Alderman nearing arraignment date

Lavaca man faces 2 felony sex charges

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

— Lavaca alderman and former Lavaca school teacher Jack James is scheduled to appear in Sebastian County Circuit Court for arraignment Wednesday regarding two felony charges of having sexual contact with students filed against him last week.

James, 52, was charged Friday with one count of second-degree sexual assault and one of sexual indecency with a child, according to the Sebastian County prosecuting attorney’s case file.

According to the case file, warrants were issued for James’ arrest Wednesday and he was arrested Thursday. He was released from the county jail the same day after posting a $10,000 bond.

James retired in May fromthe Lavaca School District where he was a middleschool social-studies teacher.

The second-degree sexual assault charge purports that James felt a student’s genitalia through his clothes while the student was a passenger in James’ van sometime between May 1, 2006, and Sept. 1, 2006.

A June 15, 2012, report by Arkansas State Police Investigator Corey Mendenhall stated James told him that he did not touch the boy’s genitalia but that the boy, then 14, began masturbating while he was in the van. According to the report, James slapped near the boy’s genitalia and told the boy to stop. The boy then put his genitalia back in his pants, the report said.

The sexual indecencycharge stems from an incident in which a child accused James of asking another student to show his genitalia to James and to meet him in a room at the school. According to a report in the case file, the boy, whose age was not listed, met James in the room and showed him his privates.

Attempts to reach James by phone Monday afternoon were unsuccessful.

James was convicted in Greenwood District Court last month of three counts of attempted sexual indecency with a child and one count of harassment, all misdemeanors. The cases also involved James asking minor students in separate cases to show him their genitalia.

District Judge Wayland Parker sentenced James to serve one year in the county jail on each charge, for a total of four years, and fined him $980 on each charge plus court costs.

James’ first two-year term on the Lavaca City Council expires at the end of the year. He filed for re-election, was unopposed and declared reelected, according to the Sebastian County Clerk’s office.

Mark Hayes, Arkansas Municipal League general counsel, said last month no action could be taken to remove James from office until his appeals have been exhausted.

James told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette at the time of the Nov. 8 convictions that he did not want to put up a defense in district court so he could appeal the charges and have a jury trial in Circuit Court.

James’ attorney, Michael Harry of Greenwood, issued a statement after the district court trial saying the most Parker could sentence his client to was one year in the county jail and up to a $1,000 fine regardless of the number of misdemeanor charges.

Records in the Sebastian County circuit clerk’s office show that James is scheduled to report to the county jail Friday to begin serving his sentences.

James previously had also been charged with one count of sexual indecency with a child, a felony for which Parker ordered James to stand trial in Circuit Court.

Deputy Prosecutor Allison Houston said Monday a second charge of sexual indecency with a child was added when the initial charge was filed in Circuit Court.

Those counts are separate cases from the charges James will be arraigned Wednesday.

James has pleaded innocent to those charges. No trial date has been set.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 12/04/2012