Rural Mount Vernon man granted probation in sexual abuse case

Aug. 10--MOUNT VERNON, Mo. -- A Lawrence County defendant received a suspended sentence when he pleaded guilty last week to the sexual abuse of a boy under 14 years of age.

Timothy D. Hargett, 24, of rural Mount Vernon, pleaded guilty to first-degree sodomy at a hearing Thursday in Lawrence County Circuit Court in a plea deal with the prosecutor's office that dismissed two statutory sodomy counts that he was facing for additional alleged acts with the same victim and allowed a suspended sentence.

Associate Judge Robert George accepted the plea agreement and assessed Hargett 10 years on the conviction with execution of the sentence suspended and the defendant placed on supervised probation for five years.

The victim told child abuse investigators during an interview on Sept. 25, 2019, that Hargett had committed various sexual acts with him in 2019. The defendant was interviewed and purportedly admitted having been sexually involved with the boy since 2015, according to a probable-cause affidavit.

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