Rutledge Obtains Over $600,000 Judgment Against The Resort Place

News from the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office

Office of the Arkansas Attorney General LITTLE ROCK – Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge obtained a judgment valued at more than $600,000 against The Resort Place LLC and owners Jay Allen Edmonson and Dora Ann Edmonson. The Resort Place operated under the names Resort Place Travel and C4Success. Based on allegations in the complaint, The Resort Place failed to book pre-paid vacations and used consumers’ credit card information to pay for other consumers’ vacations. “The Resort Place is being held responsible for its unacceptable business practices and causing 47 consumers to lose their hard-earned money,” said Attorney General Rutledge. “I’m dedicated to protecting Arkansans from these types of deceptive business practices.”

The judgment, which was filed in Pulaski County Circuit Court, orders The Resort Place to pay $162,614.00 in restitution to consumers. The Edmonsons must also pay $10,000 in civil penalties for each affected consumer, totaling $470,000. The Resort Place’s business license has been revoked, and the Edmonsons have been barred from owning an online travel agency or working as travel agents in the future.

Rutledge filed a consumer- protection lawsuit against The Resort Place in February 2017 after receiving a number of consumer complaints. The settlement concludes a multi-year investigation into The Resort Place.

In other news coming out of the Attorney General’s Office:

• Rutledge announced the arrest of a Polk County man for crimes involving children.

James Edward Schroer, 41, of Cove, was arrested by the Attorney General’s Office Cyber Crimes Unit on 30 counts of distributing, possessing or viewing of matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child, a Class C felony. He is currently being held at the Polk County jail on $500,000 bond.

Special agents in the Attorney General’s office seized three phones, two computer hard drives, two tablets, three SD cards, and 12 flash drives from the home. This file will be turned over to 18th West Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Andy Riner.

• Rutledge lauded President Donald Trump’s announcement of Lee Rudofsky’s nomination for a judgeship in the U.S. District Court Eastern District.

“When I hired Lee away from Walmart in 2015, I knew that he had the experience and legal acumen to be the lead strategist on crucial litigation for my administration as the first official Solicitor General of the Attorney General’s Office,” said Attorney General Rutledge. “I am confident that as a jurist Lee will be fair, impartial and will adhere to the rule of law.”

In 2015, Rudofsky was hired by Attorney General Rutledge to be the first official Solicitor General for the Attorney General.

In that role, he advised Attorney General Rutledge on several key proceedings, including defending the State’s decision to successfully terminate Medicaid program funding to Planned Parenthood.

He organized a multistate, bipartisan and multimillion dollar lawsuit against the State of Delaware to the U.S. Supreme Court and successfully guided litigation allowing the execution of convicted murderers by lethal injection.

Rudofsky is also credited with implementing the office’s formal moot court program to prepare office attorneys for argument as well as establishing a clear review process of all briefs going to the 8th Circuit and Arkansas Supreme Court.

Leslie Carol Rutledge is the 56th Attorney General of Arkansas. Since taking office, she has significantly increased the number of arrests and convictions against online predators who exploit children and con artists who steal taxpayer money through Social Security Disability and Medicaid fraud.