MARION - A Crittenden County jury convicted a former Marion youth pastor of second-degree sexual assault of a minor Thursday, 2nd Judicial Circuit Prosecuting Attorney Scott Ellington said.
Circuit Judge John Fogleman sentenced Arnold Lamont Parks, 29, to nine years in the Arkansas Department of Correction after a two-day trial in Marion.
Deputy prosecutor Tom Young accused Parks of assaulting a 10-year-old girl while she spent the night at his home. Ellington said Parks admitted to the assault to investigators, saying he “needed to get something off his chest.”
Parks was also an employee of a Marion day-care center, Ellington said.
“We are grateful for the jury’s verdict, that the community will not tolerate this type of behavior,” Ellington said in a news release.
Arkansas, Pages 15 on 04/20/2014