Featured AR News Stories:
Campus Safety Meeting Held To Alleviate Student Concerns
07 Sep 2006 11:23 am
Officials at the University of Arkansas said they want to make the campus as safe as possible for students.
Two months after the third rape of the year was reported on campus, the unsolved case has left some students worried about their safety on campus. However, officials tried to ease those concerns on Wednesday as part of a campus-safety meeting.
Officials typically hold the meeting this time of year, but the three reported rapes in 2006 have made campus safety an urgent matter.
Springdale man arrested in rape of 13-year-old
30 Aug 2006 9:56 pm
A 30-year-old Springdale man is accused of crawling through the window of a house Tuesday and raping a 13-year-old Greenland girl, according to a Washington County Sheriff's Office report.
The father of the 13-year-old awoke and noticed his daughter's room door closed. He opened it and saw a man on the bed with his daughter. The father and the man struggled, the report said, and then the intruder pointed a handgun at the father and his wife. He then left the house.
[He] was an acquaintance of the girl's father, the report said.
Man on trial for rape, incest
MIRANDA REMAKLUS
16 Aug 2006 11:53 am
A trial began Tuesday in Greene County Circuit Court in the case of a man accused of raping a girl that consider him her father all her life.
Greene County Deputy Prosecutor Randy Philhours said [the man] systematically sexually abused the victim, who he said was under [his] care from the time she was a baby, for several years.
State rethinks abuse education
CHARLOTTE TUBBS
12 Aug 2006 12:00 am
A state legislative task force is looking into a Minnesota program that trains college students in how to handle cases of child abuse before they become nurses, teachers or other professionals who would encounter such cases.
The department plans to inventory current academic programs that address child abuse and spread awareness for the need to train psychology, social work, criminal justice, nursing and education students on the issue. “This is an issue that we simply must address with some urgency in the higher education community,” said Beene, who attended the task force meeting with more than a dozen officials from two- and four-year colleges and universities.
The task force is hosting a series of national experts to research ways to improve Arkansas’ system of handling child abuse. The group plans to introduce legislation and a possible funding request during the 2007 legislative session.
Bentonville : School to check visitors against sex offender list
JAMIE BRUNK
01 Aug 2006 12:00 am
Officials at Bentonville High School plan to use new computer software to check visitors’ names against a national sex offenders registry.
The high school will become the first in Arkansas to use the Visitors Students Or Faculty Tracking software, or V-SOFT, school resource officer Steve Vera said.
The school hasn’t had any problems with registered sex offenders on campus, Vera said, but will use the software to enhance campus security. The high school projects an enrollment this year of almost 2, 900 students in grades 9 through 12.
Former Firefighter Admits Having Child Porn
15 May 2006 12:00 am
A former Cabot firefighter admits having child pornography in his work locker, but won't serve any jail time.
Mike Spaller pleaded guilty on Monday. Spaller was sentenced to five years probation, 90 hours community service and $1000.00 fine. He'll also have to register as a sex offender, give a DNA sample and he can’t have Internet service in his home for five years.
State leaders strengthen sex offender laws
ANDRA ATTEBERRY
03 May 2006 12:00 am
During the special session in early April, the Arkansas legislature strengthened sex offender laws.
State Rep. Shirley Borhauer was one of 83 representatives that cosponsored House Bill 1005, "The Child Protection Act." The bill updated and improved the current laws concerning sexual predators to protect children.
This law was written as a consequence of the rape and murder of nine-year-old Jessica Marie Lunsford in Citrus County, Fla., by a sex offender, according to Borhauer.
Predator among us: Lloyd Coats
Today, Coats sits in the Pasquotank Correctional Institution, a sexual predator convicted in September of molesting Oliver and 14 other children between 1976 and 1995.
Coats’ story is one of lives devastated, communities divided and at least two occasions when he eluded arrest — escapes that allowed him to keep preying on young girls.
Detectives using Internet to find predators
Posing as a girl in his early teens one day this week, Detective Cory Roberts got online to chat.
In less than a minute, three people were "hitting on him." He got a request from a man to watch a Webcam. After a few more minutes, the man was displaying a sexually explicit act to Roberts’ Internet identity.
Sex offender has new address
A level 3 registered sex offender listed as living in Batesville is no longer a resident of Independence County, according to information released today from the Arkansas Crime Information Center.
U.S. increases protection for foreign teens
Every year, about 28,000 teenagers come to the United States seeking to experience American life as an exchange student. But some end up in flea-infested homes or the homes of convicted felons, or having to sleep in garages because of negligence and greed, foreign exchange student advocates said.
In Arkansas, a foreign exchange program staffer invited teens to his home for a sleepover, gave them alcohol and raped two German boys.
