The Flagler County prison is holding Gregory Allen Smith, 45, of 6 Plateau Place in Palm Coast, without bond on five first-degree felony rape accusations and two molestation allegations involving his wife’s teenage daughter prior to their 2019 divorce.
As soon as the purported victim revealed the abuse, they split up. The abuse occurred elsewhere in the P-Section, not at the Plateau Place address.
The mother of the accused victim informed a Flagler County sheriff’s officer that the abuse happened several times and stopped once she realized what was going on. She remembered that [her daughter] told her about the assault when she and one of her other children were gone at a sleep study. This disclosure was later verified to have occurred in November 2019.
On June 19, deputies arrived to the mother’s home. near 150 Sawgrass Road, where the University of Florida’s extension office is located near the county fairgrounds, Smith was taken into custody by the Fugitive Apprehension Unit late Friday afternoon.
Smith, Gregory.The arrest report states that Allen allegedly acknowledged to all of the accusations after the mother confronted him via Facebook Messenger. The mother remembered him going into great detail in the texts about the various abusive activities he had done to her and made her do to him. He informed her that he had deleted his Facebook profile.
The claimed victim, who is now an adult, became visibly disturbed and distressed when a deputy arrived. She then recalled the numerous attacks in a manner similar to her mother’s, stating that they had happened multiple times a week for a considerable amount of time. Smith was not aware that he was being filmed during the conversations that detectives set up with him. According to the investigation, Smith acknowledged in those chats that he had assaulted the child beginning when she was fourteen years old and that his actions were wrong.
He admits that he had no idea why he was abusing others. He was in a custodial relationship with the girl, who was known as his stepdaughter at the time. Additionally, the couple shares a 14-year-old kid. Smith was paying child support for a son who turned 18 in June of last year until last year. There was a past relationship with that son.
Sheriff Rick Staly was quoted in a release as stating, “This is heartbreaking.” Never should a child be sexually abused, especially by someone in a position of trust or authority. This young victim’s decision to come forward required a great deal of courage. Our current focus is on helping the victim and their family deal with this horrible event so they can achieve justice and healing.
The maximum penalty for each of the five rape charges is 30 years. Each of the two charges of second-degree molestation carries a 15-year sentence. The charges that the State Attorney’s Office will pursue have not yet been filed, and more charges could be brought in the future. He faces a maximum sentence of 180 years in jail if found guilty. A plea agreement is more likely if his confessions are captured on tape. Smith was paired with an assistant public defender for his initial appearance hearing. Melissa Clark, an assistant state attorney, is most likely to prosecute the case.
