A 20-year-old man charged with attempting to force his way into two vehicles occupied by females in Baxter County, and with two counts of sexual indecency with a minor in Prairie County has now pled guilty to both sets of charges.
Austin Grant Duck lists his address on most court documents as being along Halls Crossing Road in Devalls Bluff, although he apparently attended high school in Hazen.
He did not list an address in Mountain Home.
On November 4, Duck was sentenced to 12 months misdemeanor probation in Prairie County on a reduced charge of one count of indecent exposure.
He had earlier pled guilty to the charges against him in Baxter County and was also put on misdemeanor probation for a year.
Almost no information on the sex charge in Prairie County is available because the case file was sealed by the court. The violation date is shown as July 23, but the case was not filed until October 2.
Little Rock defense attorney, George “Birc” Morledge, IV, represented Duck in his Baxter and Prairie County cases.
BAXTER COUNTY ARREST
Duck’s arrest in Baxter County stemmed from him attempting to get into two women’s cars in the early morning hours of September 9 last year at a gas station at the intersection of Highway 62/412 and Cranfield Road.
The woman involved in one incident reported seeing a male sleeping beside the vending machines. She said after she finished fueling her car, she got in to leave.
The young male, later identified as Duck, was alleged to have tried to open the driver’s side door, but the victim was able to drive away.
A second female victim said she had been at the same station at around the same time the first incident took place. She said Duck opened her passenger door and began going through her purse.
The victim said she asked Duck what he was doing and she said he just looked at her and said, “dude, dude.”
She said Duck continued to go through her purse and wallet until she climbed through the vehicle to the passenger’s side and began pushing him out. She was able to close the door, but Duck “aggressively opened it trying to get back in.”
The woman told investigators that she pushed Duck back out and again closed the door. She said she was able to get to the driver’s side just as Duck reopened the passenger side door. She said she drove off, shutting the door as she left.
When video from surveillance cameras at the station were reviewed, Duck is seen approaching a third unidentified victim in a white truck with a black door and fender on the passenger side and pulling a boat.
Duck is reported to have tried to open the passenger side door of the truck, but found it locked. He is then seen talking to the driver through the passenger window.
The truck drives off. Duck is said to have walked to his backpack, lifted it in the air, made an obscene gesture to the departing driver in the truck and returning to the gas pumps.
The surveillance camera footage is also reported to show that Duck at one point removed fill hoses from the gas pumps. He is show throwing one to the ground.
After the two incidents were reported to 911, a Baxter County sheriff’s deputy responded to the scene.
In addition, a second deputy who was in the area saw Duck walking about 200 yards from the gas station.
The deputy spoke to Duck who said he had been in Missouri at a party when he got into a fight with his girlfriend and decided to walk to “his residence” in Mountain Home.
At the time of that contact the full picture of what had happened was not known and Duck was released after personal information was gathered.
He is reported to have turned himself in at the Baxter County Detention Center September 29 last year after “being told by someone a warrant for his arrest had been issued.”
Duck’s charges in Baxter County were misdemeanors and the charges in Prairie County were reduced to misdemeanors.
It is still unknown what Duck, who apparently still lives in East Arkansas, was actually doing in this area or whether he had a residence in Mountain Home as he allegedly claimed.
From the information he provided in Baxter County, Duck would appear to have been a transient, but he was able to make a $15,000 bond and to have a Little Rock attorney represent him.
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