Dozens of pallets of salvaged bricks and an antique fire truck are the latest flash points in the long-running legal battle between Dr. Arnold Smith and Lee Abraham.
Smith, a 73-year-old Greenwood oncologist accused of instigating a failed murder-for-hire plot to kill Abraham, was found mentally unfit to stand trial on conspiracy and capital murder charges and was committed to the Mississippi State Hospital at Whitfield in January.
The physician, who filed for bankruptcy in March, had asked a federal judge for permission at the end of June to sell about 85 pallets of bricks and a 1930 Diamond T vintage fire truck for an undisclosed sum.
Attorneys for Abraham as well as the trustee in the federal bankruptcy case, Harold J. Barkley Jr., objected to the sale since Smith didn’t disclose the bricks or the truck in his initial bankruptcy filings — and failed to provide information about the items’ value or condition.
Smith “should provide strict proof of all his assets including any other assets not currently listed,” Barkley wrote in response to Smith’s request.
Abraham and Barkley have also objected to numerous other possible issues with Smith’s bankruptcy filings, in which Smith claimed assets of $10 million — mostly in retirement accounts — and total liabilities of about $270,000, including $197,000 in secured claims.
According to lawyers for Abraham, the Greenwood attorney is Smith’s only creditor besides Mary Smith, the doctor’s wife. Abraham’s legal team has argued that the civil case against Smith — in which Abraham is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages as well as court expenses — should go to trial in state court before the bankruptcy proceedings are considered.
Smith’s attorneys, however, have pushed to have the civil case heard in federal court, arguing that the bankruptcy and civil lawsuit are intertwined.
The wrangling in bankruptcy court is the latest in more than three years of court battles for Smith, who was arrested hours after an April 29, 2012, shooting involving two alleged hitmen and agents from the state Attorney General’s Office at Abraham’s Market Street law office.
One alleged hitman, 25-year-old Keaira Byrd, was killed in the shooting, and a second, Derrick Lacy, was critically wounded.
Also, an unnamed agent with the Attorney General’s Office was nicked by a ricocheting bullet.
Smith, who had faced two counts of conspiracy to commit murder and one count of capital murder for his alleged role in the shooting, was repeatedly denied bail and has been held at either the Leflore County Jail or Whitfield since.
Two alleged co-conspirators — Lacy, 28, and Cordarious Robinson, 25 — are still awaiting trial. Robinson is accused of helping Smith contract for the assassination attempt.
•Contact Bryn Stole at 581-7235 or bstole@gwcommonwealth.com.
