Post by WaTcHeR on Jan 3, 2007 13:47:40 GMT -5
01.03.2007 - BENTONVILLE -- State Department of Correction officials moved former Gentry Police Sgt. Charles Harp to a Missouri prison in December because of his law enforcement background.
"It was felt, because of his law enforcement ties, that it would be better for him to do his time there," said Dina Tyler, spokeswoman for the department.
Harp, 39, is serving a seven-year sentence for having repeated sex with a girl he befriended and mentored when she was 16 and 17 years old.
The nature of Harp's case makes it particularly high-profile, Tyler noted.
Of the department's 13,279 inmates, 30 are being housed in other states under an Interstate Corrections Compact. Inmates are moved for both management and safety reasons, Tyler said.
One other police officer from Benton County, Ian Jay Smith, is currently housed in the North Central Unit near Calico Rock, serving a 30-year prison sentence for rape. Smith's victims were adults.
Harp was a 10-year veteran of the Gentry Police Department and had supervised the criminal investigation division. He began tutoring the girl after school in math and English about a year before, and she considered Harp a father figure, according to court records.
He pleaded guilty in August before Benton County Circuit Judge Tom Keith to second-degree sexual assault. He must serve at least 14 months before he's first eligible for parole.
Two former Arkansas State Police officers have criminal cases pending, also before Keith. Joe Hutchens, 60, who retired after 26 years of service as a trooper, was charged in 2005 with possessing sexually explicit photos of children. At the time, he was working as a bailiff for Circuit Judge David Clinger.
Hutchens is to appear in court Monday.
Larry Norman, who is now on medical retirement from the state police, is charged with misdemeanor negligent homicide in the March shooting of an unarmed, disabled man whom police mistook for a Michigan prison escapee.
A jury trial for Norman is set for March 6.
www.nwaonline.net/articles/2007/01/02/news/010307bzharp.txt
"It was felt, because of his law enforcement ties, that it would be better for him to do his time there," said Dina Tyler, spokeswoman for the department.
Harp, 39, is serving a seven-year sentence for having repeated sex with a girl he befriended and mentored when she was 16 and 17 years old.
The nature of Harp's case makes it particularly high-profile, Tyler noted.
Of the department's 13,279 inmates, 30 are being housed in other states under an Interstate Corrections Compact. Inmates are moved for both management and safety reasons, Tyler said.
One other police officer from Benton County, Ian Jay Smith, is currently housed in the North Central Unit near Calico Rock, serving a 30-year prison sentence for rape. Smith's victims were adults.
Harp was a 10-year veteran of the Gentry Police Department and had supervised the criminal investigation division. He began tutoring the girl after school in math and English about a year before, and she considered Harp a father figure, according to court records.
He pleaded guilty in August before Benton County Circuit Judge Tom Keith to second-degree sexual assault. He must serve at least 14 months before he's first eligible for parole.
Two former Arkansas State Police officers have criminal cases pending, also before Keith. Joe Hutchens, 60, who retired after 26 years of service as a trooper, was charged in 2005 with possessing sexually explicit photos of children. At the time, he was working as a bailiff for Circuit Judge David Clinger.
Hutchens is to appear in court Monday.
Larry Norman, who is now on medical retirement from the state police, is charged with misdemeanor negligent homicide in the March shooting of an unarmed, disabled man whom police mistook for a Michigan prison escapee.
A jury trial for Norman is set for March 6.
www.nwaonline.net/articles/2007/01/02/news/010307bzharp.txt