Sunday school teacher is accused of planning sex with 14-year-old girl, possibly other victims

Brent "Pete" Turley planned to meet the girl at a Mountain Grove park, but met officers instead.

March 22, 2012|by Linda Russell, KY3 News | lrussell@ky3.com

MOUNTAIN GROVE, Mo. -- A 21-year-old man from Douglas County is charged with enticing a child for sex -- a girl whom he met in his Sunday School class.

Brent Turley, 21, who also goes by Pete, lives in Norwood. Investigators say he planned to secretly meet a 14-year-old girl at a Mountain Grove city park.

"(He was) wanting to meet on Monday. It was all arranged through text messages," said Wright County Sheriff Glenn Adler.

Adler says Turley intended to take the girl he'd taught in Sunday school "parking," and then have sex. He met officers instead.

"It is saddening that someone would use their position within a church to maybe do this. However, I don't want that to reflect on the church. Everybody has employees, and you can't control what the people who work for you do once they leave your office," said Douglas County Sheriff Chris Degase.

The only reason law enforcement caught Turley is the 14-year-old girl's mom took the initiative to look at her daughter's phone. When she saw suspicious messages, she started asking questions.

"Parents have a right to get in their kids' phone. Get in your kids' phone: see who they're texting. We were very fortunate that this mother got into the phone," said Degase.

Investigators say Turley, who is married with a 4-month-old baby, also communicated with the girl on Facebook, where predators find easy access to impressionable youth.

"If they're going to have one, make them produce the password and username to get on there," said Adler.

Law enforcement say Turley also confessed to sex acts with a 12-year-old and a 16-year-old, both from Douglas County.

"What I know of it, I think there's probably going to be some other victims involved in it," said Adler.

If there are others, officials hope they'll come forward.

"It does affect them later on in life, so we're trying to get these victims identified and get them the help they need," Degase said.

Turley is charged with one felony count of enticement of a child. Charges in the other cases are pending.

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