Sex offender arrested, accused of touching teen girl

For the second time in less than a year, a registered sex offender is in custody, accused of inappropriate behavior involving a child.

John D. Hooker, 59, is being held on $2,500 cash-only bond on a charge of third-degree assault in connection with a situation involving a group of teenage girls at Jackson City Park, police reported.

A group of teenagers at the park told officer John Reyna an older individual had approached them and made comments several girls found inappropriate, according to a probable-cause affidavit filed in the case.

Reyna used a license-plate number to identify the suspect as Hooker, Reyna wrote in the affidavit.

On Monday, Reyna was patrolling the park again when several teenagers told him Hooker was back at the park, making inappropriate comments to girls, Reyna wrote.

Witnesses said Hooker allegedly had looked some of the girls up and down and made inappropriate comments to and about them, telling one, "Your feet would look good in my sheets" and suggesting a boy "should use duct tape" to keep a girl quiet after she screamed while the boy was chasing her around a truck, Reyna wrote.

One girl told Reyna she was sitting on the tailgate of a truck when Hooker allegedly approached her, made comments that made her uncomfortable and brushed his hand up and down her leg until she jumped off the tailgate and went toward a group of her friends to get away from him, Reyna wrote.

Chief James Humphreys of the Jackson Police Department said the girls were about 15 to 17 years old.

The arrest was the second for Hooker in less than eight months, court records show.

In December, Hooker pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of endangering the welfare of a child after a neighbor reported he had enticed her 5-year-old son to show him his underwear in October.

According to a probable-cause affidavit filed in the case, Hooker admitted he and the child were talking about superheroes when the child informed him he was wearing Batman underwear, whereupon Hooker said, "Those would be neat to see."

The boy then lifted his nightshirt and showed Hooker his underwear, the affidavit stated.

The boy's mother told officers Hooker had behaved inappropriately toward her son on other occasions, including kissing the child on his forehead in 2012, the affidavit stated.

Hooker initially was charged with attempted sexual misconduct involving a child by inducement, a Class C felony, but ended up pleading guilty to the Class A misdemeanor of endangering the welfare of a child.

Hooker told police he knew his behavior toward the 5-year-old was wrong and said he felt he had not gotten adequate treatment for his sexual addiction while he was in prison, according to the probable-cause affidavit.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol's sex offender registry shows Hooker's prior offenses also include a 1991 case involving indecent acts with a 9-year-old boy in Freetown, Massachusetts, and a 2000 Cape Girardeau County sodomy case involving a 12-year-old boy in Lanagan, Missouri.

Hooker was released from the Missouri Department of Corrections in 2010, the registry shows.

Online court records also show Hooker pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of a child in December and was sentenced to 30 days in the Cape Girardeau County Jail.

Humphreys said Hooker was registered in Perry County, Missouri, but the highway patrol's registry and online court records show he lives in Cape Girardeau.

The reason for the discrepancy in addresses was not immediately clear.

epriddy@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

Jackson City Park, Jackson, MO