Garfield man accused of raping two girls
BENTONVILLE — A Garfield man is accused of providing two girls with drugs and alcohol and then raping them, according to court documents filed Monday.
Christopher Brand, 41, was being held Monday in the Benton County Jail on a $100,000 bond set. He was arrested Thursday in connection with two counts of rape, two counts of sexual assault, two counts of sexually grooming a child, and two counts of terroristic threatening. Prosecutors have not filed any formal charges against Brand.
A Benton County Sheriff’s Office detective began investigating in March after receiving a referral that Brand provided drugs and alcohol to two 10- to 12-year-old girls and sexually abused them after they were impaired, according to a probable cause affidavit.
One of the girls reported when she was in the sixth grade Brand gave her and the other girl alcohol on numerous occasions in 2017 when she was 10 to 11 years old, according to the affidavit.
She said Brand first began giving them beer and it progressed to liquor, according to the affidavit. She said he would give them alcohol until they passed out and on some occasions smoked marijuana with them, according to the affidavit.
The girl said Brand forced them to watch pornographic videos on his cell phone and forced them to perform a sex act on him, the affidavit states.
The second girl was also interviewed and reported being sexually abused by Brand, according to the affidavit. The girl reported she and the other girl were once playing video games and Brand forced them to drink alcohol and then sexually assaulted them, according to the affidavit.
She said she was intoxicated and couldn’t remember the exact words, but reported Brand threatened to kill her mother if she told anyone about the abuse, the affidavit states. She remembered being scared Brand would kill her mother, according to the affidavit.
A woman reported the second girl had told her about the abuse and the girl thought she was pregnant and told Brand, who pushed the girl down some stairs to cause her to have a miscarriage, according to the affidavit.
The girl reported she did not know if she had a miscarriage or was ever pregnant, according to the affidavit.
The girl also provided a Snapchat message Brand sent her where he apologized for things he did to her and teaching her things he should not have taught her, according to the affidavit.
Brand’s arraignment is scheduled for 8 a.m. Jan. 11 in Benton County Circuit Judge Brad Karren’s court.