Arraignment for Benton County Sheriff Kelley Cradduck has been moved up a week.
The Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported Monday that Cradduck's attorney and a special prosecutor agreed to move arraignment to Feb. 22 rather than Feb. 29, which is the day before the primary election. Cradduck is running for a third term and faces three primary opponents.
Cradduck was arrested in January on a felony count of tampering with public records and a misdemeanor count of tampering. He has not been formally charged and has denied wrongdoing and called the allegations politically motivated.
Cradduck allegedly ordered his staff to backdate the hiring date of a jail employee to pay him for time when he wasn't an employee and of instructing his secretary to lie to state police investigators.