Man Gets 20 Years For Sexual Assault
EDITOR’S NOTE: The name of the victim in this article is not identified in keeping with the Tyler Morning Telegraph’s policy to protect the identity of victims of sexual abuse and to encourage the reporting of such crimes.
By CASEY KNAUPP
Staff Writer, Tyler Morning Telegraph
July 6, 2007
A 21-year-old Tyler man was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl while they were counselors at a Lindale camp last summer.
Matthew Allen McMurray pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child/sexual contact. He was sentenced to 20 years on each charge by 7th District Judge Kerry Russell. The defendant, who had no prior criminal history, will serve the sentences at the same time, will be eligible for parole after 10 years and will have to register as a sex offender.
The 13-year-old victim was a counselor along with McMurray ay the Timberline Baptist Camp in Lindale, a camp for the mentally disabled, when the incidents occurred on Aug. 8 and 10, 2006.
The victim’s mother testified in court Friday about how her daughter being “violated” by a 20-year-old man changed her life forever.
Defense attorney Kurt Noell said both the victim and defendant acted inappropriately and both were warned by other counselors several times. When confronted by camp counselors and then the police, McMurray admitted what happened, he said. He asked the judge to sentence him to deferred adjudication probation.
Assistant Smith County District Attorney Peter Keim said McMurray took advantage of a 13-year-old girl. He said the girl may not have known better, but McMurray did and he asked the judge to sentence him to prison.
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ARC Of Smith County Named In Lawsuit
EDITOR'S NOTE: The names of the victim and the plaintiff in this article are not identified in keeping with the Tyler Morning Telegraph's policy to protect the identity of victims of sexual abuse and to encourage the reporting of such crimes.
By CASEY KNAUPP
Staff Writer, Tyler Morning Telegraph
December 11, 2007
The ARC of Smith County has been named in a lawsuit brought on by the mother of a 13-year-old camp counselor who was sexually assaulted by a 21-year-old man who also worked at the Lindale camp for mentally disabled adults.
Matthew Allen McMurray pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child/sexual contact and was sentenced on July 6 to 20 years in prison. He will serve the sentences at the same time, and will be eligible for parole after 10 years.
The incidents occurred on Aug. 8 and 10 of 2006 at the Timberline Baptist Camp in Lindale.
In the lawsuit filed by the girl's mother on Nov. 29, the ARC of Smith County was named, as well as Jacqueline Fowler, who was the nonprofit corporation's executive director at the time of the assault, and Scott Fair, who was director of Camp Kennedy, which is put on by the ARC.
The lawsuit claims the ARC and its executives were negligent in failing to properly screen and manage its camp counselors, failing to report any misconduct of counselors to proper personnel or legal authorities, failing to comply with the standard of care for a nonprofit corporation using minor female volunteers and failing to maintain a safe facility.
Susan Hawkins, who has been executive director of the ARC for about a year, was unaware on Monday that the lawsuit had been filed and declined to comment because the organization had not received anything official.
The victim, of Ben Wheeler, volunteered to become a junior camp counselor for the week-long camp, and McMurray, then 20, was employed as a senior counselor and "team leader," the lawsuit states.
After the second incident on Aug. 10, 2006, the 13-year-old girl reported the assault to another camp counselor who encouraged her to tell an adult. Law enforcement was contacted the next day.
The lawsuit claims that the girl has suffered physical pain, mental anguish, medical care expenses and mental and physical impairment. The plaintiff is being represented by attorney Randall D. Moore, of Fort Worth.