Missouri AG files new, more serious child sex charges against boarding school doctor
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with comments from Brent Jackson, who runs Legacy Academy Adventures in Cedar County.
David Smock, the longtime Agape Boarding School doctor who remains at large after being charged last week with child sex crimes, now faces more serious counts from the Missouri attorney general.
Smock, 57, has been charged with four counts of statutory sodomy or attempted sodomy — deviate sexual intercourse — involving a child younger than 14; and one count of second-degree statutory sodomy or attempted sodomy. He also is charged with one count each of sexual misconduct involving a child younger than 15, fourth-degree molestation of a child younger than 17 and first-degree stalking. All eight counts are felonies.
The alleged incidents occurred on five separate dates, from Aug. 13, 2018, to Aug. 2, 2020, according to the court docket.
These charges, which were filed in Cedar County Circuit Court one week ago, became public Tuesday afternoon. Three of the named special prosecutors work for the Missouri attorney general’s office and a fourth is the Vernon County prosecuting attorney, Brandi McInroy.
In the attorney general’s case, the probable cause statement has been sealed. The court closed the document, saying “the events alleged would have been during the time the victim would have been underage.”
No details about the charges are included in the online court database. A spokeswoman for the AG’s office said she could not comment on the pending case because Smock is still not in custody.
Smock’s attorney, Stacie Calhoun Bilyeu of Springfield, did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
Special prosecutors requested a change of judge Thursday and on Monday the court appointed Gary Troxell, associate circuit judge for Dade County, to the case.
Ty Gaither, Cedar County prosecuting attorney, initially received the case on Smock and reviewed it. But because “we knew Dr. Smock” and Gaither had gone to Smock’s clinic, including to get a flu shot, Gaither said he thought he should have another prosecutor look at the case.
Gaither then sent it to Vernon County for review.
“I didn’t want it to look like there was some kind of conflict,” Gaither told The Star on Tuesday.
The eight new counts come as authorities confirmed to The Star Tuesday afternoon that Smock is still at large, not yet arrested on three criminal counts filed last week in Greene County. Those charges allege that Smock groomed a young teenage student who attended Agape school and eventually sodomized and molested the boy, according to court records obtained by The Star.
Those allegations, including child sex reports involving Smock from two other states that go back decades, are outlined in a probable cause statement The Star obtained Monday.
“For years, David E. Smock groomed Juvenile by inviting him over to his (Smock’s) home located in Jerico Springs where he could play video games, use the gym and basketball court, purchasing a cell phone for him, providing gifts, money, and promised cars once he turned 16 years of age,” the affidavit says.
Smock also “took Juvenile and his family on outings to arcades, trips to places such as Silver Dollar City and Incredible Pizza and hosted birthday parties for Juvenile,” the document says.
According to the affidavit, Smock provided medical treatment — including physicals — for students at Agape Boarding School. The boy and his mother began having contact with Smock in 2013-2014, it says. Her son first met Smock during a gym night.
The sex crime investigation began on Oct. 7, 2020, when Heidi Fox, an investigator with the Missouri State Technical Assistance Team, received a request from the Missouri Department of Social Services’ Children’s Division. A child molestation case had been reported to the Cedar County Sheriff.
The case involved a 14-year-old male who disclosed to the Children’s Division in 2020 “that he was touched inappropriately when he was thirteen years of age by a fifty six year old white male identified as David E. Smock,” the affidavit says.
Cedar County Sheriff James “Jimbob” McCrary has not responded to a request for comment Monday. Agape leader Bryan Clemensen also has not responded to a request for comment.
Smock began spending more time with the boy to be a “father figure” to him, according to the affidavit, and then began taking him to and from school. He threw birthday parties for the boy’s 12th, 13th and 14th birthdays and eventually convinced the boy’s mother to allow her son to move into Smock’s home.
The boy lived with Smock, the affidavit says, from age 13 until just before his 15th birthday.
When the boy was 13 and in Smock’s care, the doctor took him from Cedar County to Springfield to help clean a rental property Smock owned, the document says.
