Fort Smith's doctor is not guilty of sexual crimes, video voyeurism, since the police claims years of crimes

Fort Smith-a 46-year-old doctor, who is not guilty for over a decade in connection with sex crimes in connection with thousands of videos on his first court appearance on Wednesday.

Ladaryl M. Lankford from Free Ferry Landing in Fort Smith is charged with rape – not able to consent, physically helpless; Introduction of the controlled substance into the body of another person; Sexual assault second degree-physically helpless; Video -voyeurism – private place; and Computer Child Pornography – compiled according to the Sebastian County Circuit Court.

Court documents show that a public defender was appointed for Lankford. According to prison files, he remained in custody in the Sebastian County prison on Wednesday for 500,000 US dollars on Wednesday.

Officials from the police authority of Fort Smith reported that investigators found “thousands of video files” of hidden recording devices in a residence in the probe that led to Lankford's arrest on Monday evening.

The repeated sexual crimes were described in an affidavit in this case with several victims and, according to a press release from the police department, occurred between January 1, 2016 and March 30, 2025.

The victims included a young person who was known to Lankford.

Unknown

A victim reported the crimes on March 30, according to the police, and Detective then worked to confirm the information what led to Lankford's arrest and the charges raised against him.

Lankford had sex with more than one victim “who was unable to have approval because (the person) was physically helpless”, states in the affidavit.

In addition, according to the affidavit, Lankford had sexual abuse materials from children and had a controlled substance “recorded or inserted or otherwise introduced to another person's human body, with the aim of committing crimes” in which sexual behavior and possibly a child were involved.

The doctor used a camera or another recording device to secretly observe another person in an apartment or watch video on video when this person was “in a private area outside the public, has an appropriate expectation of privacy and has not approved the observation,” says the affidavit.

Talks with witnesses prompted investigators to suspect that Lankford had placed hidden cameras in several rooms for years, according to the affidavit.

Volumes of evidence

The victims and witnesses gave cameras, hard drives and computers to the police, the affidavit, and among the recordings there were cases of Lankford that the victim sexually abused while the person was “sleeping/under drug”.

Some videos show that Lankford pills exchanges from a pill bottle with some other capsules that appear identical, according to the affidavit.

Prescription pills with a controlled substance with which a person helps sleep in the residence were discovered according to an affidavit.

The Lankford office is listed on Google as “permanently closed”. He is listed as a hospital doctor in Fort Smith on Healthgrades.com, and webmd lists him as a work in Springdale and specializes in internal medicine, family medicine and hospital medicine.

The police said the investigation of the case was not yet complete.