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Bentonville Man Convicted Of Sexually Assaulting Teen Gets Eight Years

BENTON COUNTY (KFSM) – A Bentonville man convicted of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl was sentenced to eight years on April 1, according to court r...
Thomas J. Wright

BENTON COUNTY (KFSM) – A Bentonville man convicted of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl was sentenced to eight years on April 1, according to court records.

Thomas J. Wright, 54, pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault and was sentenced to eight years in prison with an additional 12 years suspended, according to court documents.

The convict was also ordered to pay $1,670 in court costs and fines, authorities said.

On July 26, 2013, at 9:41 a.m., Bentonville police responded to a call about a sexual assault case. The victim told police she had known Wright for years, and he started acting “perverted” around her when she turned 13, according to an arrest report.

The victim also told police Wright was a part-time bus driver for the Bentonville School District and was friends on Facebook with most of her female friends on his bus route, the report states.

One of the things Wright would do to the victim is text her while she was in school and ask for pictures of her, and if she didn’t respond, he would just keep texting her, police said.

Wright also took pictures of the victim and her friends without their permission, the report states.

When police asked why she had not reported Wright’s activities sooner, the victim said she was intimidated by him, according to authorities.

The victim told police that Wright had touched her inappropriately on multiple occasions, the report states.

According to police, at 7:40 p.m. on July 26, 2013, investigators interviewed Wright, and he denied touching the victim inappropriately. He gave authorities permission to search his phone, and they found that the majority of the pictures on the device were of young girls that appeared to be between the ages of 15 and 18, according to the report.

While going through the device, police said they found videos that appeared to be of young girls getting onto the school bus Wright was driving.

In one video, a 10-year-old girl got onto his bus wearing a short skirt, and while boarding, another child blocked the view of the girl with the skirt, police said. At that point, Wright could be heard saying, “come on man,” according to the report.

During a second interview conducted at a later date, police confronted Wright with new evidence, and he admitted to touching the victim inappropriately on multiple occasions, authorities said.

Wright was later arrested and charged with two counts of second-degree sexual assault, according to police. As a result of the convict’s plea bargain, one charge was dropped, officials said.

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