Boarding school doctor facing child sex charges was ‘never on the run,’ lawyer says
An attorney for the longtime doctor for Agape Boarding School facing child sex charges said his client was headed back to Missouri to turn himself in when he was arrested Tuesday night in Arkansas.
“He was never on the run,” said Attorney Craig Heidemann, who represents David Smock on charges filed by the Missouri attorney general’s office in Cedar County. “He didn’t know about the charges until he was out of state.”
Late Tuesday, Smock was arrested at a motel in Harrison, Arkansas. Authorities in Missouri had said he was a fugitive and had been at large since two warrants were issued for his arrest last week.
Smock operates a clinic in Stockton, Missouri, where Agape students for years have gone for treatment.
Heidemann said that Smock had gone to Louisiana to visit his son for Christmas. He was in Louisiana when he learned about charges filed in Greene County and he made arrangements to come back to the Ozarks, his attorney said.
On Tuesday, Heidemann said, they learned about the eight counts filed by the attorney general’s office in Cedar County.
“He planned to turn himself in at 8:30 this morning in Cedar County,” Heidemann told The Star Wednesday morning.
While on his trip, Smock started getting sick, which slowed his travel, his attorney said. At the Arkansas county jail, Heidemann said his client tested positive for COVID-19.
“He gave me permission to tell you that,” Heidemann said. “Dr. Smock’s concern is that law enforcement has wrongly painted him as a fugitive when in fact he’s a COVID victim trying to get back to deal with these charges.”
Smock, 57, was arrested and booked into the Boone County, Arkansas, Jail at 8:29 p.m. Tuesday. He was still listed as being in the jail Wednesday morning on an “out of state” hold, according to the county’s online jail records.
Mike Stokes, deputy U.S. Marshal for the Western District of Missouri, told The Star late Tuesday that there was a sighting of Smock in Harrison and local law enforcement and deputy marshals responded to the area. Smock didn’t turn himself in, Stokes said, “he was captured.”
Boone County Sheriff Tim Roberson said the U.S. Marshals called his department Tuesday night for assistance. Deputies went with the marshals to the Family Budget Inn motel where Smock was staying.
“We were happy to oblige,” Roberson told The Star. Smock did not resist, the sheriff said.
“It doesn’t make good news but it was a pretty uneventful arrest as I understand,” Roberson said.
Heidemann said that his client made no attempt to flee at any time.
“If you’re running from the marshals, you don’t go open the door and invite them in,” Heidemann said. “If you’re running from the marshals, you don’t park your car in front of your hotel room with your license plate on it. ... Nor would he continue to use his cell phone to announce to the world his GPS location.”
Smock is charged with 11 child sex counts — all felonies — in Greene and Cedar counties. Those counts include first- and second-degree statutory sodomy, child molestation and stalking.
A Greene County judge ruled that once arrested, Smock should be held without bond pending trial, saying there were “reasonable grounds to believe the defendant will not appear on summons, is a danger to the crime victim, the community or another person.”
A bond hearing scheduled for Wednesday morning in Greene County Circuit Court in Springfield, where he faces three child sex charges, was postponed. Smock’s attorney on those charges, Stacie Calhoun Bilyeu of Springfield, has filed a motion requesting that the court set bond or release Smock on his own recognizance.
In Greene County, Smock is accused of second-degree statutory sodomy; third-degree child molestation of a child younger than 14 years of age; and enticement or attempted enticement of a child younger than 15 years of age, according to court records.
On Tuesday, charges filed by the Missouri Attorney General’s office became public. Last week, Smock was charged in Cedar County with eight felonies, including 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 was 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.
Attorney General Eric Schmitt released details on those charges Wednesday.
The Star obtained the probable cause affidavit outlining charges in Greene County earlier this week.
Prosecutors there allege Smock groomed and then sexually abused a teenage boy — when he was 13 — inside a rental home the doctor owned in Springfield.
Greene County prosecutors filed the felony charges on Thursday and requested the arrest warrant, asking that Smock be detained pending trial. The court ordered Smock to be held without bond once arrested, saying it found reasonable grounds to believe that Smock “will not appear on summons” and “is a danger to the crime victim, the community or another person.”
The court also found “by clear and convincing evidence” that “no combination of nonmonetary conditions and monetary conditions will secure the safety of the community or other person including the victim(s) and witness(es) and the Court, therefore, denies bail herein and orders the defendant detained pending trial and any other stage of the criminal proceeding,” according to a docket entry in the case.
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 five Agape Boarding School staff members charged in September with assaulting students listed Smock’s Cedar County mansion as their address.
Many former Agape students said some boys injured by staff or other schoolmates during physical and sexual assaults would be taken to Smock’s clinic, where Agape officials claimed they had been hurt while playing sports. No questions were asked, they said.
As a doctor, Smock is required by law to report suspicions of abuse or neglect.
This story was originally published December 29, 2021 at 11:26 AM.
