Cherokee Village Sex Offender Charged With Meth Trafficking, Possessing Child Sex Doll After Compliance Check

CHEROKEE VILLAGE, Ark. — A registered sex offender living in Cherokee Village is charged with trafficking methamphetamine and possessing a child sex doll after a sheriff’s office compliance check of his bedroom last month, according to court records filed Wednesday in Sharp County Circuit Court.

Vincent Ryan Prokop, 36, faces 10 counts in the information filed by the Third Judicial District prosecuting attorney’s office: trafficking a controlled substance, a Class Y felony; five counts of failing to comply with sex offender registration requirements, each a Class C felony; a sentencing enhancement for a drug offense within 1,000 feet of a city park; possession of a child sex doll, a Class D felony; misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia; and a habitual-offender allegation stating he has four or more prior felony convictions.

A circuit judge found probable cause Tuesday, and the arrest warrant was issued at 11 a.m. Wednesday. Prokop was booked into the Sharp County jail shortly after noon the same day, according to jail records. No bond amount appears in the court file.

According to the affidavit of Lt. Cham Buchanan of the Sharp County Sheriff’s Office, deputies and Arkansas Probation and Parole officers went to Prokop’s registered residence on Sept. 30 to verify his address, his registration information and his compliance with a suspended sentence that includes a condition allowing law enforcement to search his person, home and property at any time without a warrant.

Prokop was not home. His grandmother, who owns the house, confirmed he lived there and pointed out his bedroom, the affidavit states. When Buchanan opened the bedroom door, he “observed a small stick fall from the doorway area,” which he wrote “appeared to have been positioned in a manner that could indicate whether the bedroom door had been opened.”

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Inside, officers saw a Sony PlayStation and a cellphone in plain view. Neither was listed among the electronic devices Prokop is required to register as a sex offender, according to the affidavit. A search of the room under the terms of his suspended sentence turned up four cellphones, a PlayStation 5, a Roku stick, an external hard drive and USB storage devices, several of which the affidavit says were also unregistered.

Investigators also found “a homemade smoking device containing a quantity of liquid.” The liquid, removed and weighed separately, came to about 260.6 grams and field-tested positive for methamphetamine, the affidavit states. Arkansas law defines trafficking as possessing 200 grams or more of methamphetamine “by aggregate weight, including an adulterant or diluent.” The home is about 600 feet from Hiawatha Park, a city park, which the affidavit cites as the basis for the enhancement.

The affidavit devotes several paragraphs to what it calls “a child-like masturbatory/sexual device depicting a female,” about three feet long with hips about eight inches wide. Buchanan wrote that its small size, narrow proportions and facial features, “large, round eyes; a small nose; rounded cheeks; a small mouth,” gave it a child-like appearance despite adult breast development. He also noted “extensive dark discoloration on multiple areas of the body,” some of which “visually resembled bruising.”

Officers also seized VHS tapes with handwritten labels, DVDs “with sexual titles,” a second sexual device, “a small sheer pink top/dress” and a beaded bracelet, according to the affidavit. The phones, game console and storage devices were taken for forensic examination; the affidavit states no examination of their contents had been done at the house.

Prokop was convicted of second-degree sexual assault on Oct. 3, 2019, the affidavit states. The victim was a 15-year-old girl who was related to him by marriage at the time, and his sex offender assessment report found he “used digital devices to communicate with the victim before and after the assault and used his position of trust as a family member to gain access to the child.”

Court records show the 2018 case that produced that conviction originally charged him with second-degree sexual assault, electronic facilitation of child sexual abuse and possessing material depicting sexual conduct involving a child. A plea statement and sentencing order were filed Oct. 3, 2019, and a suspended imposition of sentence was entered. Prosecutors petitioned to revoke it in September 2021, and on Feb. 15, 2023, Prokop signed a new 60-month suspended-sentence order, the one that included the search condition cited in the new affidavit. A separate 2021 failure-to-register charge was dismissed the same day.

Trafficking a controlled substance carries 10 to 40 years or life in prison. The park enhancement adds a consecutive or concurrent term of up to 10 years that is not eligible for parole. Prokop has not entered a plea, and no court date appears in the file. A criminal charge is an accusation, and he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.