Arkansas man given probation in child-sex guilty plea

OZARK -- A Van Buren man was given four years' probation after pleading guilty Friday in Franklin County Circuit Court to felony sexual indecency with a child as part of a sex ring that involved four other defendants and at least three minors.

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Weston James Clayborn Bailey, 21, entered the plea to the Class D felony, which carries a maximum six-year prison sentence. Deputy prosecutor Heather Patton said Bailey was given probation because he cooperated with authorities.

Bailey will have to register as a sex offender and was ordered by Circuit Judge William Pearson to pay a $250 sex offender fee, a $250 DNA fee, $150 in court costs and a $20 booking fee.

Bailey was one of four young men recruited by Michael Ray Roe, 61, of Mulberry to have sex with him and to transport boys to him for sex. Roe was arrested in July 2016 and pleaded guilty to several charges in Franklin County and Crawford County last month.

According to circuit court records in Franklin County, Roe was sentenced May 18 to 30 years in prison after pleading to one count of second-degree sexual assault. The victim was 13.

He also pleaded guilty to transporting minors for prohibited sexual conduct in a separate case, for which he was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with the sentence to run consecutively with the sexual assault sentence.

Multiple charges of transporting minors and sexual assault were dismissed after Roe's guilty pleas.

In Crawford County, Roe was sentenced May 8 to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of second-degree sexual assault. One sexual assault sentence was for 20 years and the other was for 10 years with the sentences to run consecutively.

Roe was charged initially with three counts of second-degree sexual assault, 10 counts of fourth-degree sexual assault and one count of terroristic threatening. All the charges but those to which he pleaded guilty were dismissed.

Two others charged with involvement in the sex ring -- John Davis, 21, and Dillion Harrison, 20, both of Mulberry -- are also charged in separate cases with transportation of minors for prohibited sexual conduct and sexual indecency with a child. Court records show they are scheduled to enter negotiated pleas Aug. 3 in Franklin County Circuit Court.

The fifth person charged in the ring -- Cory Oxford, 25, of Van Buren -- is charged with two counts of rape and one count of transportation of minors for prohibited sexual conduct. Oxford remained at large Friday.

Arrest warrant affidavits stated that Roe paid young men to perform sex acts or to have sex with him and with one another while Roe watched. Roe also had the men find and transport boys to him whom he would pay to perform sex acts with the young men while he watched or to perform them on him.

One boy told police he performed sex acts for Roe 40 to 60 times.

State Desk on 06/10/2017

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