Police have arrested a well-known Asheville church choir director on charges he had sex with two children.
Leonard Jerome Smith, 53, of Blanton Street, Asheville is charged with felony statutory rape of a child older than 6 and felony first-degree child sex offense.
The acts are alleged to have occurred with two separate children in January 2001 and between June and August of 2004, said Capt. Tim Splain of the Asheville Police Department.
Splain said because of the nature of the crimes, and because the case is still under investigation, he could discuss few details. He said he could not discuss how investigators learned of the crimes.
He said it isn’t unusual for reports of sex crimes to surface years after the acts allegedly occurred.
“In a lot of these cases people don’t, as a young person, know that it is inappropriate at that point in time,†he said. “The right circumstances don’t come about that they have an opportunity to talk about it. Why people prey sometimes on young children is because they don’t understand or they are not believable at that point as witnesses.â€
Smith was arrested Thursday. He was released on bond and has a court appearance on April 18.
Smith was the director of the Asheville-based Full Fellowship Community Choir, a choir made up of singers from across Western North Carolina.
In 2004, he was nominated for a Martin Luther King Jr. Award for his service to the community.
He worked as an activity planner with the Hillcrest Enrichment Program at Hillcrest Apartments. It is unclear from the police and court records whether he is still employed there.
No one answered the telephone at his home.
Splain said anyone with information about Smith should call Asheville Police at 259-5910 and ask to speak with a detective.