Former Washington County school administrator pleads guilty to sexual assault

Mark Oesterle
Mark Oesterle

FAYETTEVILLE -- A former school administrator pleaded guilty to sexual assault Thursday in Washington County Circuit Court.

Mark Oesterle, 49, faced three felony counts of second-degree sexual assault over allegations that he touched the breasts of teen girls in 2015, when he was a high school assistant principal in the Springdale School District.

He pleaded to one count of second-degree sexual assault, but that charge included all three victims, according to Courtney Cassidy, deputy prosecuting attorney.

Oesterle was sentenced to 72 months of probation and fined $1,000. He also was ordered to have no contact with the victims and to register as a sex offender.

An investigation into Oesterle began in late 2018. Charges were announced in March 2019, at which time Oesterle resigned from his position as executive director of secondary education in the Fayetteville School District.

A girl identified as "victim No. 1" claimed Oesterle grabbed her breast while hugging her when he took her out to breakfast on her 15th birthday in April 2017.

Another girl, identified as "victim No. 2," told detectives about an incident where Oesterle approached her from behind, reached around to point at a computer screen, then placed his hand on her breast and kept it there for five to 10 seconds, according to the probable-cause affidavit.

"Victim No. 3" also told a detective that Oesterle gave her a side hug on a few occasions and would grab her breast in the process.

Sexual assault is an umbrella term that refers to any crime in which the offender subjects the victim to unwanted sexual activity. Second-degree sexual assault in Arkansas includes engaging in sexual contact with another person by forcible compulsion.

Oesterle faced five to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $10,000 on each count.

In June 2020, Oesterle was convicted of misdemeanor harassment in Fayetteville District Court. In that case, Oesterle was accused of groping a teen girl's breast without her consent at her workplace in December 2018, according to the affidavit filed in the case. Oesterle was the Fayetteville School District's executive director of secondary education at the time.

He was sentenced to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine but had appealed. That case was dismissed Thursday after Oesterle pleaded guilty to the felony charge.

Oesterle was assistant principal at Springdale's Har-Ber High School in 2014-15 and and assistant principal at Springdale's Tyson School of Innovation in 2015-16. The Fayetteville School District originally hired him in 2016 as its director of federal programs and English language learner programs. He was director of secondary education from 2017 until he resigned in March 2019.

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