New FBI indictment charges Hot Spring County sheriff with drug cover-up and investigative obstruction

Little Rock, Arkansas – The United States Attorney’s Office reports that Hot Spring County Sheriff Derek Scott Finkbeiner, who was first charged with a single count of obstruction of justice after his detention on November 2, is now facing additional charges from the FBI.

An affidavit states that Finkbeiner obstructed a federal narcotics sting from May to August of this year.

According to court records, Finkbeiner contacted local federal officials and told them about the surveillance in August after learning that the FBI was monitoring the house of one of his associates, an alleged drug dealer, using a concealed camera.

The FBI said in an indictment released on Wednesday that Finkbeiner had misrepresented his colleague as a confidential informant “in an effort to corruptly obstruct, influence, and impede the ongoing criminal investigation.”

Additionally, the FBI claimed that when Finkbeiner was questioned about whether he was aware of any drug activity or gang activity on the block where his associate’s home was situated, he withheld and withheld information.

Finkbeiner was reported as stating that his partner “as far as I’ve known, never been a drug seller…he’s just used drugs” in FBI phone calls that federal agents taped. Finkbeiner further denied selling drugs or purchasing them from his associate.

“You can look at my damn bank account and see that ain’t right,” Finkbeiner said to federal agents.

The November 15 indictment states that Finkbeiner later acknowledged, during an FBI agent interview on the day of his arrest, that he had received meth and crack cocaine from his associate on different occasions and had used both at the associate’s home.

Finkbeiner continued to insist that his buddy was merely a low-level drug dealer, but he also acknowledged that he thought the FBI would be unlikely to pursue an investigation into him if they thought the person was a “low-level” drug dealer.

Finkbeiner was initially charged with obstruction of justice; in addition, he was charged with two counts of misprision of a felony (knowing that a felony was committed and hiding the information from law enforcement), one count of knowing that his associate was distributing a controlled substance, and one count of knowing that his associate was maintaining drug-related premises.

Finkbeiner faces a maximum sentence of 26 years in jail if found guilty; the other counts carry a maximum sentence of three years in prison each, fines included.

Although no charges have been brought yet, the FBI has also accused Finkbeiner of pressing and requesting sex from one of their confidential informants who was utilized to look into Finkbeiner’s accomplice.