.
Despite the guilty plea, Baker has 30 days to appeal the conviction to circuit court, Clawson said.
Even though blood alcohol test results were back from the state Crime Laboratory, the city attorney's office is still awaiting drug-screening results that also are included in such tests, Clawson said.
"We would never stop the tests," Clawson said.
He said all test results are needed should Baker opt to appeal.
Clawson said the city dismissed a charge of driving left of center.
Conway police arrested Baker the evening of Aug. 26. He was later released on $1,395 bond.
In a statement emailed from his attorney Frank Shaw's Conway office to Arkansas Online, Baker said he made two "serious mistakes" that night.
"First, I was very belligerent and disrespectful to several Conway police officers when they pulled me over at about 8:30 p.m. in front of the new Wal-Mart on Dave Ward Drive," Baker said in the statement.
"Second, I was wrong to have driven home from Little Rock after having had some alcohol earlier in the evening. I regret both bad decisions and accept the responsibility and consequences of those decisions," he said.
Baker helped raise money for former Circuit Judge Michael Maggio's campaign for the Arkansas Court of Appeals. In January 2015, Maggio pleaded guilty to a federal bribery charge and implicated two other people -- his fundraiser and a nursing-home owner -- in a plea agreement that did not give their names.
Baker and nursing-home owner Michael Morton have denied wrongdoing but have said they believe the plea agreement was referring to them. Neither Baker nor Morton has been charged in the bribery investigation, and Maggio is appealing a federal judge's decision refusing to let Maggio withdraw the guilty plea.
Information for this article was contributed by Brandon Riddle of Arkansas Online.
State Desk on 09/28/2016