Southern Hancock educator faces molestation charge

NEW PALESTINE, Ind. (WISH) - A man’s report of being molested decades ago by a coach was followed up earlier this month by a teenager who said the same educator molested him in 2010.

The Hancock County Sheriff’s Department said Bryan Turner, 53, who worked in the physical education department at Doe Creek Middle School in the Southern Hancock County school system, was arrested Monday on preliminary charges of child molestation and has since bonded out of jail.

In a letter dated Dec. 15 on the Southern Hancock County Community School Corp.’s website, Superintendent James M. Halik said a “non-certified Doe Creek Middle School employee” whom he did not identify by name, had submitted their resignation. The Hancock County Sheriff’s Department verified that Turner was no longer employed at the school.

Halik said in the letter that the case came to light shortly before Thanksgiving, when he received a call from the adult who now lives outside the district, alleging that he had personal knowledge of “misconduct” by the school employee. Halik said he then contacted Child Protective Services and the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department, which began an investigation.

In early December, the sheriff’s department said, a 14-year-old male student at Doe Creek came forward and said that Turner molested him at the school in October 2010. Turner was then arrested on Monday, the sheriff’s department said.