By Ray King
An Arkansas County man currently serving a 264 month prison sentence at the Tucker Maximum Security Unit failed to prove that his trial court did not have jurisdiction over his case because of errors in his arrest warrant and there was insufficient probable cause to charge him.
On Thursday, the Arkansas Supreme Court said Husia Harkuf failed to state the basis for a writ of habeas corpus.
Harkuf, formerly known as Robert Joseph Moten, 43, was convicted of first and second-degree battery in Arkansas County Circuit Court. Because he is serving his sentence in Jefferson County, the petition was filed in Jefferson County Circuit Court and heard by Circuit Judge Jodi Raines Dennis who denied it.
In his petition, Harkuf contended that prosecutors filed the charges without a police complaint or incident report, what he called “the pre-charging process” and because there is no incident report, there was no reason to file the charges.
Writing for the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Dan Kemp said Harkuf’s claims that the court did not have jurisdiction because of a defective warrant and no police complaint is wrong.
The judge said a person who is found guilty in a court of “competent jurisdiction is not entitled to be set free on the basis of some flaw in the manner of his arrest.”
