Jerry DeforeA Rhea County, Tenn., man is jailed on 25 counts of child rape and 10 other felony counts related to sex crimes.
Jerry Lee Defore, 59, of Dayton, was booked on the first five counts in March when he was arrested after reports emerged of alleged abuse. Records show Defore remains behind bars on a $150,000 bond. He will be arraigned Friday.
Defore is also charged with felony evading arrest for reportedly attempting to flee when authorities were trying to take him into custody in March.
The ensuing investigation on that arrest led to the 30 new counts handed down by grand jurors this week, officials said.
Twenty of the child rape counts presented to the grand jury on Monday are connected to five additional victims, while five of the counts were the charges filed in March that were bound over to the grand jury from General Sessions Court, Rhea County Sheriff's Office investigator Rocky Potter said Wednesday.
Once the first victim disclosed what had happened to her, word began circulating among family and friends, leading authorities to the other victims, Potter said.
Two of the child victims are now adults whose alleged abuse happened when they were under the age of 13, he said.
The investigation began in March when an 8-year-old girl told family members what had been going on, Potter said. Her mother questioned another daughter and discovered the same abuse was happening to her. Then phone calls to family and friends led to the two adult victims, who told Potter about very similar abuse that happened when they were children, he said.
In all, the case now involves five victims.
Defore's initial arrest in March was linked to one of the adult victims even though child victims had been identified. Potter said that was to keep young children from having to give testimony in order to bring charges as soon as possible. Until March, Defore had no prior criminal history.
Some of the counts with which Defore is charged fall under some changes a few years back in child sex crime laws that lengthened the statute of limitations on certain crimes, according to 12th Judicial District Attorney General Mike Taylor.
"If the offense date fell between June 20, 2006, and July 1, 2014, then the case can be prosecuted up to 25 years after the child victim turns 18," Taylor said in March when Defore netted his first five counts.
Potter said investigators now are interviewing witnesses and others involved in the case.
"I think we're done as far as any more victims," Potter said.
The long-time child sex crimes investigator believes Defore can be described a pedophile because all of the victims' accounts of the abuse were consistent and all were "in the same age bracket," he said on Wednesday.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569. Follow him on Twitter @BenBenton or at www.facebook.com/benbenton1.