Former Record Editor Ordered to Pay $15,000

A Madison County jury recently ordered Carol Whittemore to pay the Madison County Record, her former employer, $15,000 in damages.

According to an Oct. 13 article by the Record, Whittemore was found to have breached her fiduciary duties to the weekly newspaper. The paper sued the former editor in December 2003.

“Evidence at trial indicated Whittemore wrote $120,000 in checks to herself on and between July 31, 2000, and July 29, 2002,” the Record said.

The Record is owned by Ellen Kreth and Fara Faubus who inherited the newspaper when their grandmother, Alta Faubus, died in 2002. Alta Faubus was the first wife of Orval Faubus, former six-term Arkansas Governor.

Alta Faubus was also Whittemore’s aunt. Whittemore testified that Alta Faubus had written her a note giving her the right “to take all of the newspaper’s profits above operating expenses and not less than $20,000.”

“The owners testified Whittemore had taken advantage of their grandmother’s failing health by writing checks to herself,” the Record said.

Kyle Mooty, a former associate editor of the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal, is now the editor of the Record.