MISSOURI
Associated Baptist Church
By Bob Allen
Missouri Baptist Convention officials are watching a member church whose pastor was arrested recently on sexual abuse charges a year after his previous acquittal of child molestation.
Travis SmithTravis Smith, 42, of California, Mo., appeared for arraignment Oct. 16 in Moniteau County court. He faces charges of forcible rape, statutory rape and sexual abuse alleged to have occurred in 1998, statutory rape in 1999 and statutory rape and sodomy in 2005.
Smith, pastor of First Baptist Church in Stover, Mo., since 2006, was found not guilty on Sept. 28, 2011, by a jury in Morgan County of misdemeanor child molestation of a 14-year-old girl in 2009. A separate charge of statutory rape was dropped because that accuser turned out to have been 17, the age of consent in Missouri, rather than 15 as first claimed when their alleged improper relationship began.
The First Baptist Church, Stover, website listed Smith as its pastor as of Oct. 23. Local media reported Oct. 3 that church members were standing by their pastor despite the charges. Community residents countered with a vigil on behalf of his alleged victims, protesting a church fish fry that was described in conflicting media reports as a show of support for Smith and an annual church event that just happened to coincide with news of the arrest.
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