By Steve Good

Ronald Eugene Tippens, 49, of Malvern, was sentenced on Tuesday to six years in the Arkansas Department of Correction after Seventh Judicial District Circuit Judge Phillip Shirron ruled that Tippens had violated terms of his probation.

Shirron had sentenced Tippens on Jan. 31, 2007, to three years of supervised probation after Tippens entered a negotiated plea of guilty to a single count of sexual indecency with a child.

Frank Blevins, Tippens’ probation officer, testified Tuesday in circuit court at Malvern that Tippens violated terms of his probation by failing to report for monthly supervisory visits, by traveling out of state without permission and by failing to register as a sex offender.

Tippens, who represented himself with the assistance of Malvern attorney Gregory Crain, took the stand and denied the charges against him.

He testified he was jailed on a charge unrelated to his probation and held on $100,000 bond from June 12, 2007, until he was found innocent of the charges on Dec. 10, 2007. He testified that he was unable to keep monthly visit appointments because of his incarceration.

Under cross-examination by Seventh Judicial District Chief Deputy Prosecutor Richard Garrett, Tippens testified that he did not resume supervisory visits after his release from the county jail after the Dec. 10, 2007, trial.

He also testified he visited St. Louis and Columbus, Ohio, before being arrested in Ohio June 16 on an Arkansas bench warrant and returned to Arkansas.

Under questioning by Crain, Tippens said he had registered as a sex offender through the Hot Spring County Sheriff’s Department as required by the terms of his probation.

Blevins had testified that Tippens had never turned in copies of the sex offender registration form he would have completed at the HSC Sheriff’s Office and that a record of Tippens’ registration had never been entered into the Arkansas Crime Information Center sex offender registry.

Tippen testified that he had completed the sex offender registration paperwork with a male deputy sheriff.

HSC Deputy Sheriff George Baker testified in rebuttal that only a female deputy, HSC Criminal Investigator Barbie Koder, registered sex offenders. He testified that Koder, who he said was one of the deputies assigned to investigate sex crimes, began registering sex offenders under HSC Sheriff Ron Ball and had continued to do so under HSC Sheriff Chad Ledbetter’s administration.

“The evidence is clear that you violated your probation,” Shirron told Tippens as he announced his verdict in the bench trial. “If you had a question about any of the terms of your probation, finding out about it was your obligation.”

Tippens has 30 days to appeal his conviction, according to Shirron.