Fayetteville AD arrested following Internet probe

Barry Gebhart, Fayetteville High School athletic director, is escorted into court for his bond hearing Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, at the Benton County Courthouse Annex in Bentonville.
Barry Gebhart, Fayetteville High School athletic director, is escorted into court for his bond hearing Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, at the Benton County Courthouse Annex in Bentonville.

BENTONVILLE - An undercover investigation led to the arrest of the Fayetteville School District athletics director Tuesday night.

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Barry Gebhart, 50, of Fayetteville was arrested in connection with Internet stalking of a child. The Class A felony is punishable with a prison sentence ranging from six to 30 years if convicted. Prosecutors have not filed a formal charge against Gebhart.

His arraignment is set for 8 a.m. Dec. 2 in Circuit Judge Robin Green’s court. Vicki Thomas, superintendent for the Fayetteville School District, said Gebhart has been placed on administrative leave.

Gebhart was arrested at Pinnacle Hills Promenade in Rogers after Benton County sheriff’s office detectives arranged a meeting there. A detective pretending to be a 14-year-old girl had communicated with Gebhart for several weeks, according to the probable cause affidavit.

Glenn Latham, a detective with the sheriff ’s office, observed a posting Gebhart made on Whisper, a social networking application. Latham, assigned to the Cyber Crime Unit, began to pose as a 14-year-old girl and interacted with Gebhart, who represented himself as a teacher, the affidavit states.

Latham exchanged text messages and photographs with Gebhart on a daily basis for two weeks. Gebhart suggested meeting the teenage girl on more than one occasion, culminating in Tuesday night’s meeting, the affidavit states.

Gebhart asked Latham, posing as the fictional child, how old she was. Latham said 14. Gebhart then asked for a photograph, according to the affidavit. Gebhart made several sexual comments and sent a photograph of his penis and several facial photographs to the fictional girl, according to the affidavit. Gebhart also asked for photographs of the girl’s breasts, the affidavit states.

Latham was able to identify Gebhart as the man in photographs, and learned Gebhart was the athletics director for the Fayetteville School District, according to court documents. Latham informed his supervisors, and he was instructed to continue with the investigation.

The communications continued and Gebhart even offered to tutor the girl, according to court documents.

A meeting was arranged for the two to meet at the Promenade shopping center Oct. 7, according to court documents. Detectives went to the scene, but Gebhart’s vehicle was never seen at the location, the affidavit states. Gebhart did not respond to any other messages that day but did respond the following day, according to court documents.

Gebhart and Latham, still pretending to be the teenage girl, continued their communications for the next two weeks. The affidavit states that Gebhart was sexually explicit in what he wanted to do to the girl. Gebhart also sent photographs when requested. Most of the photographs appeared to be taken in an office setting, according to court documents.

Detectives sent a subpoena to Whisper. The results showed several posts by a person, confirmed to be Gebhart, making references to skimpily clad girls wearing plaid miniskirts like a school girl’s uniform, according to court documents.

The subpoena also revealed that the GPS coordinates of the postings were near Fayetteville High School and Gebhart’s residence on Persimmon Street in Fayetteville, according to court documents.

A meeting was arranged later where Gebhart was taken into custody.

Gebhart admitted to detectives to making posts on Whisper and said the girl was probably the first one he had chatted with on the site, according to court documents. Gebhart admitted to chatting with several women and even meeting for sexual encounters, the affidavit states.

Gebhart denied meeting any underage girls, but he admitted to texting a girl who was a senior at Fayetteville High School, the affidavit states. Gebhart told detectives he stopped the conversations when he discovered the girl attended the high school, according to court documents.

Gebhart also admitted to receiving nude photographs from girls but told the detectives he immediately deleted the photographs and started asking for non-nude ones, the affidavit states.

Gebhart appeared in court Wednesday afternoon where Circuit Judge Brad Karren set bond at $75,000.

Stuart Cearley, chief deputy prosecutor, requested bail be set at $75,000. Fayetteville attorney Terry Harper, who represents Gebhart, asked that bail be set at $25,000.

Gebhart didn’t speak at the hearing. He was released from the county jail later Wednesday afternoon after posting bond.

Harper told Karren that Gebhart had taught at the high school for 30 years and has been married for almost 10 years. Gebhart and his wife have an 8-year-old daughter, Harper said.

Karren set two conditions for Gebhart to follow when he is out on bond. Gebhart cannot have unsupervised contact with minors and he cannot have any access to a computer or the Internet.

Harper declined to comment on his client’s arrest.

Sports, Pages 19 on 10/24/2013

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