Cleburne County Criminal Docket Searches
Search ARCourts is the statewide entry point for public case information. It covers courts on the Contexte system. No case number? Search by participant name. If a notice, bond paper, charge, or order shows the exact case number, use it. Filter for Cleburne County and the right court when those controls appear. The portal can return the Cleburne County court, judge, filings, charges and dispositions, future events, and judgments. Some records add document links. A missing image does not mean the filing is absent. The Cleburne County clerk's file may still hold it.
Online search is only the first channel, though. Circuit felony records sit with the Cleburne County Circuit Clerk. A misdemeanor, violation, or preliminary district matter belongs to a district department. That means the Heber Springs, Greers Ferry, Concord, or Quitman office where it was filed. The Judiciary notes that only some district courts contribute case information. Thin results call for a phone call or a visit to that Cleburne County department. Send written requests by mail, fax, or email only after the clerk confirms the case details, cost, payment method, and return delivery.
- Identify the court level from the charge paper, notice, or case number.
- Open Search ARCourts and try the exact number first. Use a participant name as the alternate route.
- Confirm Cleburne County, the court, the charge block, and the assigned judge before relying on a match.
- Read filings and events in date order. Compare the newest order with any future event.
- Call or visit the holding clerk for a missing case, a near-term setting, a filed document, or a certified judgment.
Cleburne Criminal Dockets Have Two Custodians
No single counter holds every Cleburne County criminal case. Heather Smith, the Cleburne County Circuit Clerk, keeps circuit criminal filings. The office sits at 301 West Main Street in Heber Springs. It takes calls weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 501-362-8149. Faxes go to 501-362-4681, and email to recorder@cleburnecircuitclerkar.gov. Ask there about felony case information, file inspection, plain copies, or a certified criminal judgment.
Misdemeanor, traffic, violation, and other district-authority records live elsewhere. The Arkansas district-court directory lists four separate Cleburne County department clerks. Heber Springs is at 501-362-6585. Greers Ferry is at 501-825-7172, Concord at 870-668-3315, and Quitman at 501-589-3512. Where the case was filed, not where a person lives, decides which clerk keeps the docket.
The circuit-clerk directory shows who holds the county's circuit records: View the Arkansas Judiciary circuit-clerk directory.
That directory listing ties a felony docket search to the office that can hand you the original Cleburne County criminal record. It names the clerk, the phone lines, and the counter in one place.
Criminal Dockets: What They Show
A Cleburne County criminal docket opens with the case identity and the filing court. It then lays out the public event trail. Search ARCourts may show the assigned judge and the State of Arkansas as prosecutor. Party roles, charge descriptions, filings, settings, dispositions, and judgments may appear too. Detail depends on what the court contributes and what access rules allow. Copy the case number exactly. Arkansas numbers can mix a court or county identifier, a case-type code, a year, and a sequence. No single fixed Cleburne criminal format can be reconstructed from memory.
| Case number | The court's unique identifier. Preserve the exact punctuation and sequence, such as court-code / type / year / sequence. |
|---|---|
| Charge block | The alleged offense and, where contributed, its statute, class, count, and later disposition. |
| Filings | The date-ordered index of charging papers, motions, notices, orders, and judgment activity. |
| Future event | A scheduled arraignment, pretrial, plea, trial, sentencing, review, or other event that should be confirmed. |
| Disposition | The recorded outcome for a charge or case. Different counts can end in different ways. |
| Document link | A public image offered by some courts. An index-only entry can still point to a document held by the clerk. |
Read docket entries with care. A bond entry sets release conditions; it says nothing about guilt. A motion is a request, and only a later order shows the ruling. For the precise sentence or final outcome, read the signed judgment.
Four Cleburne Criminal Circuit Divisions
The Sixteenth Judicial Circuit covers Cleburne, Independence, Stone, Izard, and Fulton Counties through four divisions. Holly Meyer holds Division 1. Don McSpadden holds Division 2, Lee Harrod Division 3, and Tim Weaver Division 4. A judge may sit in Heber Springs, Batesville, or Melbourne. Yet every Cleburne County criminal filing still passes through one local Circuit Clerk. The judge on the docket handles rulings and the calendar. The clerk indexes the filing and helps you locate the case. The current circuit-judge directory identifies each division and its contact route.
This directory lets you match the judge named on a Cleburne County criminal docket with the correct division. The county also posts its own page pairing the four judges with their annual calendar links: See the Cleburne County circuit judges and calendars.
The local calendar shows why the judge and division should be confirmed before any criminal setting is treated as settled.
Criminal Case Stages on the Docket
Read a Cleburne County criminal docket as a sequence, not one label. A circuit trail may open with an information or indictment. A district trail often starts with a citation, complaint, or preliminary event. First appearance or arraignment covers the charge, rights, plea, counsel, release, and future dates as they apply. Pretrial events test readiness and put motions before the judge. A plea or trial follows. Then the docket records the disposition, judgment, sentence, any post-judgment activity, or an appeal.
