Former Dexter doctor charged with soliciting sex from a child

The doctor arrested Friday in West Plains, Missouri, for soliciting sex with a 4-year-old girl had a strong presence in Southeast Missouri, including at clinics in Dexter and Bloomfield.

Dr. Donald W. Lamoureaux, 68, was part of a team of medical personnel who operated from the SoutheastHEALTH clinic on Business 60 in Dexter.

Physicians there are now housed in the hospital's new medical office building, but Lamoureaux left before the facility opened in the fall of 2014. He was hired in July 2009.

Lamoureaux practiced general medicine in Dexter, but also had hours at a clinic in Bloomfield and another in West Plains at the time of his arrest. He also saw patients at the Horseshoe Clinic in Horseshoe Bend, Arkansas.

Federal agents took Lamoureaux into custody Friday afternoon on federal charges in West Plains -- the result of an undercover sting operation involving several Arkansas law enforcement agencies and eventually Missouri police as well.

Conner Eldridge, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, announced Monday that Lamoureaux appeared earlier in the day in Fort Smith, Arkansas, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark E. Ford on charges of attempted coercion and enticement of a minor for sexual purposes.

Lamoureaux was living in Ash Flat, Arkansas, at the time of his arrest, according to the Batesville Daily Guard in Batesville, Arkansas.

In January, a member of the Fort Smith Police Department's Street Crimes Unit initiated an undercover online investigation.

The investigation focused on an online chat site believed to be sexual in nature. The Batesville Guard reported that an undercover officer began corresponding with a man identified as Lamoureaux. It was during that undercover correspondence that Lamoureaux reportedly "gave explicit detail of his interest in sexual activities with minor females less than 10 years of age."

The undercover officer, posing as a single mother with a fictitious 4-year-old daughter, subsequently made arrangements with Lamoureaux via the chat site to meet with her and her child at a Quality Inn in West Plains. Lamoureaux was arrested without incident when he showed up at the rendezvous.

Lamoureaux is being held without bond at the Sebastian County Jail in Fort Smith.

Before coming to Dexter, Lamoureaux spent 14 years in the U.S. Air Force, serving as a radar navigator aboard a B52. He served as an aviation medical examiner as well, and after his military career, returned to school for a second career in education, later obtaining his medical degree.

He taught middle school-level math and then college science, math and some French before returning to college at age 47 to pursue his doctor of osteopathic medicine degree. He earned that degree from the University of Health Sciences in Kansas City. He completed his residency in Fort Worth, Texas, moving later to Highland, Arkansas, where he headed his own private practice.

Lamoureaux and his wife, Juanita, lived in Dexter for about five years before leaving in July. The couple have three grown children.