2 days ago
Second civil suit involving sex offender at Greenwood daycare resolved
GREENWOOD, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — The second of two lawsuits involving a convicted sex offender from Hackett and a Greenwood preschool has been dismissed, according to court documents.
Jamie Speaks, 56, was convicted of second-degree sexual assault on April 14 and sentenced to 18 years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections with 12 years suspended.
The Arkansas Crime Information Center's Sex Offender Registry database shows Speaks is a level two sex offender.
Court documents say Speaks sexually assaulted a child at a daycare when they were two years old.
In addition to Speaks' criminal case, he was named in two civil lawsuits against Miss Tina's Preschool in Greenwood that were filed in December 2023 and January 2024. However, both have been resolved, one in January and the other in May.
The lawsuits accused the preschool of knowingly allowing a convicted child predator to be around children at the school, which reportedly led to long-term sexual abuse.
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Speaks was accused of forcefully and intentionally 'making harmful physical sexual contact' with minors who were at Miss Tina's.
The lawsuits said Speaks was charged in 1993 with molesting a seven-year-old who was in his care and his wife at their at-home daycare.
His wife closed the daycare in 1994 after the incident and was later hired at Miss Tina's, according to the lawsuit.
Tina Skaggs, the owner of the preschool, allegedly knew of Speaks' criminal history when she hired his wife and allowed him to spend time at the preschool despite his convictions and sex offender status, the lawsuit said.
In the lawsuit, Skaggs denied the assertion that Speaks was 'frequently and consistently present' during the time of his wife's employment at the preschool.
She also denied being aware that Speaks was left unsupervised with children and taking them into the bathroom.
The unresolved lawsuit was set to go to trial on August 11 before it was dismissed on May 21.
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