BENTON COUNTY (KFSM) — A former Benton County Sheriff’s Office deputy was arrested Tuesday (June 14) for a second time in less than a week, this time on suspicion of misdemeanor tampering.
Robert Hendrix, 42, was also arrested June 8 on a felony charges of misuse of ACIC, according to his arrest documents.
Hendrix is accused of using Justice Exchange, which is a database linked with ACIC/NCIC, that stores sensitive information like driver’s license information and photos, date of birth, social security number, address and criminal history, his probable cause affidavit states.
The database requires law enforcement credentials to obtain an account and the information stored on Justice Exchange cannot be released to the general public or used in a non-law enforcement capacity.
Hendrix had been using the credentials he once had as a deputy with the Benton County Sheriff’s Office to regularly access Justice Exchange for his company called One Twin Legal Service, LLC, the affidavit states. According to the company’s Facebook page, One Twin Legal Service offers process serving and private investigation services.
According to ACIC records, Hendrix had used his law enforcement account 246 times to access personal information and investigators were told he had been charging his clients $100 to search Justice Exchange records, the affidavit states.
Records showed Hendrix had been terminated from the Benton County Sheriff’s Office in December 2014, but his Justice Exchange account and email had not been deactivated by IT, according to the affidavit.
The Benton County Sheriff’s Office investigation into Hendrix was initiated June 6 after the Fayetteville Police Department contacted the sheriff’s office regarding Hendrix’s misuse of Justice Exchange.
During their investigation, Benton County detectives were informed a witness in the case was told by Hendrix not to speak to law enforcement, according to a separate probable cause affidavit.
The witness told detectives he had picked up Hendrix from jail June 8 once he had been released and on the drive home Hendrix told him not to talk to the sheriff’s office, the affidavit states.
