Park visit in Baxter County lands registered sex offender in custody on multiple charges

A registered sex offender was arrested Monday after being found at a city park in Gassville earlier this month, and faces additional charges after allegedly resisting and assaulting jail staff following his arrest.

Jeremiah Wayne Selfridge, 28, of Yellville, a Level 3 registered sex offender, was found with two other people in a vehicle at Lancaster City Park at approximately 12:40 a.m. on March 3 by a Gassville Police Department officer on routine patrol.

Selfridge told the officer his vehicle had overheated, but investigators found no evidence to support that claim.

Baxter County Sheriff’s Deputy Tanner Anderson, who oversees sex offender registration and monitoring in the county, relayed the details of that encounter to the Baxter County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors filed a criminal charge, and a bench warrant was issued for Selfridge’s arrest.

Selfridge was taken into custody Monday, March 16, on that warrant and transported to the Baxter County Detention Center. There, according to the Sheriff’s Office, he refused to follow instructions from jail staff and used physical force against jailers who attempted to restrain him, resulting in additional charges.

He now faces two felony counts — entering a public park as a Level 3 or Level 4 sex offender, and battery on an officer — as well as misdemeanor charges of third-degree assault and impairing the operations of a vital public facility.

Selfridge is being held at the Baxter County Detention Center on a $25,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear in Baxter County Circuit Court on March 30.

The two other individuals found in the vehicle with Selfridge were not charged.

Jeremiah Wayne Selfridge

Image via the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office