FAYETTEVILLE -- A former Springdale pastor was sentenced to federal prison Wednesday for trying to entice a person he thought was a teenage boy into a sexual relationship.
Timothy Lee Reddin, 68, of Fayetteville was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison without the possibility of parole followed by 25 years of supervised release on one count of attempted online enticement of a minor.
An agent with Homeland Security Investigations in July was investigating online enticement of minors to engage in sexual activity in Northwest Arkansas, according to court records.
The agent posed as a 14-year-old boy and logged into a social media account. An individual, later identified as Reddin, contacted him a short time later. Reddin began inquiring about the purported minor's sexual experience, according to prosecutors. Reddin then expressed a willingness to engage in sexual activity with him.
Reddin planned to meet the purported boy in Fayetteville in early August for sex. Police went the meeting location and arrested Reddin when he arrived.
Reddin was listed as a pastor at Turner Street Baptist Church in Springdale at the time of his arrest. He also worked as a part-time history instructor at Ecclesia College in Springdale, according to a faculty directory.
A federal grand jury indicted Reddin in September, and he pleaded guilty in October. During sentencing, prosecutors presented the judge with evidence Reddin was a convicted sex offender at the time of his arrest. Reddin faces a charge of failure to register as a sex offender in Washington County Circuit Court.
U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks presided over the sentencing hearing.
Records show Reddin was arrested and convicted in federal court in 2000 for possession of child pornography. Reddin pleaded guilty Sept. 8, 2000, to having 10 or more items depicting child porn on his computer, including at least one that involved a child younger than 12, according to court records.
In December of that year, he was sentenced to two years and three months in prison and required to register as a sex offender.
Reddin spent 16 years as a pastor in Hot Springs Village and taught high school for three years in Heber Springs and McCrory, according to records. He resigned in 1998 as director of missions for the Central Baptist Association in Benton after being confronted about child pornography on a computer, according to court records.
NW News on 02/09/2019