Long-time Missouri boarding school doctor ‘still at large’ after child sex warrant
The southwest Missouri doctor who has treated students at boarding schools in the Ozarks for years still had not been arrested Monday after being charged last week with child sex crimes, authorities told The Star.
“He still is at large,” said Deputy Paige Rippee, spokeswoman for the Greene County Sheriff’s Office in Springfield. “He’s not in custody, and our fugitive apprehension team is working with the United States Marshals to try and locate him.”
David Earl Smock, 57, is charged with three felonies, including one count of second-degree statutory sodomy regarding a child. He’s also charged in Greene County with third-degree molestation of a child younger than 14 years of age and enticement or attempted enticement of a child younger than 15.
According to online court records, the acts occurred on Aug. 13, 2018. A Greene County judge signed a warrant for Smock’s arrest on Thursday.
Details on the charges are still not known, such as why they were filed in Greene County and if there is a connection to his work at Agape.
Mike Stokes, deputy U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Missouri, confirmed Monday that his office is assisting local law enforcement in the search for Smock.
The long-time physician for Agape Boarding School, Smock holds active medical licenses in Missouri, Arizona and California. Property records show he also owns a home and runs a medical clinic in Arizona.
In Cedar County, Smock operates the Stockton Lake Walk-In Clinic.
Former students have told The Star that if boys were injured at the school during an assault by classmates or staff, they would often be taken to Smock’s clinic for treatment. There, students said, a staff leader would tell the medical workers that the injuries were sports-related and that staffer would stay in the room during the visit.
As a physician, Smock is required by law to report suspicions of child abuse and neglect.
Smock came to Missouri from Arizona and in 2006 built an 11-bedroom mansion with an indoor pool and gymnasium in rural Cedar County between Stockton and Jerico Springs. That location at 6360 E. 1570 Road, which Smock uses as his home and business addresses, also houses Legacy Academy Adventures, a Christian boarding school for boys ages 9-15.
Legacy is run by Brent Jackson, who has close ties to Smock and was an Agape staffer for 18 years, part of that time serving as its dean of students. Jackson left Agape in 2018.
Smock has been featured prominently on Agape’s website, supporting the school’s model and encouraging parents to send their troubled boys there. He has said on the site that he works with the school to wean boys off medications for behavioral issues.
“Agape Boarding School has had a long history of helping boys and young men gain the skills necessary to cope with given mental health diagnosis and disorders without the use of psychopharmaceuticals,” Smock said. “Once a student on behavior modification drugs is accepted and enrolled, the Stockton Walk-in Clinic and Family Care will evaluate and administer a weaning process.”
On Sunday, the testimonial and other references to Smock had been removed from Agape’s website. A nearly identical testimonial also has been removed from the website of Wings of Faith, a Cedar County boarding school for girls that has close ties to Agape and has taken students to Smock for medical care.
The arrest warrant comes as Agape remains under scrutiny after five staffers were charged Sept. 28 with assaulting students. One of the defendants, Seth Duncan, is Smock’s son-in-law.
The Star reported in October that two of the Agape staffers facing assault charges — Duncan and Trent Hartman — listed the address of Smock’s mansion and Legacy school as their home, according to court records.
Neither Smock nor Jackson responded to requests for comment on that story.
Smock’s medical business, Level 4 Medical Professional Corp., lists its corporate office at the mansion address as well. Smock has incorporated that business in both Arizona and Missouri. He is listed as the president and director of the Yuma, Arizona, business, which records show he formed on Aug. 29, 1997; and he’s the president, secretary and director of the Missouri business, which he formed on April 29, 2009. The company last filed an annual registration in both states in May.
Records show that Smock also has recently formed two other businesses in Missouri: Smock Commercial Rentals, formed on May 12, and Smock Residential Rentals, incorporated on June 21.
In Smock’s bio, which appears on a website for one of his businesses, Smock details his “life-long commitment to the homeless.” It began, he says, when he was a young man in Los Angeles and passed out food and ministered to the homeless at a “Skid Row Mission.”
He continued that work into his adult years, the bio says.
“As a young doctor he provided a free clinic and counseling at Yuma, Arizona’s “Crossroads Mission,” the bio says. “... He continues to provide Care, Education and training most recently at Springfield Victory Mission, Springfield, Missouri.”
According to the bio, Smock is a graduate of the California College of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine, and has been a Diplomate of the American Board of Urgent Care Medicine. He has been a clinical medical instructor for Midwestern University, Stanford University and the University of California, San Francisco, and served as a Navy Lieutenant Commander working with the Marine Corps for five years.
Smock also has been a Federally Certified Substance Abuse Medical Review Officer and an Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board Physician, his bio says.
Besides being Agape’s doctor, Smock has many connections to the school. One son is married to the late founder’s granddaughter, and two daughters are married to former students. The wedding ceremonies of those three Smock children were performed by Frank Burton, Agape’s pastor, court records show.
The Star’s Kevin Hardy contributed to this report.
This story was originally published December 27, 2021 at 12:55 PM.
