EARLE, AR-He's been accused of rape or sexual assault more than 70 times, and convicted of it six times, including a couple of years ago. So how come a dangerous criminal got out of jail? He was out on parole and now is accused of a rape in Crittenden County, Arkansas. Just as disturbing, is why the state of Arkansas kept quiet about how dangerous the man is.
“I'm pretty upset,” says Donella Hardy. “I've got five kids and one is a girl. It brings tears to my eyes.”
That's because Donella Hardy says she no longer feels safe. Benjamin A. Bishop, 45, lived a few houses down from her in Earle, Arkansas. Bishop was arrested outside Jonesboro Wednesday, March 11, 2009. Police say he was on the run, after being accused of rape.
According to Crittenden County officials, Bishop moved to Earle in December 2007 from Alabama. They say Bishop did notify the county he was a sex offender. We are told Bishop then had to be evaluated by state officials in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, to determine his sex offender ranking. A spokesperson from that agency says that process normally takes three to six months, but that it took longer in this case because Alabama Department of Correction officials didn't send documents quickly enough. That's why Crittenden County didn't find out until March 12, 2009, a day after Bishop is accused of raping a woman, that he is a level four offender, the most dangerous and likely to re-offend.
We also asked Arkansas state officials why Benjamin Bishop isn't showing up on the state sex offender website. Sherry Flynn says it could be a glitch in the system when the website switched over to using a GPS mapping system. Flynn says they have had problems getting offenders in the system with records from out of state.
So what kind of jail time could bishop be facing? Rape is a Class "Y" felony in Arkansas, carrying a 10 year-to-life sentence.
