The anti-LGBTQ+ former chair of the Crawford County, Arkansas, Library System board was arrested last week, along with three other people, for allegedly plotting the kidnapping of her own developmentally disabled adult daughter.According to local CBS affiliate 5News, an arrest warrant for 59-year-old Tammi Hamby alleges that she cooked up the November 17 kidnapping as a scare tactic to prevent her 22-year-old adopted daughter, Jami, from interacting with strangers online. Hambys husband, Jeffrey,told the outletlast week that the couple had grown concerned over the past six months that Jami had developed a relationship with someone online who claimed to be country singer Luke Bryan. Related Parents sue library system to fight back against anti-LGBTQ+ book censorship We tried everything, and she has not stopped communicating with him, and he was going to get her. He was going to take her. And so, my wife, without my knowledge, with her aide and a couple of their friends, tried to do an intervention, Jeffrey said.Court documents allege that Tammi Hamby approached her daughters in-home nursing assistant, Shannon Yazmin Yvonne Childers, about the plan, and Childers recruited David Quach and Nico Austria to help carry it out, according to both 5News and the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Austria and Quach reportedly lured Jami from her home on November 17, claiming they would take her to meet Bryan. They then drove her to a field where they demanded money from her before zip-tying her wrists to a tree and leaving her, all while Tammi Hamby watched from a distance. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today While Tammi allegedly planned to rescue her daughter, Jami was able to free herself and ran to a nearby house where the residents called 911.The Crawford County Sheriffs Office deputy who responded to the call said that Jami was in fear for her life and clung tightly to a teddy bear the entire time he interviewed her.Tammi Hamby, Childers, Quach, and Austria all turned themselves in at the Crawford County Detention Center on December 3. On Friday, all four were charged with conspiring to kidnapping, first-degree false imprisonment, abuse of an endangered or impaired person, third-degree battery, and second-degree terroristic threatening, according to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Jeffrey Hamby defended his wife following her arrest last Wednesday, suggesting in an interview with 5News that local law enforcement had driven her to such extreme measures with their inaction after the couple reported that their daughter was interacting with an alleged online predator.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, she believes is the well-known public figure Luke Bryan, and that predator tells her hes coming to pick her up, and she wants to go with him, how do you teach her, someone with no concept or understanding of evil, that danger exists? he wrote on Facebook last week.Just because theres suspicious activity doesnt just allow us to just go out and start rounding up people, Crawford County Prosecutor Kevin Holmes told the outlet in response. You know, parents have some responsibility. I mean, this is a special needs girl who if theres issues with the internet, then you just cut her off from the internet. Jeffrey Hamby told 5News last Wednesday that Jami was now in DHS custody. The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that following a closed protective custody hearing on December 2, the day before Tammi Hamby turned herself in, Jami left with caseworkers while Jeffrey and Tammi left in a separate vehicle. The Hambys previously made headlines for their crusade against LGBTQ+-inclusive childrens books in local libraries. As Hemant Mehta notes in his Friendly Atheist newsletter, beginning in 2022, Tammi Hamby leveraged her position on the Crawford County Quorum Court, which has the power to withhold funding from the library system, to pressure the Crawford County library board to remove LGBTQ+-inclusive books from libraries childrens sections. In a letter to local pastors, the Hambys claimed that the only reason to include LGBTQ+ books in the libraries childrens sections is grooming a generation of children to feel this is normal and an accepted way of life. Mehta also notes that the Hambys were supported by the River Valley City Elders, which he describes as a Christian Nationalist community organization.After several members of the library board resigned in protest, Tammi Hambys friend, county judge Chris Keith, appointed her to the board, where she became chairperson. In 2023, a group of Arkansas parents successfully sued Crawford County, the Crawford County Quorum Court, the library board (including Hamby), and Keith over their censorship of LGBTQ+ books. After a federal judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, Hamby reportedly argued that the library system should pay all legal costs rather than county officials. As Mehta notes, one report estimates that the legal battle has cost the county more than $575,000.According to the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Hamby resigned from the library board a week after allegedly staging her daughters kidnapping, citing her move away from the district.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.