Registered sex offender arrested for allegedly abusing pre-teen girl

Arnold Lindquist

The Whitley County Sheriff’s Department arrested a registered sex offender Monday for allegedly sexually abusing a girl.
Deputy Jonas Saunders charged Arnold Lindquist, 73, of 220 Kenny Bug Road, Williamsburg, with first-degree sexual abuse.

Saunders also charged two women, Sarah E. Lively, 41, and Amber D. Lively, 29, with failure to report child abuse.

Sarah Lively was also charged with second-degree criminal abuse of a child under 12 years old.

Amber Lively was also served with an arrest warrant for failure to appear.

Saunders responded to Kenny Bug Road, which is located in southern Whitley County, on Monday to assist social services with an investigation that a female under the age of 10 years old was being sexually abused, according to a sheriff’s department release.

During the investigation, Sarah Lively, the girl’s mother, stated she witnessed Lindquist make inappropriate and sexual contact with the girl, according to the release.

Amber Lively was also aware of the inappropriate contact, but neither woman followed their legal obligation to report their knowledge of the abuse to law enforcement, the release stated.

"Foremost, we have a moral obligation to protect children, but Kentucky has very clear law that we often refer to as ‘Duty to Report.’ That statute says, ‘Any person who knows or has reasonable cause to believe that a child is dependent, neglected, or abused shall immediately’ contact authorities," explained Sheriff Colan Harrell. That statute is KRS 620.030, and it can be read in full online.

All three suspects are being held in the Whitley County Detention Center in lieu of $20,000 cash bonds.
According to the Kentucky State Police Sex Offender Registry, Lindquist is a move-in offender from Florida. His original Florida conviction was for sexual battery/coerce child by adult.

Lindquist also allegedly uses the aliases, Arnold Bray and Arnold Linquist, and the age of his victim in his Florida case was 16 years old, according to a flier that can be printed out from the registry’s website.

The Kentucky sex offender registry lists Lindquist as compliant and notes he is required to register as a sex offender for 10 years.

Kentucky State Police manages the sex offender registry that "provides sex offender registration information to the public to promote public safety and awareness by alerting possible victims of potential danger, not to punish or embarrass offenders," according to the release.

As of Dec. 8, the registry lists 76 offenders in Whitley County. Kentucky’s sex offender registry can be accessed online at http://kspsor.state.ky.us/

Deputy James Fox and Williamsburg Police Officer Ashley Ampler assisted with the investigation.