“Juvenile disclosed while at this location, he was instructed by David E. Smock to pull his own pants down, when Juvenile did not, David E. Smock instructed him to pull his pants down two additional times,” according to the affidavit. “David E. Smock touched Juvenile’s penis with his hand and held Juvenile’s penis with his hand.”
The Star has reported extensively on Agape and other unlicensed Missouri boarding schools over the past year and investigated Smock’s close ties to the school. In October, The Star reported that two of the five Agape Boarding School staff members charged in September with assaulting students listed as their address Smock’s Cedar County mansion.
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 has been listed as the address for 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 and opened Legacy in May 2020.
Late Tuesday, Jackson emailed The Star and said the academy “had leased a portion of a building as well as a portion of property to start our program but was not directly involved with Dr. Smock.”
He said the academy was “completely removed from that property since September 30 of 2020.” The state investigation into Smock began about a week later.
“To my knowledge, not one of our students were ever even in the presence of Dr. David Smock,” Jackson said in the email.
“Both myself and Legacy Academy Adventures welcome a high level of transparency, accountability as well as safety and security for the young people and their parents that we are privileged to work with,” Jackson said. “We want the children to be safe and happy and well taken care of. “
According to the probable cause statement obtained Monday, while interviewing people about the Missouri allegations, the state investigator said she received police reports about Smock from California and Arizona dating back to the late 1980s.
It’s unclear from the affidavit if any charges resulted from those reports.
In a June 6, 2007, document from Gonzales, California, police interviewed Smock regarding a child cruelty case.
At that time, Smock told authorities that he and his six children — some of them adopted — slept in the same room but he slept in his bed alone. The report also indicated there was an empty second bedroom and that an adult female and her young children were staying in a third bedroom, the probable cause affidavit says.
“The adult female had ended a relationship with David E. Smock previously due to David E. Smock’s ‘controlling behaviors,’” the affidavit says. “And at the time of this report (she) was an employee at his clinic. She reported being fearful of David E. Smock and that she may lose her job, as she was informed by David E. Smock if any of his employees speak to the police, he would terminate their employment.
“One of the juveniles provided information to the police regarding the sleeping arrangements of the children, specifically David E. Smock sleeping in bed with one of the juvenile boys aged fifteen years old.”
At the time of the police report in 2007, Smock was a licensed physician and surgeon in California.
The Gonzales, California, Police Department also discovered four more reports about Smock. Those reports were made to other law enforcement and state agencies regarding sexually inappropriate behavior with children under 16, the affidavit says.
Gonzales officers discovered that a report was made to the San Diego Police Department in 1988 regarding David E. Smock being identified as a suspect in a child molestation investigation. Details of that case were not included in the Greene County affidavit obtained Monday.
In another case discovered by California authorities, the Marine Family Advocacy in Yuma, Arizona, told Gonzales police about a 1997 report that two juvenile males alleged Smock walked around the house nude in front of them during a visit to his residence in 1994-1995. The report said Smock showered with the two juvenile boys in 1996.
The Gonzales officer contacted Yuma, Arizona, Child Protective Services and was informed of a report made in 1998 alleging Smock altered the use of the hot water heater and stove in a home he owned that was being occupied by his estranged wife.
“The report documents David E. Smock made comments regarding selling his daughters because he only wanted to keep the juvenile son,” according to the Greene County affidavit. “The male child was interviewed and stated he sleeps in a bed with David E. Smock.”
A 1996 case out of the police department in Yuma, said that two 12-year-old boys and their mother reported Smock for “sexually inappropriate behavior.” It said Smock was their neighbor and had purchased several expensive items for the boys and provided “vitamins” for them to take.
“The two juvenile boys reported to the Police Department that while spending the night at David E. Smock’s residence, he informed them they can sleep naked and offered to give one of the juvenile boys a ‘physical,’” the Greene County affidavit says. “The mother of the two juveniles reported to the police that she observes several children at David E. Smock’s residence because he has a pool.”
That mother said tarps had been placed over the fence tops surrounding Smock’s back yard in Arizona.
“When David E. Smock was interviewed by the Police,” the affidavit says, “he is reported to have stated he tried to tell the mother of the boys ‘that he really loved children.’”
This story was originally published December 28, 2021 at 3:13 PM.
