Morgan County Pastor’s Rape Trial Rescheduled

By Morgan County
Lake News Online
May 21, 2014

http://www.lakenewsonline.com/article/20140521/NEWS/140529664/12703/NEWS

Morgan County

The jury trial of a California, Mo. man charged with multiple counts related to child sexual abuse has been rescheduled again.

Travis Ray Smith, 44, was scheduled to go to trial in Moniteau County on June 2, 2014 after the trial was first continued in late 2013.

In a pre-trial conference May 16 for the June trial, Smith's trial date was reset to begin Dec. 1, 2014 with the pre-trial conference scheduled for Nov. 14.

Smith's defense attorney, Shane Farrow of Jefferson City, was granted the continuance by Judge Kenneth Hayden over the objection of Moniteau County Prosecuting Attorney Shayne Healea.

In September 2012, Smith was arrested by the Missouri State Highway Patrol on charges of forcible rape, sexual abuse and two counts of statutory rape in the second degree in incidents alleged to have taken place in 1998 and 1999. He was also then charged in Moniteau County Circuit Court with statutory rape in the second degree and statutory sodomy in the second degree related to incidents alleged to have occurred in 2005.

In June 2013, the charge of forcible sodomy for deviate sexual intercourse by forcible compulsion was added to the charges filed against Smith. This incident was alleged to have occurred in 1999.

The allegations come from two different women.

Smith's 2012 arrest came just one year after being acquitted by a Miller County jury on a charge of child molestation that was filed in Morgan County in 2010.

Throughout these tribulations, Smith has continued as pastor at First Baptist Church of Stover. He is still listed as pastor on their website.

Smith is free on bond.