3rd victim accuses Hardy man of raping her when she was a child

FULTON COUNTY, Ark. – A few weeks after his initial arrest on suspicion of rape, another woman has come forward to accuse a Hardy man of sexually assaulting her.

According to a probable cause affidavit filed Feb. 24, a young female told investigators back on June 12, 2020, that from the time she was 5 or 6 years old to the time she was 7 or 8, Leonard F. Pickle, Jr. did stuff to her that he wasn’t supposed to.

The victim added Pickle touched her inappropriately at a home in Hardy and even assaulted her when she was about 7 years old.

Fast forward to February 2021, the victim described the inside of the home in Hardy and it matched what Fulton County Sheriff Al Roork saw when he visited Pickle during the investigation.

In a separate probable cause affidavit filed Feb. 24, investigators spoke to a different woman who said she met Pickle when she was a child.

She said she went to his pop-up camper trailer on two different occasions and she recalled that at one point, he took her into the camper, touched her and then made her perform a sexual act on him.

She stated that he then raped her.

The victim and Sheriff Roork went to the area of Pickle’s home and the victim gave enough details to show she had been there before.

On March 2, a 30-year-old woman told investigators she heard about Pickle’s arrest on 2 rape charges and she wanted to tell them what he had done to her when she was a child.

She explained the sexual abuse began back when she was 4 or 5 years old and went on until she was 11 or 12, totaling up to at least 40 incidents.

“It began by him showing her pornographic videos,” the affidavit stated.

Just like the other cases, the third victim said he would have her touch him inappropriately and he would touch her the same way.

The victim says he raped her back in 2000 and she believed he had done this to other girls as well.

The affidavit added that she stated it, “had destroyed her life. That a day doesn’t pass that she doesn’t think about it.”

On March 2, Fulton County District Judge Larry Dean Kissee set a $75,000 cash-only bond for Pickle and issued a no-contact order.