GENTRY -- A Gentry man was arrested on July 11 and charged with raping a 14-year-old girl at his home on Crawford Street.
Jan Edmund Randall, 67, was arrested by Gentry police on a probable cause warrant after the alleged victim stated in an interview at the Children's Advocacy Center of Benton County that Randall had been molesting her since she was 7 years old. According to the affidavit of probable cause, the girl attempted to resist his sexual advances but he sometimes would not stop touching her.
Randall denied any sexual contact with the girl, according to the affidavit.
Randall was charged with Rape, a Class Y felony. He was being held in the Benton County Jail last week with bond set at $200,000.
Gentry police are seeking a warrant for Joshua Niksch, 31, charging him with 25 counts of forgery, a Class C felony, for allegedly forging 25 checks against his employer's account for a total of $7,485.04 and cashing them at the Phillips 66 gas station in Gentry.
Niksch is already listed as an inmate in the Benton County Jail on Siloam Springs charges for felony failure to appear, misdemeanor failure to appear, misdemeanor violation of the Arkansas Hot Check Law, misdemeanor fleeing on foot, obstructing governmental operations and resisting arrest.
On July 4, police arrested Johnnie Ethridge, 42, of Siloam Springs, for public intoxication following a verbal dispute with the driver of a pickup truck, Tabitha Youngblood, 36. Ethridge was a passenger in the truck, according to police, but got out of the truck and began walking down the street ahead of the truck during the argument.
According to the incident report, police stopped and activated emergency lights after a pickup truck skidded to a stop on Arkansas Highway 12, near Smith Street. Ethridge was arrested and charged with being under the influence of alcohol in public. He tested .10 in blood alcohol content, according to the report.
Youngblood was cited for careless and prohibited driving in the incident.
General News on 07/23/2014