Jeffrey Duane Smith, 67, white, male, who has served as a pastor at Mebane Presbyterian Church for more than two decades, has been charged with misdemeanor sexual battery after he allegedly groped a man in the men’s bathroom at Walmart off Mebane Oaks Road last week.
Smith allegedly committed sexual battery on a male victim inside the men’s room at Walmart on Monday, September 9, and then fled the scene before being apprehended in the woods behind the Sheetz gas station across Mebane Oaks Road, based on written findings of fact that Alamance County magistrate David Crabbe entered last Monday in placing Smith under a $3,000 secured bond.
The charging document, a magistrate’s order, alleges that Smith “willfully did for the purpose of sexual arousal, sexual gratification engage in sexual contact, by touching the victim through his clothing by grabbing [the victim’s] genitals…by force and against the will of the other person.” Other public records list his home address as 619 South Fifth Street, two blocks from the church.
Smith has been ordered to stay away from any Walmart store in Alamance County and to have no contact with the alleged victim in the case.
The written findings of fact placing Smith under a secured bond, which Alamance County magistrate David Crabbe entered last week, stated that a secured bond was deemed necessary because the defendant “will pose a danger of injury to any person.” Smith is currently scheduled to make his first appearance in Alamance County criminal district court on November 14.
Smith has served as a pastor at Mebane Presbyterian Church, located at 402 South Fifth Street, since 1999. News of his arrest has even made international headlines, including the London-based tabloid The Daily Mail.
“As a presbytery we are very sad to hear about these allegations,” Andy Koesters, who is the Missional Director of the New River Presbytery (EPC), told The Alamance News Wednesday. “At this time, we don’t know any other details than what has been communicated by the Mebane Police Department in their reports on the 10th and 11th of September. We are praying for Jeff, his family and Mebane Presbyterian Church. We are praying for anyone else involved in the incident. We are also praying that justice would be done.”
