The former executive director of the Arkansas Supreme Court’s Office of Professional Programs has been charged with 65 counts of tampering with a public record.

LRCR-26-5292: STATE v. NANCIE MICHELLE GIVENS.

There are two orders to seal listed on Arkansas CourtConnect. There are no publicly accessible documents linked to the case.

Let the Star Chamber begin.

According to mainstream media accounts, the allegations are that Ms. Givens altered bar examination results for at least 65 candidates seeking admission to the Arkansas Bar. There are also reports of the deletion of more than 10,000 emails and other electronic records concerning the licensure process for scores of Arkansas bar applicants.

Stop. Think.

Why would Ms. Givens wake up one morning and decide, entirely on her own, that it would be entertaining to manipulate bar examination results?

Was she simply bored?

Did she think it would be fun to ensure that some candidates who failed the examination received passing results while others who passed were notified that they had failed?

Tee hee.

Seriously, does anyone believe that the full story necessarily begins and ends with one executive director?

What was the motive? Who benefited? Who was harmed? Were there communications with other people? Did anyone request, encourage, facilitate, or benefit from the alleged manipulation?

Were favors exchanged? Were there threats? Was money involved? Or was there some other arrangement that has yet to come to light?

I don’t know the answers. Neither, apparently, does the public.

But these are questions that deserve answers.

And what about the more than 10,000 emails and electronic records reportedly deleted? What did those records contain? Who authorized their deletion? When did it occur? Were they preserved, recovered, or examined by investigators?

The public should not have to rely on carefully selected statements from institutional representatives while the underlying court records remain inaccessible.

If the allegations are true, this is not merely a story about one employee allegedly tampering with public records. It is a story about the integrity of the process by which Arkansas decides who is qualified to practice law.

And that process is administered by an institution of the Arkansas Supreme Court.

There is another question worth asking: Did any of the candidates whose examination results were allegedly manipulated have connections to influential attorneys, law firms, judges, or other members of the legal establishment?

I am not accusing any particular candidate, attorney, judge, or law firm of wrongdoing. I am asking whether investigators have examined the possibility of preferential treatment, conflicts of interest, or improper influence.

If the court records are opened to the public, perhaps we will learn whether this was the work of one individual or whether others were involved.

Until then, speculation is not evidence. But neither is the prosecution of one individual proof that the entire problem has been exposed.

The public deserves the truth. All of it. Not just the portion that is convenient for the Arkansas legal establishment to disclose.