Eight years ago, William David Smith pleaded no contest to charges of taking indecent liberties with a pre-teen boy who lived in his neighborhood.
And as a sheriff’s deputy investigated fresh allegations against him recently, another boy said Smith threatened him with a ghastly warning. Smith allegedly told the boy he molested another youth who has since taken his own life.
Now, Smith faces three new charges of sexual crimes against another pre-teen boy, and the Rowan County Sheriff’s Department is asking any other youth Smith might have assaulted to come forward.
“We are aware of the possibility that other victims exist,” Sheriff’s Lt. John Sifford said. He added that investigators urge any additional victims that may exist to contact Detective Linda Porter at 636-1011.
So far, Smith has a record in only one case.
In 1991, Smith’s criminal record shows he was charged with seven counts of felony second-degree sexual offense. At the time, investigators accused Smith of ongoing incidents with a neighborhood boy. Smith had spent a lot of time with the boy, and someone alerted the boy’s parents to possible problems.
With the parents asked him, the boy told them of the incidents and they called authorities.
Court records at that time indicate he lived at 265 Darlington Drive, off N.C. 152, just outside Landis.
In 1992, prosecutors reduced the seven charges to seven counts of taking indecent liberties with a child.
In 1993, he pleaded no contest to two counts of taking indecent liberties, according to court records.
The District Attorney’s Office dismissed the other five.
District Attorney Bill Kennerly said there is no way of knowing why charges in a 10-year-old case were dismissed without reviewing the file.
Circuit Judge Russell G. Walker Jr. sentenced Smith to six years in prison, but the sentence was suspended and he received five years probation, according to Rowan County court records.
He did not need to register as a sex offender because the state did not put the registry into play until 1996.
Rowan County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Smith, 52, who still lives at 265 Darlington Drive, Landis, Thursday and charged him with one count of attempted first-degree sexual offense and two counts of taking indecent liberties with a child.
The arrest last Thursday pertains to a case with another pre-teen boy Smith met through his church, Landis Baptist Church, 110 N. Kimmins Street. According to Porter, Smith became acquainted with the victim’s family and offered to help the boy. The incident allegedly occurred about three years ago when the boy was at Smith’s home.
Smith was placed in the Rowan County Detention Center Thursday under $100,000 secured bond where he remained today.
Smith worked for the Cabarrus County school system in child nutrition from 1980 to ’81 and as a custodian from 1983 to 1989. He worked at Winecoff and R. Brown McAllister elementary schools.
Porter also said Smith has served as a Boy Scout leader.
Officials at Boy Scout offices in Cabarrus County said at first this morning that they had no record of Smith as a Scout leader. Then, they said they could not comment and referred a reporter to Executive Director Alton Medlin. A reporter left a message for Medlin, which wasn’t returned by today’s deadline.
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