Man on playground identified as sex offender
An Arkansas man has reportedly been taken into custody after it was alleged he was spying and talking to children on a playground at a Vian apartment complex.
An Arkansas man has reportedly been taken into custody after it was alleged he was spying and talking to children on a playground at a Vian apartment complex.
Vian Police Chief Mark Harkins said in early September, officers were notified by concerned parents, that a man was allegedly spying on children and then talking to them at the playground area of Gardenwalk Apartments on Lee Street in Vian.
Harkins said officers made contact with Donnie Emerson, 59, of Arkansas, discovering he was wearing a monitor and out on bond from Fort Smith on charges of sexual indecency with a child and sexual battery, second degree.
Harkins said Emerson was reportedly staying with family in the area but not at Gardenwalk Apartments.
“Vian Police Department made contact with the detectives over the case in Fort Smith who immediately received a warrant for Emerson’s arrest,” Harkins said. “Vian officers and a Sequoyah County deputy arrested him on the warrant at the home he was staying at, and he was extradited back to Arkansas.”
Harkins said on Sept. 27, he received an email from a Fort Smith police detective stating Emerson had taken a plea and was sentenced to 15 years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections, with five years supervised probation upon release, and must register as a sex offender.
