A former prison chaplain was arrested after his wife accused him of domestic abuse less than two weeks after a district judge released him on a $30,000 bond pending trial on 50 counts of sexual assault involving three female inmates.
Kenneth Dewitt, 67, of 211 W. Ash St. in Patterson was in the Jackson County jail after Circuit Judge Harold Erwin issued an arrest warrant late Tuesday on probable cause to revoke Dewitt's bond in light of the domestic violence accusation.
The 50 counts of third-degree sexual assault were filed earlier this month after a year-long investigation by the state Department of Correction's internal affairs office and the Arkansas State Police. Dewitt, a former prison chaplain at the women's McPherson Unit in Newport, is accused of having a sexual relationship with three female inmates. In one instance, the relationship spanned almost five years, according to reports.
The 50 counts arise from allegations between January 2013 and September 2014.
Prosecuting Attorney Henry Boyce of Newport filed a motion to have Dewitt's bond revoked based on a statement from his wife, Betty Dewitt, in which she accused him of domestic abuse.
According to the bond-revocation motion, Kenneth Dewitt broke the conditions of his release when he assailed his wife Dec. 24.
Kenneth Dewitt began arguing with his wife about a household bill, Betty Dewitt said in an affidavit provided to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette by Boyce.
Betty Dewitt said in the court document that her husband lives in one part of the house and she inhabits the other part. When she tried to retreat to her "end of the home," Kenneth Dewitt followed her, the document says.
"He pushed me approximately four times causing me to fall and causing injury to me in several places. I was finally able to get away from him and left my home," Betty Dewitt said in the affidavit.
In another statement in the court documents, Pam Daniels, a friend of Betty Dewitt's, said Betty Dewitt did not call the police at the time of the incident but instead went to a home where her son was visiting.
According to Daniel's statement, Betty Dewitt asked her to take pictures as evidence "in the event he should do something else. I advised her to make a police report, but she declined."
The photographs of Betty Dewitt's injuries were attached to the affidavit.
An unidentified clerk in the Woodruff County sheriff's office said no domestic abuse charges had been filed against Kenneth Dewitt as of late Wednesday.
Kenneth Dewitt's attorney, Jeff Rosenzweig, said he had just heard about the bond revocation request late Tuesday and had not received all of the documentation.
"We're going to deal with it when I see the allegations," Rosenzweig said. "This has no bearing on the sexual-assault charges. It only impacts the bond."
On Dec. 21, Newport District Judge Barbara Griffin denied Boyce's request that bail be set at $50,000 in the sexual assault cases, and instead set Kenneth Dewitt free on $30,000 bond with the stipulation that the former chaplain check in by telephone each week divulging his whereabouts to the Jackson County sheriff's office.
"He was released on what we considered to be more than acceptable terms," Boyce said. "We never even imagined that he could violate those conditions."
A hearing on the bond revocation had not been set as of late Wednesday. If Erwin rules that Kenneth Dewitt violated the bond requirements, Dewitt could remain in jail until the sexual assault cases are resolved, which Boyce said could be several months.
Kenneth Dewitt began working for the prison system in 2001. He was "offered the opportunity to resign" in September of 2014 after former McPherson Unit inmate Stacey Smith wrote a letter to the Correction Department's assistant director John Mark Wheeler, saying that "Chaplain Dewitt and I had a moral failure."
Smith was paroled in 2004, but continued to work with Kenneth Dewitt as a volunteer, then as a chaplain for several years. The affair began in 2010, according to Smith's personnel records.
Kenneth Dewitt's relationship with Smith was a violation of the department's Administrative Directive 12-33, which prohibits managers from having sexual relationships with subordinates, according to documents.
After Kenneth Dewitt's resignation, three female inmates stepped forward with their own sexual-assault allegations against him.
All of the three female inmates were part of the faith-based initiative Principles and Applications for Life, which Kenneth Dewitt founded in 1998. The prison program seeks to provide moral and spiritual foundations to help inmates succeed once their released from prison.
Kenneth Dewitt had a schedule of having sex with one female prisoner on Sunday, another on Monday, and then another on Wednesday, according to an affidavit from one of the inmates in the case.
According to court filings, Kenneth Dewitt had warned the women to stay silent, telling one that she "didn't have a choice" and another that she "would not ever go home."
It is against state law for a prison employee to have sex with an inmate because inmates are under the control of prison employees and cannot legally give their consent.
It is also illegal for a member of the clergy who "is in a position of trust or authority over the victim" to use that "position to engage in sexual intercourse or deviate sexual activity."
The state charges against Kenneth Dewitt come about the same time as a federal investigation of broader sexual-abuse allegations at the McPherson Unit.
Boyce said the state charges are not connected with the U.S. Department of Justice investigation, which involves "numerous allegations" of sexual abuse and sexual harassment, as well as mistreatment of transgender women at the unit.
Metro on 12/31/2015