Docket flow: Filing › Arraignment › Pretrial › Plea or Trial › Disposition › Sentencing
Dockets rarely read like a straight line. A continuance shoves a hearing to a new date. A motion entry on a Tuesday may not be decided for weeks, and that gap is normal. Separate charges inside one case can end differently. An appeal adds another layer and sometimes a whole new docket. To trace the full story of a Cleburne County case, begin at the earliest public filing and read every entry forward to the last judgment or order.
The Judiciary lays out its administrative plans, which show how casework is assigned across the circuit. Open the official circuit administrative plans index.
That index gives the local administrative backdrop for the Cleburne County criminal case sequence and how divisions get their assignments.
Cleburne Criminal Docket Outcomes Decoded
A charge line on a Cleburne County criminal docket is only an allegation. It is never a result. What settles the question is the disposition block and the signed judgment. Together they answer something the charge never could. A "Pending" entry means the public record shows no final resolution yet. A plea entry records a response to the charge. But it may fall short of a complete final judgment. "Dismissed," "nolle prosequi," and "acquitted" are three different things. A dismissal ends the charge through court or prosecution action on the record. Nolle prosequi means the prosecutor stepped back for now. An acquittal is an adjudicated outcome on the count itself.
- Disposition
- The recorded result of a charge or case.
- Nolle prosequi
- The prosecution's formal decision not to proceed on a charge at that time.
- Bond forfeiture
- A bond consequence tied to noncompliance that can create more docket activity.
- Sealed
- A status that restricts ordinary public access under law or court order.
Deferred or suspended treatment terms come from the governing order. A short portal label will not tell you the conditions or what happens later. When counts differ, read each charge line and the final judgment instead of stretching one outcome across the whole case.
Cleburne County Criminal Docket Courts
Felonies in Cleburne County belong to Circuit Court, the general-jurisdiction trial bench. The Circuit Clerk is the filing office there. Below that sits the state district court. It works through departments in Heber Springs, Greers Ferry, Concord, and Quitman. Those departments handle misdemeanors, violations, traffic matters, and preliminary criminal work within their authority. A Greers Ferry Police ticket lands at the Greers Ferry department. Concord Police cases go to Concord. Quitman Police cases go to Quitman, along with anything else filed in each department.
| Court | Criminal docket role | Best fallback |
|---|---|---|
| Cleburne County Circuit Court | Felony and general-jurisdiction criminal cases | Circuit Clerk, 501-362-8149 |
| Heber Springs Department | District criminal, traffic, and violations | Department clerk, 501-362-6585 |
| Greers Ferry Department | Greers Ferry Police and other department filings | Department clerk, 501-825-7172 |
| Concord Department | Concord Police and other department filings | Department clerk, 870-668-3315 |
| Quitman Department | Quitman Police and other department filings | Department clerk, 501-589-3512 |
Trust the court printed on your notice or shown in Search ARCourts. An appeal out of district court can spawn later circuit activity. When paperwork shows an old case number and a newer one, search both.
Cleburne Criminal Compliance Review Dockets
Cleburne County has no separate treatment-court database to hunt for. Instead, each district department runs a monthly review docket. The district administrative plan calls it a special calendar. It is for people who need to fix noncompliance with court obligations. It is still just an event inside the underlying district case. Search with the ordinary criminal case number. Then ask the department clerk to confirm the review date, place, and current instructions.
Cleburne County posts no separately branded drug court, veterans court, DWI court, or mental-health court. None has its own public search. A statewide program list does not prove a local docket exists. The monthly review docket is the confirmed local feature. If "review docket" shows up in future events, treat it as part of the same case. It is not a new charge or new case number.
Cleburne Criminal Judge Assignments Can Change
The judge on an older notice may not be the one on the bench later. Recusal, a conflict, or another assignment action can seat a substitute. The Arkansas Supreme Court keeps an official assignment-order index. Recent entries cover Cleburne District Court activity. For your specific hearing, the case docket and the latest instruction from the court still rule. Review the Arkansas Supreme Court assignment-order index.
That index shows why a Cleburne County criminal setting should always be confirmed with the court holding it. Assignment orders can shift judges without the parties asking.
Access Rules for Criminal Dockets
Access to a Cleburne County criminal docket runs through Arkansas Supreme Court rules. It does not run through any promise that everything public shows up online. Administrative Order 19 opens court information to the public. It also carves out protected identifiers, confidential material, and records restricted by law or court order. Redaction is handled under Administrative Order 19.1. The Arkansas Freedom of Information Act covers public records broadly. For case-copy procedure, though, the court custodian and the Supreme Court access rules are what govern.
Key access rules:
Arkansas Supreme Court Administrative Order 19 sets the main public-access framework and identifies excluded information.
Comprehensive Criminal Record Sealing Act material explains the statutory route that can remove qualifying criminal records from ordinary public access.
Arkansas Code section 9-27-309 is among the laws restricting juvenile-record disclosure.
A case you know exists can still vanish from a docket search. The name or number may be entered wrong. The wrong department may have been searched. An older file may sit offline, district data may never have been contributed, or the record may be restricted. Rule those out before concluding anything. Clerk staff can explain whether a record needs in-person inspection or a copy request. Sealed content stays sealed. For urgent hearing status, call the assigned court or the judge's office instead of trusting an old future-event line. A Search ARCourts screen is useful case information. But a certified criminal judgment comes only from the clerk holding the original file.