Sex-crime convict a no-show for court hearing

A Craighead County man convicted of kidnapping and raping a 13-year-old girl in 2016 is being sought by law enforcement after skipping a court hearing last week to determine if his supervised release from federal prison should be revoked over accusations of repeated violations dating to April 2022.

Hank Crawford, 33, of Jonesboro, was federally indicted in April 2016 on one count each of travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct and transportation of a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity. He and another man, Mickey Young, then 63, were arrested by police in Osceola on Sept. 9, 2015, when they dropped off a 13-yearold girl at home after they had picked her up two days earlier. Young pleaded guilty in Osceola District Court to kidnapping in 2016 and was sentenced to two years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections.

Crawford pleaded guilty in federal court in March 2017 to travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct. On July 11, 2017, he was sentenced to 84 months in federal prison by Chief U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. and ordered to serve five years on supervised release after leaving prison. His supervision began Feb. 18, 2022. Court documents indicated that Crawford is alleged to have committed a string of violations of the conditions of his release beginning in April of 2022 and continuing into last month.

As he called the case Wednesday, Marshall noted that Crawford’s attorney, Arkie Byrd of Little Rock, was present, as was Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristin Bryant. Going over the court record, Marshall noted that Crawford had been issued a summons on Oct. 6 to appear in court and that a U.S. marshal had certified the service of the summons on Oct. 11.

Under the terms of Crawford’s supervision, he is prohibited from using illegal substances, viewing or possession of pornographic materials, participating in online gambling or accessing social media websites that allow minors, or having direct contact with minors without authorization from the U.S. Probation Office. He was also ordered to attend sex-offender treatment and to submit to random polygraph testing and random drug testing.

According to a superseding motion to revoke Crawford’s supervised release, filed Nov. 15, between July 21 and Nov. 6, 2023, Crawford is alleged to have viewed sexually explicit films on two occasions, and failed twice to report to court-ordered sex-offender treatment and twice failed to report for court-ordered polygraph testing.

The motion also alleged that on two occasions in April and November 2022, Crawford accessed an adult dating website and a social networking website, both of which contained adult material. Also, in April 2022 the motion alleged that Crawford searched for YouTube videos titled, “twerking kissing lap dancing,” and “hot lesbian girls kissing,” and that he accessed the social media site Instagram in violation of his release conditions.

Crawford was also accused of having a cellphone in April and May of this year that was found to contain over 1,900 images and videos of adult pornography and on two occasions this year of possessing an unmonitored internet-capable cellphone.

Crawford was also alleged to have been in the presence of minor children without authorization on three occasions between June and November of this year. The motion said Crawford admitted to having had supervised contact with two nieces and a nephew since his release from prison.

Also, the motion said, on two occasions in May and August 2022, Crawford admitted to using marijuana and methamphetamine.

The hearing, initially scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday, was rescheduled on Nov. 30 to 2:30 p.m. Wednesday to accommodate a more protracted hearing due to a notice that Crawford intended to contest several of the allegations.

“Ms. Byrd,” Marshall asked, “what can you tell me about your client and where things stand?”

“I have no idea,” Byrd responded. “He was prepared to contest, not all but most of the specific violations. Of course I shared that with your staff and with Ms. Bryant.”

Byrd said she had sent Crawford notice of the original 11 a.m. hearing by mail, which she said she followed up with another letter as soon as the time change was announced.

“As an extra measure,” she said, “late [Tuesday] evening, I left a voice message on the only phone number that I know I’ve been able to reach him on reminding him of the hearing and that he needed to be here a half-hour early to be drug-tested. I haven’t heard from him since. I didn’t speak with him but I did leave a voice message and that’s as much as I know.”

“My staff was informed that we were going to have a mini-trial on these allegations that are contested,” Marshall said, explaining the time change. “We needed plenty of time to hear the evidence and I didn’t want to interfere with anybody’s lunch, including my own.”

After Bryant confirmed that Crawford had not reported to the Probation Office that morning or afternoon, Marshall asked the court security officer to check if Crawford had entered the building at all that day.

“He’s a no-show,” the security officer said after checking with the front entry checkpoint and calling Crawford’s name in the hallway outside the courtroom. “He’s not here. None of the CSOs have made contact.”

At that, Marshall ruled that Crawford had disobeyed the court’s order for him to appear and that sufficient probable cause existed to find that he had violated the terms of his supervised release.

“I will issue a warrant for his arrest and direct him to be brought before a magistrate judge,” Marshall said, adding that he would leave it up to the magistrate judge to determine whether Crawford should remain in custody until a new hearing can be scheduled.

“We must take it as it comes,” Marshall said, as he adjourned the hearing.

As of Friday night, court records indicated that Crawford had not been arrested and was still at large.