Arkansas Woman Gets Prison for Rape of Son

(Van Buren, Arkansas) After being convicted by a jury of raping her three-year-old son, a 35-year-old local woman, Lorri Rye, was sentenced by Circuit Court Judge Gary R. Cottrell to 10 years in prison and a consecutive 10-year suspended sentence. The jury deliberated less than three hours total in returning the verdict and the sentence.

The details of the case against Rye are disgusting.

Helen Hawthorne, who was the child's baby-sitter and is Rye's sister-in-law, testified that in October 2007, the child had asked if she wanted to play a game, and when she agreed, he asked if she wanted to perform sexual acts on him, including putting his genitals in her mouth.

Hawthorne told Chief Deputy Prosecutor Robert Presley she said, "I don't do that," to which she said the boy replied, "Well, Mommy does."

The next day was the child's fourth birthday, and Hawthorne said she agonized over what to do before going to police the day after his birthday because she didn't want to "destroy" his birthday.

"I was tremendously upset," Hawthorne told the court. "No, I didn't know what to do. You hear all the horror stories about DHS (Department of Human Services). ... I knew something had to be done."

Rye's conviction relied upon her videotaped confession to Van Buren Sgt. Daniel Perry and former Detective Keith Lindley.

Rye will register as a sex offender once released from prison. While serving the 10-year suspended tag-along sentence, Rye will be prohibited from having any unsupervised contact with her son. The jury wanted to make sure that the boy was at least 18 before Rye had unrestricted access to him. As a minimum, Rye will have to serve seven years of her prison term before she is eligible for parole.