School incident leads to attempted kidnapping charge

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March 12, 2010

By JIM HARDIN CNHI The Zope Gazette Fri Mar 12, 2010, 02:32 PM CST

HEATH — Proceedings are under way to have a 35-year-old Mesquite man extradited to Rockwall County to face an attempted kidnapping charge that stems from an incident last week at Dorothy Smith Pullen Elementary School.

Desi Smalley was arrested Friday, March 5, a day after he entered the school and allegedly tried to persuade a 7-year-old first grader to leave the school with him. He was arrested in Clark County, Arkansas, for stealing gasoline.

Detective Sgt. Scott Trammell of the Heath Department of Public Safety said the charge is based on reports that he “enticed her to come with him.”

“She didn’t know him and he didn’t know her,” Trammell said.

Criminal District Attorney Kenda Culpepper said she plans to be the lead prosecutor when the case eventually comes to trial in Rockwall County.

“I’ve been involved in this case from its earliest stages and this is a broad-based issue that affects the entire community,” Culpepper said of her decision to handle the prosecution of this case.

Heath officers have not traveled to Arkadelphia to talk to Smalley. Trammell said he will request that Clark County authorities interview Smalley and determine whether he wants to talk about the Rockwall County incident.

Trammell said he received information that Smalley already has pleaded guilty to the Arkansas charge involving the gasoline theft and was sentenced to a year in jail

The Heath officer said Smalley came to the school on Farm to Market 3097 at 11:35 a.m., parked his car in a bus lane and went to a glass door that leads to the cafeteria. The door was locked, so a student opened the door for the man.

He entered, scanned the cafeteria, then approached the 7-year-old student near the stage in the cafeteria.

“Come with me,” Trammell said the man told the girl.

She ignored the man, the officer said, then he repeated, “You need to come with me.”

The girl reportedly replied, “I don’t know you.”

At that point, a teacher intervened. She told the man that he had to go to the office and check in. He did, the officer said, and even handed over his Texas identification card. He was issued an identification sticker and returned to the cafeteria.

Trammell said the man went through the cafeteria line, purchasing ice cream and other snack items. He then went through the cafeteria, handing out the snack items to various students. Again, the officer said, school personnel approached the man.

They reportedly told him that he could not give the snack items to students, then they asked him why he was there. He told the school personnel he was there to visit Jasmine in Mrs. Smith’s class. The teachers didn’t know a student named Jasmine. Also, he said, there is no teacher at the school named Mrs. Smith.

The school personnel then told the man he would have to leave. Trammell said the man was concerned that he still had food that had not been distributed. The teachers told the man to take the food with him, even the blue food tray. He left and school officials called Heath law enforcement officers.

Before leaving the campus, a school employee wrote down a description of his car and the vehicle’s license plate number.

The call to the police department was received at 11:58 a.m. and the first Heath officer arrived at the school two minutes later. Officers interviewed witnesses and viewed the school video. According to Trammell, there’s video of the suspect from the time he entered the building to the time he left.

“Also, from that first contact, someone had an eye on him,” Trammell said.

Officers were not successful in finding him in the area, so they alerted other police departments to be on the lookout for the suspect. Heath officers were notified the next morning that Smalley had been arrested in Arkansas for stealing gasoline. Attempted kidnapping charges were filed and a $25,000 bond was set. Heath police asked Arkansas authorities to place a “hold” on Smalley, detaining him for local officers.

Trammell said the suspect has a criminal history, but there are no cases involving children or sex offenses.

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