Editor's Note: On September 21, 2026, during a Grant County Quorum Court meeting, Justice of the Peace Mike Nevens pointed at me in open session and said I had a copy of a tax abatement allocation chart, after a citizen asked whether the public could obtain one.

Judge Pruitt and Justice Nevens,

I am writing to formally object to a pattern of conduct toward me, as a reporter covering Grant County government, which has moved well beyond disagreement with my reporting into public targeting. 

I am asking that it stop, and I am putting it in writing so there is a record of having asked. I am also publishing this letter, because the public has a right to know how a reporter covering the Quorum Court is being treated by the officials she covers.

I want to state plainly, at the outset, that I have always conducted myself professionally and politely at every Quorum Court meeting and throughout my time in this courthouse. During meetings, I do not speak unless I am spoken to. I have never spoken out of turn or asked questions from the floor during a Quorum Court session unless I am addressed as was the case in January with Mr. Hershel Brannen, and again, last night.

When I ask hard questions, I ask them separately, when I am pursuing a Freedom of Information Act request or seeking comment outside of a meeting. That is what a reporter does. Both times I have been targeted at a Quorum Court meeting, I was doing nothing more than sitting quietly in the room.

This is not an isolated incident in the Grant County Courthouse.

 Late last year, I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to Joanne Theiss, deputy county clerk, shortly before she left the office for the holidays. Her out-of-office auto-reply, sent to anyone who emailed her during that time, returned only my name. At least three people received that reply, I discovered from a Freedom of Information request, including Deputy Prosecutor Jeff Weber. I never received a clear explanation for why my name was used that way, by a county official, in an automated response sent to the public. However, I realize mistakes happen.

 In January, at a Quorum Court meeting, a citizen speaker named Herschel Brennan singled me out by name during public comment on the data center, identifying me as an “investigative reporter” and demanding rudely to know if I was “going to tell the whole story.” I responded to him directly, asking him a relevant question. I do not apologize for that.

 Last night, September 21st, a citizen, Mr. Bill Margrave, asked some questions and whether the public could get a copy of a tax abatement allocation chart. That exchange was between that citizen and the Quorum Court. I was not part of it. I had said nothing. Justice Nevens responded by pointing at me and stating, “She has a copy of it.” I said, “yes, I do have a copy of it.” I was drawn into an exchange that had nothing to do with me, simply because I hold a document.

I want to be direct about why this matters, because it seems to require repeating. Obtaining a public record through a lawful FOIA request does not obligate me to share it with anyone who asks, to publish it, or to do anything with it at all. That choice belongs to me, not to this Court. My job is to gather facts, evaluate them, and decide what to publish. It is not my job to do the Quorum Court’s job for it. The transparency owed to the citizens of Grant County is this Court’s obligation, not mine. If citizens are frustrated by how little they are told about the data center project, that frustration is the direct result of this Court’s own choices about what to disclose and when and not the result of my having filed requests for records I am legally entitled to.

It is not fair to single me out as though I am a party to this dispute when I have not advocated any position on any topic facing the Quorum Court.

I have worked as a journalist filing public records requests for nearly forty years, since I was a teenager. I understand exactly what Arkansas law allows me to do, and I intend to keep doing it, regardless of how exasperated this Court appears to be by that fact.

I also want to say plainly what I believe is actually happening. I am being targeted, and this is intimidation. Being singled out in an open session, repeatedly, is meant to have a chilling effect. I am naming that here, publicly, because it should be on the record.

 I have covered hundreds of public meetings over the course of my career, including the Sheridan City Council and the Sheridan School District board, which I cover regularly alongside this Court. I am never treated this way at those meetings. In every one of them, I sit quietly and take notes or livestream. Last night I was not livestreaming or filming. I was sitting there with a pen and a notepad, writing by hand, saying nothing, when Justice Nevens pointed at me and named me in front of the room. Being made a target while doing nothing but this quiet, routine work is not just intimidating. It is dangerous, and it should not be happening to me or to anyone else doing this job.

I am also asking, plainly, to be treated with basic professional courtesy. I have a name. You may call me Suzi, or Ms. Parker. I do not expect to be pointed at or discussed in the third person in open session because I have exercised a legal right to obtain documents under the Freedom of Information Act.

I was drawn into an exchange last night that was not mine. It belonged to Mr. Margrave and this Court. I am asking for a public apology, at the next Quorum Court meeting, for being pulled into a dispute that had nothing to do with me.

Additionally, I expect this pattern to end.

Suzi Parker
Publisher, Grant County Fire
Investigative Journalist