Former Crawford County library board member charged with kidnapping

Tamara “Tami” Hamby, former board member of the Crawford County Library System, was released on bond from the Crawford County Jail following her arrest Dec. 3 on charges of criminal conspiracy to commit kidnapping and endangering the welfare of an incompetent person in the first degree.

The charges stem from an alleged plot to kidnap her adopted daughter Nov. 17.

At 10:40 p.m. Nov. 17, the Crawford County Sheriff’s office was notified that a 22-year-old mentally impaired female was “kidnapped,” wrists tied with zip ties and tied to a tree with a rope. She had red marks on her wrists and bruises and marks on her arms, according to an affidavit filed with the court.

A petition filed for emergency custody filed in Crawford County states that Hamby organized a simulated kidnapping with three accomplices in order to teach her daughter a lesson about talking to strangers online. During the kidnapping the female was threatened by three accomplices and was told she would be beaten by them if she attempted to run away or screamed.Hamby observed from a vehicle nearby.

The investigation report showed that Hamby recruited Shannon “Jasmine” Childers, a certified nursing assistant assisting the Hambys with the care of their daughter, who along with severe developmental delays has asthma. Childers, in turn, recruited David Quach and Nico Austria to help with play, which was to have someone pretend to be associated with country singer Luke Bryan, pick up the daughter, tell her they were not with the singer, demand money, and tie the daughter to a tree. Then Hamby could rescue her daughter and use it to teach her a lesson.

The daughter had been communicating online with a person she believed to be Bryan and was sending him money; The Hambys could not come up with a plan to stop her, the petition states.

“Hamby has admitted to organizing the kidnapping and does not believe she did anything wrong,” the petition states.

‘FEAR DRIVEN’
Hamby’s husband, Dr. Jeffrey Hamby, a Van Buren family physician, has said he was unaware of the plot. He was not arrested. Quach, Austria and Childers were arrested for their alleged roles in the plot.

Jeffrey Hamby posted on the couple’s Facebook page Wednesday that his wife developed the plan only after “exhausting every possible avenue” and “pleading with three different law-enforcement agencies for help and receiving none.” He called the plot poorly executed and fear-driven.

“If your own special-needs daughter, who has the mentality of an 11-year-old, has an auditory processing disorder and is a tactile learner, becomes influenced by an online predator, … how do you teach her, someone with no concept of understanding of evil, that danger exists?” he said in the post.

Hamby was released from the Crawford County Justice Center on a $150,000 bond Dec. 3.

ANTI-GAY ADVOCACY
The Hambys worked in November 2022 with the River Valley City Elders to lead a campaign against LBGQT+ books then available through the library system. Tami Hamby was appointed to the Crawford County Library Board by Crawford County Judge Chris Keith and named the board chair, a position she held for a year.

The county lost a lawsuit, filed in May 2023 by attorney Brian Meadors, that claimed the board’s actions to relocate or remove books was unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III in September 2024 ruled against Crawford County and said the books in question are to be returned to their original locations in the county’s libraries.

The county also lost a federal lawsuit in December 2024 in which U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks ruled Act 372 unconstitutional. The Act sought to give library officials a process to ban or otherwise censor books. Crawford County was listed as a defendant in the case.

As of August 2024, Crawford County had spent at least $426,000 on legal fees and severance pay to defend against lawsuits that emerged after Hamby and others sought to relocate or remove certain books.

Hamby resigned from the library board on Nov. 24, leaving three vacancies to fill before the board’s planned Jan. 13 meeting, Keith said Wednesday. The board has five seats, meaning the board would not have a quorum to meet.

Keith said he will work with the library director and others in the community to select nominees, who must be confirmed by the Crawford County Quorum Court. He said he hopes to have nominees in place for the library board’s January meeting.