ARKANSAS
Arkansas Online
By Brandon Riddle
A former chaplain of the Arkansas Department of Correction has been charged with 50 counts of third-degree sexual assault stemming from reported encounters with three inmates in Newport.
Kenneth L. Dewitt, 67, faces the charges after reports of sexual assault at the McPherson women’s unit between January 2013 and September 2014, Third Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Henry Boyce said in a statement Thursday.
Dewitt resigned from his position as chaplain at the women’s unit in a handwritten note Sept. 10, 2014, one day before former inmate Stacey Smith wrote a letter to the Department of Correction saying that she and Dewitt had a “moral failure” years after her release, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.
In a Sept. 16, 2014, memo to the McPherson Unit’s human resources department, John Mark Wheeler, assistant director of the Department of Correction, said Dewitt “called and confessed to having an inappropriate physical relationship with a subordinate in violation of AD 12-33.”
At that point, Wheeler said Dewitt accepted an offer to resign effective immediately from his chaplain position.
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