FORT SMITH -- A Sebastian County Quorum Court member arrested last month over accusations he attacked and threatened his daughter will not be charged, a special prosecutor announced Tuesday.
The special prosecutor, Marc McCune of Crawford County, said in a news release he decided not to file criminal charges against 59-year-old John Spradlin at the request of Spradlin's 17-year-old daughter.
Spradlin was arrested July 7 on felony charges of aggravated assault on a family member and first-degree terroristic threatening. He was freed that day after posting a $6,500 bond.
In the release, McCune wrote Spradlin's daughter believes the statements she made to police were true but that not pressing charges against her father is in her best interest.
Since Spradlin's arrest, the release said, she hasn't lived with her father or had any contact with him.
"She believes that counseling and time can heal and resolve many of the issues that have developed that subjected her to this situation," the release said.
Spradlin wasn't reached for comment Tuesday. A recording said the phone number for Spradlin that's listed on the Quorum Court website isn't a working number.
Spradlin's daughter went to the police station late July 6 to report her father threatened and attacked her. Spradlin denied the allegations and gave his side of the story during a July 21 Quorum Court meeting.
According to a police report, Spradlin's daughter reported she completed a bank document her father asked her to write, but he became angry while reviewing it and started yelling at her. She told officers Spradlin told her he ought to kill her, he should beat her head in and she was worthless.
The report said he shoved her against a refrigerator and began choking her. He let go when she scratched him on the face, and she was able to leave the house and seek help, the report said.
At the July 21 meeting, Spradlin said he and his daughter had a loud argument but he didn't grab her throat or shove her against a refrigerator. Scratches on her arm came not from an attack but from abrasions from an inflatable tube on which she had been riding July 4 during a family outing at Beaver Lake, he said.
Responding to the death threat allegation, Spradlin said he told his daughter if he had ever disrespected his mother that way she did to him, his mother would have beaten him half to death.
Spradlin apologized to county officials and employees and to residents of Sebastian County for any embarrassment his arrest may have caused.
Sebastian County Prosecutor Dan Shue requested a special prosecutor because his position made investigation of Spradlin a conflict of interest.
NW News on 08/26/2015