LITTLE ROCK — A supervisor at the office that handles foster children and abuse/neglect cases in Polk County remained in jail Monday after authorities charged him with sexually assaulting a teenage girl in foster care and raping an adult female.
The state Department of Human Services fired Dustin Horn on Monday after learning of his Friday arrest, said Julie Munsell, a spokesman for the agency.
He had his first appearance in court Monday, and Circuit Judge J.W. Looney set bail at $100,000.
Horn, 41, had been the supervisor of the Human Services Department’s Children and Family Services Division office in Mena since August 2005 at a salary of $49,934 a year.
Information about where he worked before that was unavailable Monday. The Human Services agency declined to release his resume until the 10 days Horn has to appeal his firing passes.
Prosecuting Attorney Tim Williamson said Monday afternoon that the rape charge - a Class Y felony that carries a penalty of 10to 40 years or life in prison - stems from what happened with an adult female between April 1, 2009, and May 30, 2009.
The charge of sexual assault in the first degree , which carries a punishment of up to 30 years in prison, stems from an allegation that he “engaged in sexual intercourse or deviate sexual behavior” with a 17-year-old foster child between Nov. 1 and Nov. 30, 2009, Williamson said.
Few other details about the case were released Monday.
Though Horn did sometimes work directly with children in state custody, Munsell said that wasn’t part of his everyday routine.
“Typically supervisors - and he’d be typical in this case - do not carry caseloads,” she said. “As part of the mission of supervisor he would have been managing people’s work, but he would not have, by mission, a lot of direct contact with children.”
State police spokesman Bill Sadler confirmed that Horn had been the subject of a previous state police investigation into sex crimes involving a minor in 2009, but he said that “the allegations could not be substantiated.”
To his knowledge, Sadler said, the alleged victims in that case are not the same as the ones involved in the most recent charges.
Asked about previous allegations or complaints against Horn, Munsell said she could confirm only that none had been substantiated.
She said Human Services Department officials plan to fully cooperate with investigators and prosecutors working this case.
Because of the nature of the allegations against Horn, Williamson is asking anyone with additional information “that might be relevant to this investigation or prosecution” to contact his office.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 11/23/2010