Practicing Miss-Lou attorney Robert E. Clark was arrested on drug charges Sunday.

Clark, 57, 2046 Viking St., was arrested at his home at 4:14 a.m. Saturday on charges of possession with intent to distribute marijuana and cocaine, distribution of schedule I controlled substance, and possession of drug paraphernalia, Concordia Parish Sheriff Randy Maxwell said Monday.

Natchez-Adams County Metro Narcotics assisted Concordia Narcotics Task Force in the arrest, Maxwell said.

“We’ve been working on this a while,” Maxwell said.

Metro Cmdr. Cliff Cox said the case came up in Adams County and the investigation led to Vidalia. CNTF made the arrest, he said.

Clark was released on $40,000 bond Saturday and said Monday he had no comment on the situation.

Clark has worked as a public defender for Concordia Parish and Adams County.

He served as a defense attorney in a March cold-case murder trial in Natchez in which the defendant was convicted. He was also involved as a defense attorney in a voter fraud trial in Ferriday last year.

Adams County’s District Attorney Ronnie Harper said Clark had been working as an attorney for at least as long as Harper had worked in Natchez — close to 30 years.

“He’s never done anything in a trial that would indicate to me he would have a problem of that sort (with controlled substances),” Harper said.

“He handled cases competently.”

Those attorneys willing to serve as public defenders, about 15, are assigned cases on a rotation, Harper said. If Clark were for any reason unable to serve as a public defender, there should be no real problem, he said.

“It shouldn’t create any kind of crisis on the county’s part,” Harper said.

“It happens a lot — if an attorney has a conflict, they can ask the judge to remove them.”