SEBASTIAN COUNTY, Ark. — A man previously named in lawsuits against a Greenwood preschool has been arrested and faces a second-degree sexual assault charge.
According to booking records, 55-year-old Jamie Speaks was arrested by the Sebastian County Sheriff's Office on July 11 for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor. He is being held on a $100,000 bond. The Greenwood Police Department told 5NEWS the warrant for his arrest was issued on July 3.
Speaks is registered as a level two sex offender on the Arkansas Crime Information Center's Sex Offender Registry database.
According to his arrest affidavit, the charge Jamie faces comes after an investigation began on May 26, 2022, when the parents of a 16-year-old girl made a report to Greenwood police after their daughter told a counselor she'd been sexually abused by Speaks while she was a 2-year-old at daycare.
The teen reportedly told police that Speaks would come into the daycare while his wife worked in the kitchen.
The affidavit says that Speaks "would take her by the hand and have her come into a bathroom with her" and sexually abuse her.
The girl said she'd never told anyone about the abuse until she was 16 years old and in counseling.
Speaks is set to appear in court on July 17.
Miss Tina's Daycare lawsuits
Before this arrest, Speaks has been named in two civil lawsuits against Miss Tina's Preschool, Inc. One was filed in December 2023, and the other lawsuit was filed in January 2024.
Each lawsuit accuses the preschool of knowingly allowing a convicted child predator around kids at the school, leading to long-term sexual abuse. The suits also accuse Speaks of "wrongfully, intentionally, and forcefully making harmful physical sexual contact with [small children]" who were students at Miss Tina's.
According to the lawsuits, Jamie was charged with molesting a 7-year-old who was in the care of him and his wife, Wanda Speaks, at their at-home daycare in Hackett in 1993.
After the incident, Wanda closed the daycare and was hired at Miss Tina's around 1994, the documents say.
The suits allege that Tina Skaggs, the preschool's owner, knew of Jamie's criminal history when she hired Wanda and knowingly allowed him to "regularly spend time at the preschool," despite being a "convicted child molester and sex offender."
In June 2012, Jamie pleaded guilty to sexual assault and sexual indecency with a child.
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