Pas­tor arres­ted for reportedly viol­at­ing NCO with alleged vic­tim in assault case

HOT SPRINGS (AR)
The Sentinel Record [Hot Springs, AR]

July 8, 2026

By Steven Mross

A Hot Springs pas­tor arres­ted last year on a felony sexual assault charge involving a 17-year-old female mem­ber of his church was arres­ted again Monday for allegedly viol­at­ing a court order bar­ring him from con­tact with her.

Macario Gar­cia, 55, who lists a Squire Court address, was taken into cus­tody shortly before 12:30 p.m. while appear­ing at a hear­ing on his sexual assault case at Gar­land County Cir­cuit Court and charged with a mis­de­meanor count of viol­a­tion of a no con­tact order, pun­ish­able by up to one year in jail.

Gar­cia remained in cus­tody on zero bond and is set to appear today on the new charge in Gar­land County Dis­trict Court. Accord­ing to court records, he lis­ted no prior crim­inal his­tory before his arrest on Sept. 24 on the charge of second-degree sexual assault, pun­ish­able by up to 20 years in prison.

Gar­cia was released on a $50,000 bond the same day as his assault arrest and pleaded not guilty to that charge in cir­cuit court on Nov. 10. A dis­pos­i­tion hear­ing in the case was con­tin­ued a couple of times and then set for Monday.

Accord­ing to the affi­davit on the NCO, on Feb. 5, Hot Springs police Officer Ryan Han­ley respon­ded to a repor­ted viol­a­tion of a no con­tact order at a local cloth­ing store.

He spoke to a female, 18, who is lis­ted as the pro­tec­ted party in the assault case against Gar­cia. She stated that on Feb. 3, around 5:30 p.m., she was inside the store when Gar­cia entered the busi­ness. She said he remained in the store for about 10 minutes “after acknow­ledging she was inside the store with him.”

She alleges Gar­cia was less than 100 yards from her and did not imme­di­ately leave the busi­ness upon see­ing her. She said that the next day, on Feb. 4, she received a text mes­sage from Gar­cia’s wife stat­ing it was “good to see her” in the store.

Han­ley states he reviewed court records and con­firmed there was an act­ive felony case against Gar­cia involving the female with a court order issued at his arraign­ment on Nov. 10 order­ing Gar­cia to “have no dir­ect or indir­ect con­tact with the pro­tec­ted party, includ­ing con­tact through third parties, and to remain at least 100 yards away from her at all times.”

After fur­ther invest­ig­a­tion, a war­rant for Gar­cia’s arrest on the NCO viol­a­tion was issued on Feb. 9.

Accord­ing to the affi­davit on the sexual assault charge, on April 6, 2025, a report was filed with the Gar­land County Sher­iff’s Office regard­ing the alleged sexual assault of a 17-year-old female by a known per­son.

On April 9, the female was inter­viewed at the Cooper-Anthony Mercy Child Advocacy Cen­ter where she reportedly stated the most recent incid­ent occurred on March 23 where she had gone to “Pas­tor Macario’s church” and then went to the home he shared with his wife “as she would every Sunday.”

She alleged that when the wife left the room to change clothes, Gar­cia pulled her into the kit­chen by her arm, “pulling her towards him and hold­ing her like a bear hug.” She said he then fondled her inside her cloth­ing and tried to force her to kiss him on the mouth, but she pushed him away.

She said he asked her why she wouldn’t “give him a hug or a kiss on the cheek,” and she told him it was not appro­pri­ate. He allegedly told her “she was not doing any­thing bad.” She again described how he fondled her, manip­u­lat­ing her cloth­ing to gain access. She said they ate din­ner and later Gar­cia’s wife took her to her father’s house.

The female noted she “could not deal with it any more” because “she knew if she kept on let­ting it hap­pen there was going to be something expec­ted from her.” Dur­ing the inter­view, the vic­tim allegedly dis­closed the incid­ents had “been hap­pen­ing for about a year” and “happened almost every week” when she was around Gar­cia and his wife would leave the room.

Dur­ing the course of the invest­ig­a­tion, the pas­tor she men­tioned was iden­ti­fied as Macario Gar­cia. On July 8, invest­ig­at­ors con­tac­ted Gar­cia to have him come in for an inter­view but he reportedly declined. A war­rant was later issued for Gar­cia on Sept. 5, and he was taken into cus­tody shortly after 6 p.m. on Sept. 24.