CHARLOTTE, NC– A local middle school employee facing sex charges with a child has resigned. On Monday, Police arrested 57-year-old Roger Jeffrey Speaks at Troutman Middle School where he worked as a data manager. He is charged with 16 counts of indecent liberties with a child.
Investigators say the incidents did not happen on school grounds or with a child who attends Troutman Middle School. According to arrest warrants obtained by WCCB, the interactions began on May. 1, 2013, and continued on the first day of each month through Dec. 1, 2013. Each time, it involved a teen girl under the age of 16.
Betty Fischer lives two doors down from Speaks in Statesville. She is shocked by the news of her neighbor’s arrest and says her heart goes out to the young victim. “It breaks my heart to think that stuff like that just keeps happening, and now its in my own neighborhood,” says Fischer.
Troutman resident Brennon Jones is a father of three. He says it’s a parent’s worst fear to hear that a suspected child-predator has been so close to not only his kids, but those of others. “You think it’s going to happen someplace else, then, boom! It happens at your school, or right there beside your kids’ school. It’s very, very scary,” says Jones. Jones is talking to his kids about what happened. It’s a conversation he says won’t be easy, but following Speaks arrest, one that is necessary. “There are predators around every corner. You don’t know what age they’ll be, how young or how old, but there are predators all the time,” says Jones.
Iredell-Statesville Schools tells WCCB that Speaks started working for the district in 2005 as a custodian. He is in the Iredell County Detention Center under a $200,000 secure bond.
