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Fayetteville Man Pleads No Contest To Sex Assault, Sentenced To 60 Days In Jail

BENTON COUNTY (KFSM) – A Fayetteville man pleaded no contest to a sexual assault charge on Sept. 8 and was sentenced to 60 days in jail, officials say. St...
Stephen Urich

BENTON COUNTY (KFSM) – A Fayetteville man pleaded no contest to a sexual assault charge on Sept. 8 and was sentenced to 60 days in jail, officials say.

Stephen M. Urich, 61, was booked into the Benton County Detention Center on Sept. 8 after pleading no contest to second-degree sexual assault. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail and then 10 years of supervised probation, according to officials.

After he is released, he is not allowed to have any unsupervised contact with minors. He is also forbidden from having contact with the victim of the sexual assault, and he must receive treatment for sex offenders, officials said.

He will also have to register as a sex offender, according to officials.

Urich was originally questioned in Oct., 2013 after a Benton County deputy was assigned to an Arkansas Crimes Against Children Hotline case. Authorities received a report that a 16-year-old girl was molested when she was ten by Urich, according to court documents.

On Oct. 3, 2013, authorities went to a residence in the 600 block of N. 8th St. in Rogers to speak with the parents of the victim. The father of the victim told police he had received a phone call two weeks earlier concerning his daughter, the victim. She was having emotional problems, court documents state.

She also said she had been molested years prior by Urich, according to court documents.

The victim was later interviewed by authorities, and she said Urich touched her inappropriately while she was at his house one night when she was 10 years old, court documents state. The victim also told authorities that she had been having recent nightmares about the incident, and she was depressed, according to court documents.

On Oct. 31, 2013, a deputy went to speak with Urich, and he denied the incident, court documents state.

He was later arrested and charged with second-degree sexual assault, officials said.

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