Third Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Henry Boyce announced today that Kenneth Dewitt, 67, of the Patterson Community in Woodruff County has been taken into custody and will be transported to the Arkansas Department of Correction to begin serving a prison sentence for three counts of Sexual Assault in the 3rd Degree. During the sentencing hearing one of Dewitt’s victims, a prisoner at the Arkansas Department of Correction McPherson unit read her victim impact statement. Dewitt stood stoically throughout the recitation never looking at his victim.
Dewitt, the former prison chaplain at the Arkansas Department of Correction’s McPherson Women’s Unit resigned from his position on September 10, 2014 after confessing to an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate. A subsequent investigation by the Arkansas State Police uncovered three female inmates Dewitt had engaged in sexual relations with during his employment as chaplain at the unit.
Dewitt was sentenced to a ten year term in the Arkansas Department of Correction on each count to run concurrently with five years suspended on each count.
Boyce said, “I am certainly hopeful that the victims, as well as the Department of Corrections, are glad this case has finally come to a conclusion.†Boyce also noted that extensive discussions were held with all three victims in the case with each victim agreeing to the plea offer and sentence.
Photograph caption: Dewitt is taken into custody by Jackson County Sheriff’s deputy Carl Schlotzhauer.