Smith arrested after more sex crime allegations arise
DURANT DAILY DEMOCRAT
Durant, OK
March 12, 2010
DURANT — A Coleman school teacher arrested and charged in December for sex crimes has been arrested again after more charges were filed in Johnston County.
Billy Ray Smith, 53, was arrested Wednesday at a home in the 1900 block of West Evergreen Street in Durant, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation announced Thursday evening.
OSBI and Durant police took Smith into custody on an outstanding warrant in Johnston County for second-degree rape and two counts of sodomy. According to OSBI, Smith, a teacher at Coleman High School, is on administrative leave. He has worked for Coleman Schools for 30 years and also served as a youth volunteer at Calvary Baptist Church in Durant for several decades.
Smith was charged with forcible sodomy in Bryan County in December after Durant Police investigated allegations that he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old boy on a youth mission trip, and that the boy was forced to perform a sexual act on Smith at least three times while they were in Smith’s car at the church parking lot. He also said he had been sexually assaulted at Smith’s Coleman home, according to the affidavit.
An affidavit states that the boy said he had been sexually abused by Smith for approximately two years.
Smith and the alleged victim shared a room on a mission trip last summer but were split up after a youth minister found an item of a suspicious nature in the room, according to the affidavit.
Durant Police Lt. Chris Marcy questioned Smith, who denied sexual contact, but said the boy had touched his thigh.
Smith had been free on bond and since the first charge was filed, other victims came forward, according to the OSBI.
The OSBI is asking anyone who has additional information on alleged illegal activity by Smith to contact the agency at (580) 298-5525.
Smith has a preliminary hearing on the local charge March 17.
SNAP Note: Calvary Baptist Church in Durant, OK, is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.