Teacher in sex-assault case found dead

WALNUT RIDGE — Authorities found a former Highland School District teacher, charged with sexually assaulting a 16-year-old female student, dead Thursday in a Lawrence County cemetery.

Daniel Kopp III, an agriculture teacher at the school, was found at Pleasant Grove Cemetery in Annieville about 20 miles west of Walnut Ridge, Lawrence County sheriff’s detective Andrew Turner said.

Turner would not disclose how Kopp died, other than to say no foul play is suspected in his death.

Kopp, 46, was arrested Saturday on one count of second-degree sexual assault and four counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He was released from the Sharp County jail in Ash Flat on a $50,000 bond.

The school district had suspended Kopp. In a news release issued last week, the district said its School Board would determine the “permanent status” of Kopp’s employment.

Turner said Friday that Kopp’s body was sent to the state Crime Laboratory in Little Rock. The detective said Kopp had family in the Lawrence County area.

An arrest affidavit filed Monday by Turner in Sharp County Circuit Court indicated that Kopp asked a group of students if they wanted to go with him to pick up animal feed in Thayer, Mo., on April 12. The group first stopped at Kopp’s home in Cherokee Village, where Kopp asked a 16-year-old student to look in his bedroom.

When the girl entered the room, Kopp locked the door, gave her a bottle of tequila and told her to drink it, according to the affidavit.

The girl told detectives she took at least eight drinks from the bottle and felt intoxicated, the affidavit said.

During the trip to Thayer, Kopp began to “talk inappropriate” to the girls in his vehicle, Turner wrote in his affidavit.

The girl told police Kopp placed his hand on her thigh and later rubbed her buttocks.

“You’re fun when you’re drunk,” the girl said Kopp told her, according to Turner’s affidavit.

Two days later, Kopp took the girl and other students to Jonesboro to attend an event on the Arkansas State University campus. They stopped at a restaurant in Jonesboro and Kopp ordered two drinks, the affidavit said. He told the 16-year-old girl she had to drink one before they could leave.

Again, she said, Kopp touched her inappropriately as they drove back to Highland and talked about past sexual relationships, the affidavit said. The girl told Turner she became afraid and texted her mother about Kopp. The girl’s mother called the Sharp County sheriff’s office, Turner said.

Police questioned Kopp, who admitted the girl “may have drank” some of his beer at the restaurant.

“Kopp stated he had made some poor choices as of the past few weeks and he knew he was about to lose his job and his teaching license due to his actions,” Turner wrote in the affidavit.

The teacher admitted to having a “special relationship” with another student at the school but said it was not sexual.

Turner said Friday the investigation is continuing and he is awaiting the report of the Crime Laboratory’s autopsy of Kopp.

“Due to the gravity of the situation, the Lawrence County sheriff’s department continues to investigate pending further development,” he said.