Sanders appoints Mickey Buchanan to finish Jana Bradford’s term as 9th West prosecutor
Bradford, who lost her re-election bid in March, is leaving office four months before her term ends. The governor's office did not say why.
LITTLE ROCK — Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Monday appointed Ashdown attorney Mickey Buchanan as prosecuting attorney for Arkansas’s 9th West Judicial District, which covers Howard, Little River, Pike and Sevier counties.
Buchanan’s appointment takes effect Sept. 2 and runs through Dec. 31, 2026. He replaces Jana Bradford of Glenwood, who is stepping down roughly four months before the end of her elected term.
The governor’s announcement did not give a reason for Bradford’s early departure, and Bradford has not publicly commented on leaving office.
The appointment carries a notable twist: Buchanan was Bradford’s opponent in the May 2022 election for the same office. Bradford, then a longtime deputy prosecutor, defeated Buchanan, then a public defender, and took office in January 2023 for a four-year term. Buchanan will now serve out the final months of the term he lost to her.
A return to the office
Buchanan is no stranger to the job. During his 2022 campaign, he said he had previously served one term as the district’s prosecuting attorney, inheriting a backlog of several hundred pending cases and holding jury trials “constantly” across the district — including, by his account, five jury trials in Sevier County in a single week. At the time of that earlier term, the district comprised three counties, before Pike County was added to the 9th West.
A Little River County native, Buchanan is a Vietnam veteran who served on the ground in 1968 and 1969, as did both of his brothers, according to his 2022 campaign materials. He has said he worked his way through college and law school after returning from the war, holding jobs in five states before beginning a law practice that has spanned more than four decades, with criminal law experience throughout and cases tried in 11 Arkansas counties. He and his wife, Melanie, have two grown children.
In his 2022 run, Buchanan campaigned on moving cases through the courts faster, arguing that defendants sitting in county jails for six to eight months awaiting prosecution cost the counties hundreds of thousands of dollars a year — money he said could go to roads and other needs. He also said local law enforcement had approached him to run.
A term marked by scandal
Bradford’s departure closes out a tenure dominated by controversy over her uncle, Barry Walker of Glenwood, one of the most prolific child sex offenders in Arkansas history. Walker pleaded guilty in October 2022 — months after Bradford’s election but before she took office — to more than 100 felony counts, including dozens of rape charges involving victims as young as 2, and received 39 life sentences without parole.
Weeks after Walker’s guilty plea, victims filed a civil lawsuit in Clark County that was later amended to name Bradford as a defendant in her individual capacity. The suit alleges she used her years as a deputy prosecutor to shield Walker from consequences, including advocating for a pardon and petitioning in 2018 to remove him from the state sex offender registry. Bradford has denied wrongdoing through her attorney, has not been charged with any crime, and refused repeated public calls to resign.
In June, a confidential settlement dismissed the claims connected to Walker’s business, All Pro Contracting Inc., including related claims against Bradford. Other claims in the lawsuit remain pending, with a jury trial now scheduled for March 2027 in Clark County.
Voters had already decided
Bradford’s political fate was sealed in March, when De Queen city attorney Erin Hunter defeated her in the nonpartisan election for the office. Hunter, a former interim prosecutor for the district, won outright in all four counties, avoiding a runoff in the three-way race that also included Clayton Tinkes. In Howard County, Hunter received 1,103 votes to Tinkes’ 318 and Bradford’s 226; in Pike County — Bradford’s home county — Hunter took 1,437 votes to Bradford’s 351.
Hunter campaigned on restoring “trust and integrity” to the prosecutor’s office and takes office Jan. 1, 2027. Buchanan’s appointment bridges the gap between Bradford’s departure and Hunter’s swearing-in.