Doctor seeks to void plea in sex-abuse case

FORT SMITH — A 71-yearold doctor sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for attempting to groom a 4-yearold girl for sex will have a hearing Jan. 29 on his attempt to void his 2015 guilty plea and prison sentence.

Donald Wayne Lamoureaux, who was a family physician in Ash Flat, argued in a motion filed in federal court in April that instead of arranging to meet with who he thought was a mother and her daughter to teach the child how to have sex, he actually was playing a role to make contact so he could report the mother to state child protective services.

He wrote in the motion he composed that, as a physician, he was mandated by state law to report instances of child abuse.

“This statute specifies, however, that such a report would not be accepted without the child’s identifying information,” he wrote. “Lamoureaux’s sole intent was to procure this information while gathering evidence for a subsequent prosecution of this person.”

The January hearing was scheduled Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Ford. Fort Smith attorney Marvin Honeycutt was appointed to represent Lamoureaux.

Lamoureaux was arrested Feb. 6, 2015, by federal agents at a motel in West Plains, Mo., where he expected to meet the mother and her daughter so he could bathe and abuse the daughter with sex toys, a probable-cause affidavit said.

In Internet chats with an undercover police officer posing as the mother, Lamoureaux said he wanted to teach the child to have sex, grooming her with various forms of abuse before starting to have intercourse with her at age 9.

When Lamoureaux showed up at the motel and was arrested, he had dog collar, a leash and pills to maintain an erection, the affidavit said.

Lamoureaux, in his motion to vacate, is claiming ineffective counsel by his attorneys and that his guilty plea before Chief U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III in June 2015 was not voluntary.

He wrote that Holmes did not inquire sufficiently to determine during the plea hearing Lamoureaux’s intent in arranging to meet with the fictitious mother and 4-year-old daughter. Lamoureaux entered what he called a conditional guilty plea to one count of attempting to coerce and entice a minor to engage in sexual activity, relying on his attorney, Rex Chronister of Fort Smith, to argue the issue on appeal.