Reagan Gray Little Rock children’s volunteer and Christian teacher at Immanuel Baptist Church charged with sexual assault of 15 year old teen boy at Arkansas church.
A glamorous teacher and children’s volunteer at an Arkansas church is accused of grooming a 15 year old boy she met in the youth ministry before sexually abusing the teen she met at a Little Rock church.
Reagan Danielle Gray, 26, is alleged to have sent her teen victim ‘daily’ naked images of herself before sexually assaulting the teen, with the victim telling police the church volunteer not going further than oral sex so she could ‘stay pure’.
According to an arrest affidavit, Gray began having a sexual relationship with the minor back in 2020. At the time, Gray worked as a teacher at Little Rock Christian Academy along with working as a volunteer in the student ministry at Immanuel Baptist Church.
This minor didn’t attend Little Rock Christian Academy where Gray worked, but was a member of the student ministry, where Gray volunteered, THV11 reported.
Upon the boy’s parents finding ‘incriminating’ text messages on the boy’s phone, the head pastor at the Little Rock church sent Gray for counselling. But within weeks of returning to the church fold, Gray is alleged to have resumed abusing the teen.
The teacher and her teen victim had met in her car and in her Monticello apartment until May 2021, with the boy telling investigators he could not remember if he responded to her demands for naked images in response to her deluge of nude photos.
‘I don’t have explicit memory of doing that but, with how often she requested it, it probably did happen,’ the male victim stated.
Gray is alleged to have met her victim at the church where he was also a member of the student ministry.
The student told detectives that Gray found out his phone number through the group chat for the church’s music program.
The boy’s parents confronted Gray and informed head pastor Steven Smith after discovering a series of text messages.
Smith said he confronted Gray and suspended her from student ministry despite her insistence that her relationship with the boy was not sexual.
The police were not informed and the church assigned Gray an ‘accountability partner’ in the shape of Smith’s wife, Ashley.
But a police affidavit claims that Gray resumed her abuse after returning from her counselling, switching her communications with the boy to Snapchat.
It was not until a counselling session with Smith in September of last year that Gray admitted the relationship had been ‘sexual in nature’ and had continued after her suspension.
Police were called and the boy told FBI investigators that the pair had relations between five and 10 times during the fall of 2020.
He said Gray performed oral sex on him but the pair did not have intercourse ‘in order for (him) to stay pure,’ according to an arrest affidavit.
By then Gray had been hired as a teacher at Sylvan Hills Middle School in Sherwood only for the educator to be suspended by the Pulaski County Special School District in February after it learned of the investigation.
Gray was charged with a single felony count of sexual assault teenager between September 2020 and May 2021 and was freed on $20,000 bail after turning herself into the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported.
The teacher and church volunteer was bonded out the same day.
Of note, the legal age of consent in Arkansas is 16.
Gray’s attorney John Ogles said she denied the charge and said he expected her to clear her name.
‘We trust the judicial system,’ the lawyer stated according to the dailymail.
Church scandal leads to head pastor resigning
That nevertheless has not stopped the fallout from the scandal which has since led to the church head pastor, Steven Smith resigning from his post earlier this month following controversy over his handling of the alleged sex abuse, KARK reported.
Interim executive pastor Mark Carter said the case had caused distress to worshippers at the 128-year-old church that routinely attracts nearly 1,000 people to its services.
He said Gray’s arrest had been reported to the church’s new ‘Caring Well Team’, to ‘assess the situation and determine what action steps will be taken.’
‘We are grieved over this situation, hurting for the young man affected, and praying for all involved,’ he wrote.
