Taylor running for prosecuting attorney

By Staff, 04/3/18 9:59 AM

HOPE/PRESCOTT – Angilynn Taylor is running for Eighth Judicial North Prosecuting Attorney in the May 22 Preferential Primary.

The prosecutor’s office, like those of judges, is a non-partisan position.

Taylor came to Hope due to family issues and lived with relatives. She attended Hope schools and earned her Bachelor of Science Degree from Mississippi Valley State University where she majored in biology as a pre-med major. However, she bowed out of college for a while, working at the School of Hope and Temple Inland, where she was in management focusing on quality, safety and the environment.

Taylor thought about going back to medical school, but was torn between medicine and law. She took the test for law school, passing, and attended the law school at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, earning her juris doctorate in 2004, graduating a semester early. While in law school, Taylor took courses on employment and disability law and began working for the Arkansas Appeal Tribunal after getting her license, where she primarily dealt with unemployment rights issues. She was appointed a deputy prosecuting attorney (DPA) under Chris Thomason, who resigned that post to become chancellor at the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope (UACCH). Taylor remained with the prosecutor’s office after Thomason left, but opted to go to Georgia, where she worked with other attorneys, though not practicing law as she wasn’t licensed in the state. While a DPA, Taylor worked mostly on juvenile cases, along with some criminal cases.

Returning to Hope, Taylor practices general law. “I came here knowing I’d run for prosecuting attorney,” she said, adding she believes in improving the criminal justice system, which, she says, could use more transparency, fairness and improved public trust.

During her campaign, Taylor said she’s talked with various people, including victims and witnesses, as well as offenders who don’t believe in the justice system. She plans on taking a holistic approach to problems, if elected, working to add programs to help those returning from jail or prison to be able to return and become productive members of society. Taylor said she’s seen such programs work elsewhere and believes they could work here. These programs, she said, can be instituted at low cost with the help of churches and volunteers. “People want to get involved but don’t know how.”

Taylor is the legal guardian for her sister, Vicki, who has special needs. She also has a son in college at the University of the Ozarks.

If elected, Taylor said, her primary goal will be swift prosecution of violent offenders, early youth intervention and restoring the public trust.