Background
Harold Allen pleaded guilty in 2022 to failing to comply with sex-offender-registration requirements and received an 84-month suspended imposition of sentence (SIS). A condition of the SIS barred him from committing a criminal offense punishable by imprisonment.
In January 2025, the State petitioned to revoke Allen’s SIS after his arrest for second-degree sexual assault. At the revocation hearing, Allen’s fifteen-year-old stepdaughter testified that he grabbed her buttocks during hugs on about five occasions and, on another occasion, entered her bedroom while she slept and touched her breast. The circuit court revoked Allen’s SIS and sentenced him to ten years’ imprisonment.
The Court’s Holding
The Arkansas Court of Appeals affirmed. The court held that the victim’s testimony established by a preponderance of the evidence that Allen engaged in sexual contact with her by forcible compulsion. Her testimony that the touching was unwanted and against her will, together with her age and Allen’s status as her stepfather, supported the finding.
The court also rejected Allen’s procedural-due-process argument as unpreserved. Although he argued on appeal that the court found a broader violation—engaging in unlawful activity—than the petition alleged, he did not object to that finding at the revocation hearing.
Key Takeaways
- A single proven violation of an SIS condition can sustain revocation.
- Revocation requires proof by a preponderance of the evidence, not proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
- Challenges to the notice provided by a revocation petition must be raised in the circuit court to preserve them for appeal.
Why It Matters
The decision illustrates the comparatively lower burden of proof in revocation proceedings and the deference appellate courts give to trial courts’ credibility findings. It also confirms that unwanted sexual touching of a minor by a stepparent may support a finding of forcible compulsion for purposes of second-degree sexual assault.
Judge Harrison concurred, reasoning that the evidence also supported second-degree sexual assault under alternative statutory theories based on Allen’s status as the victim’s stepfather and the victim’s being asleep during part of the conduct.