Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Former UA day care worker charged
FAYETTEVILLE — A former University of Arkansas day care center worker was charged Monday with sexually assaulting two children.
Joseph Charles O’Neill, 31, faces two counts of seconddegree sexual assault, according to documents filed in Washington County Circuit Court.
Matt Durrett, Washington County prosecutor, confirmed Monday the charges are based on alleged assaults at the Jean Tyson Child Development Study Center on the UA campus. The university hired O’Neill on Aug. 12 to work at the center, a UA spokeswoman has said.
He was already suspended and banned from the center when university police arrested him March 4. The center fired him that day, according to UA.
O’Neill, listed in jail records as a Fayetteville resident, was released from jail March 5 on a $50,000 bond.
Court documents state the assaults took place March 2. Each count of assault states the victim was 3 years old.
Durrett said the charges refer to two victims.
Before the covid-19 pandemic, the Tyson child development center typically provided care for about 150 children daily, according to the university. After O’Neill’s arrest, officials with the center said staff members called the state’s child abuse hotline as soon as they learned of the allegations.
The center closed in midMarch
because of the pandemic and is scheduled to open July 1 with reduced enrollment, UA spokeswoman Amy Schlesing said Monday.
UA released O’Neill’s application to work at the center under the state’s public disclosure law.
In a cover letter dated Nov. 3, O’Neill stated he was seeking a position as an assistant infant/toddler teacher after having worked as a substitute and “full-time aide” at the Tyson child development center.
The center provides care for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, according to its
website.
O’Neill’s application material lists time spent working from 2011-13 as a youth care worker at the Piney Ridge Treatment Center in Fayetteville. The residential center provides care for patients ages 7 to 17 “who have sexually problematic behaviors in addition to a major mental illness,” the center’s website states. O’Neill said he managed activities for “teenage residents.”
O’Neill earned a bachelor’s degree in horticulture and a master’s degree in entomology from UA, according to
his application material. He listed other jobs working with youth, including working as an English tutor and teacher in Vietnam in 2017 and working as a full-time live-in nanny for children ages 1 and 4 years old in Washington in 2018.
Each count of second-degree sexual assault is considered a Class B felony by the state. A person convicted of a Class B felony is sentenced to between five to 20 years in prison.
Durrett said O’Neill’s arraignment is set for June 24.