Williams pleads not guilty to forgery
Posted on Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Williams
BENTONVILLE — Ken Williams pleaded not guilty to a felony charge accusing him of fraudulently using the name of a dead person.
Williams, whose legal name was Don LaRose, is charged with forgery, a class C felony punishable with a prison sentence ranging from three to 10 years.
Williams, 68, appeared in court Monday and pleaded not guilty to the charge during an arraignment before Circuit Judge David Clinger.
Williams recently legally changed his name from Don LaRose to Bruce Ken Williams.
Williams is accused of, between 2000 and 2008, fraudulently and without authorization signing the name of Bruce Kent Williams or variations of that name on tax returns, government documents and election documents, according to court documents.
An omnibus hearing in the case is scheduled for 8: 30 a. m. Nov. 13.
Williams, the former mayor of Centerton, resigned in November after Daily Record reporters discovered that he was actually LaRose, a former Baptist minister who disappeared from public view twice — once in the mid-1970 s and again in 1980.
In November 1975, LaRose made headlines around Maine, N. Y., when the then 34-year-old pastor disappeared from the First Baptist Church.
According to news reports at the time, LaRose claimed to have been teaching a course on Satan and had received threatening letters from Satanists who accused him of blasphemy.
When LaRose was found more than three months later, his claims of abduction and brainwashing turned out to be unfounded. An investigation by detectives revealed LaRose had caused his own disappearance.
LaRose was found in Minneapolis, living under the name Bruce Kent Williams.
He claimed to be the son of a Dr. and Mrs. Kent Williams of Middleport, N. Y., according to an undated story in the Teapot Hollow Journal and verified by Middleport police.
Bruce Kent Williams was a real person who died in a car accident in Norwich, N. Y., in 1958.
When LaRose was found, he explained he had been kidnapped, forced into the back of a van and brainwashed with an electric machine attached to his forehead that made him forget his life as a minister and made him believe he was Bruce Kent Williams.
According to the Teapot Hollow Journal, LaRose told a reporter he only learned who he was after treatment with the truth serum sodium amytal.
The second disappearance occurred in 1980 while LaRose pastored a church in Hammond, Ind. He left behind a wife and children.
After his 1980 disappearance, Williams resurfaced in northwest Arkansas and became a well-known radio personality at KURM in Rogers. He became mayor of Centerton in July 2001, when he was appointed to the position to fill a vacancy created by a resignation.
In November, Williams admitted to Daily Record reporters that he was actually LaRose and admitted to using the name and personal information of Bruce Kent Williams.
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