Trial setting for former pastor delayed by Moniteau Co. prosecutor’s own troubles

By Morgan County
Lake News Online
January 20, 2015

http://www.lakenewsonline.com/article/20150120/NEWS/150129863

Travis Smith

A trial setting for a California, Mo. man charged with multiple felonies related to alleged sexual relations with two underage girls has been rescheduled.

Travis Smith was formerly a pastor at a church in Stover.

He is facing charges of forcible sodomy, forcible rape, sexual abuse, statutory sodomy and three counts of second degree statutory rape in Moniteau County, stemming from alleged incidents in 1998, 1999 and 2005.

Judge Kenneth Hayden will now preside over the trial setting hearing on March 13, 2015 instead of the original date of Jan. 16, 2015 after Moniteau County Prosecuting Attorney Shayne Healea made a motion to appoint a special prosecutor to the case.

Healea is facing his own troubles after being indicted Nov. 21 on charges related to an alleged drunk driving accident in Columbia in October.

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 for the incidents that allegedly took place in 1998 and 1999.

Additional charges of statutory rape and statutory sodomy for the alleged incidents in 2005 were filed later in Moniteau County Circuit Court.

In June 2013, forcible sodomy was added to the charges against Smith. This incident was alleged to have occurred in October 1999.

A trial scheduled in December 2013 was cancelled and reset for June 2013 and then again for Dec. 1-5, 2014.

The most recent trial date was stricken by agreement of both parties on Nov. 26, 2014 and scheduled for trial setting Jan. 16, 2015 — the hearing that has now been moved out to this spring.

The September 2012 charges against Smith were filed just a year after he was acquitted of child molestation by a Miller County jury.

He had been accused of inappropriately touching a 14-year-old girl during an outing in May 2010 and was arrested by the Morgan County Sheriff's Department in September 2010.

While the case was filed in Morgan County, it was moved on a change of venue. The jury deliberated for less than two hours before acquitting Smith.

Smith continued on as pastor of First Baptist Church of Stover throughout the Morgan County case.

It was sometime after the ongoing charges were filed that Smith was replaced as preacher at the church.