LOWELL — Cancer foundation names new leader
Martha Pendleton will be the new executive director of the Cancer Support Foundation in Fort Smith, the foundation board announced Wednesday.
Pendleton will replace current director Mary Lee Frase, who will retire Oct.
16. Frase joined the group in February 2005 after a 24-year career in broadcasting.
Pendleton has previously served as director of marketing for St. Edward Mercy Medical Center in Fort Smith, grants coordinator for the Mercy Foundation in Fort Smith and site director for John Brown University in Siloam Springs. She also has taught at the University of Arkansas College of Education and Health Professions in Fayetteville.
Her first day as executive director will be Oct. 19.
The Cancer Support Foundation operates the Donald W. Reynolds Cancer Support House in Fort Smith. The group offers support groups and creativity classes for cancer patients as well as providing wigs, turbans and mastectomy supplies.
- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTEConstable charged
in assault of girl
FORT SMITH - A Crawford County constable has pleaded innocent in Sebastian County Circuit Court to a felony charge accusing him of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl.
Milton R. Hendrix, 60, of Mountainburg had been charged in Fort Smith District Court with misdemeanor fourth-degree sexual assault. The prosecutor's office dropped that charge and re-filed the felony charge in Circuit Court on Tuesday.
Hendrix remains free on a $5,000 bond.
A warrant was issued for Hendrix's arrest in July after police received a Child Abuse Hotline report that he abused the girl in Fort Smith. The girl told Fort Smith police Detective Tammy DeMier that Hendrix touched her on her breasts and genitals and had been touching her whenever they were together since she was 5 years old.
A witness also told police he saw Hendrix touch the girl on her buttocks.
According to Crawford County election officials, Hendrix, a Democrat, was elected District 11 constable in June 2008. The district covers part of the county roughly north of Alma.
- ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Charges await 4 in assault
Three Franklin County men and a juvenile male were being held on suspicion of rape in the assault of a woman in Ozark last weekend, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
Prosecuting Attorney David Gibbons said Ashley Wheeler, 26; Robert Wilson, 23, and Morgan Applegate, 20, were arrested Saturday after the woman told police they beat and raped her at the home of one of the men early Saturday.
Gibbons said Wednesday that Wheeler and Wilson were being held in the Franklin County jail in lieu of $500,000 bond each and Applegate was being held in lieu of $300,000 bond.
Ozark Police Chief Jim Noggle said a 17-year-old male was being held in a regional juvenile facility in lieu of $200,000 bond.
Gibbons said he was awaiting police reports before filing charges.
He intends to charge thejuvenile as an adult, he said.
-ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTEDetention officer
resigns position
A Springdale radio announcer has resigned her job as a Washington County Detention Center officer after she was accused of lying to Springdale police.
Silvana Pagliuca faces a misdemeanor charge of hindering apprehension in Springdale District Court after she allegedly told an officer that a suspect they were looking for was not in her apartment. Her arraignment is Sept. 30 before Springdale District Judge Stanley Ludwig.
Defense attorney Mark Booher said Pagliuca denies any wrongdoing. Pagliuca is an on-air announcer for Springdale-based KSEC/La Zeta 95.7 FM.
Police said they went to her apartment after a Sept.
2 traffic stop, looking for a suspect wanted on an outstanding drunken driving warrant. The man had given them a different name, and Pagliuca said he was not in her apartment. After police said they would wait, the man left the apartment and told police who he was.
Washington County Detention Maj. Randall Denzer said in an e-mail that Pagliuca resigned her position with the county Tuesday after she was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.
- NORTHWEST ARKANSAS TIMES
Plea is innocent
in weapons case
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - A Missouri man with alleged ties to white supremacists who are charged in an Arizona bombing has pleaded innocent to additional federal weapons charges.
Robert N. Joos, 56, of Powell pleaded innocent in federal court Tuesday to two counts of unlawful transport of firearms and one count of transporting explosive materials interstate.
The Springfield News-Leader reported Wednesday that Joos is being held without bond. He was arrested in late June as part of an investigation into a 2004 mail bombing in Scottsdale, Ariz., that injured a black city official.
-THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 12 on 09/24/2009