TEXARKANA -- A grand jury in Bowie County, Texas, indicted a former Texarkana teacher Thursday, accusing him of the invasive video recording of an 11-year-old boy in a department store bathroom.
Shane Samuel Jones, 31, now faces formal felony charges in Arkansas and Texas in the alleged filming of boys as they used restroom facilities.
The invasive-video-recording charge out of Bowie County is punishable by six months to two years behind bars. Jones also faces charges in Miller County, Ark., of voyeurism and video voyeurism, each of which is punishable by one to six years in prison and a fine up to $10,000.
Jones, a former teacher at Trinity Christian School in Texarkana, is accused of filming a boy Nov. 25 as the boy used a bathroom at J.C. Penney Co. store in Central Mall in Texarkana, Texas, according to police. Jones admitted to filming that boy and another at the department store and admitted to filming boys in bathrooms at Trinity Christian School in Texarkana, police said.
Jones lost his teaching job at Trinity Christian School when the allegations surfaced.
At a hearing Tuesday before Miller County Circuit Judge Brent Haltom, Jones entered innocent pleas to voyeurism and video voyeurism. He is scheduled to appear next month before Haltom for a pretrial hearing.
Jones admitted to having videos of boys on an old cellphone, police said, and a search of his home was conducted in November and resulted in the seizure of phones, computers and digital storage devices.
Jones denied inappropriately touching any of the students he taught at Trinity Christian School, police said, although he told investigators that he had washed the feet of several boys in a "mentoring group" at the school as a "spiritual lesson."
Jones tried to plead guilty to invasive recording without presentment to a grand jury during a hearing last month in Bowie County, but District Judge John Tidwell refused to accept a plea bargain that included probation.
State Desk on 03/23/2018