Former Green Forest teacher gets probation

       Lee

By Scott Loftis

A former Green Forest High School English teacher who resigned his position after being arrested in January 2023 has been sentenced to one year’s probation after reaching a plea deal with prosecutors.

Dustin “Dusty” Lee, 46, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and second-degree endangering the welfare of a minor, according to court records. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to amend a felony charge of internet stalking of a child.

Carroll County Circuit Judge Scott Jackson accepted the plea agreement on Monday, June 10, and sentenced Lee to one year of supervised probation. Jackson also ordered Lee to pay a total of $1,190 in court costs and fines.

The charges against Lee stemmed from alleged inappropriate contact between Lee and a 15-year-old female student at Green Forest.

According to court documents, the girl was a student in Lee’s English class. Lee allegedly sent the girl messages through Snapchat. The student told investigators that Lee had conversations with her about his prior sex life, according to a probable- cause affidavit.

When the student was asked during an interview if she had ever received a touch that she was not comfortable with, she said Lee had at times leaned on her resting his hand on her breast, according to the affidavit.

The student said during the interview that Lee sent her a nude picture depicting him naked when he was 20 years old, the affidavit says. The student said she could see Lee’s genitals and described him as lying down nude looking at a book, according to the affidavit.

A Green Forest police investigator interviewed Lee at his home in January 2023, the affidavit said. Lee admitted that he had messaged the student but said he didn’t send the messages the student had accused him of sending, according to the affidavit. Lee told the investigator that he abused a medication with similar side effects to Ambien and often could not remember doing things, the affidavit says. Lee then told the investigator that he had never sent nude photos to the student, according to the affidavit.

After initially refusing to surrender his phone, Lee allowed the investigator to take possession of the device, the affidavit says.

An arrest warrant for Lee was issued Jan. 9, 2023, and he was arrested at his mother’s home in Van Buren. Lee initially was booked into the Crawford County jail but later was transported to the Carroll County Detention Center in Berryville, where he was booked on Jan. 12, 2023. He was released later that day on a $75,000 bond.

The Green Forest school board accepted Lee’s resignation in February 2023.

In sentencing Lee, Jackson ordered him not to have any contact with the alleged victim in his case and not to enter any K-12 school building in the state of Arkansas.