February 14, 2010 Substitute teacher charged with molesting children www.privateofficer.com
Lexington County Sheriff James R. Metts said members of a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force arrested Eric Nelson Vancleave, 32, of 136 Santa Barbara Court, West Columbia, at about 5:30 p.m. on Friday, February 12. Fugitive investigators arrested Vancleave at a drug store near West Columbia. Vancleave went to the store in order to buy cold medicine.
Lexington County Sheriff’s Department detectives obtained arrest warrants for Vancleave on four counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a child and two counts of committing a lewd act upon a child. In 2003 and 2004, arrest warrants allege that Vancleave performed sexual acts on a boy who was under the age of 15 at the time of the incidents. Vancleave also is accused of inappropriately touching the boy’s private part. The incidents occurred while Vancleave took the boy and other boys on camping trips at the Barnyard RV Park at 201 Oak Drive near West Columbia.
Cayce Public Safety Department Director Charles E. McNair said Cayce detectives obtained arrest warrants for Vancleave on six counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a child, three counts of committing a lewd act upon a child and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The offenses occurred between 2000 and 2007.
Arrest warrants that were obtained by Cayce detectives allege that Vancleave sexually abused four boys, who were between the ages of 10 and 17 at the time of the incidents, McNair said. The incidents occurred at Vancleave’s former home in Cayce. Vancleave is accused of performing sexual acts on the four boys and inappropriately touching the four boys’ private parts.
Allegations that Vancleave sexually abused the four boys initially were reported to the Cayce Department of Public Safety on February 2, McNair said. The Cayce Department of Public Safety contacted the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department and SLED after Cayce detectives determined that the allegations also involved incidents that occurred in the jurisdiction of the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department and SLED. The three law enforcement agencies then began conducting a joint investigation of sexual abuse allegations concerning Vancleave.
Vancleave was being held on Saturday, February 13 at the Lexington County Detention Center while awaiting a bond hearing, Metts said. Vancleave is married but does not have any children.
Vancleave is scheduled to appear in court at 1 p.m. on Saturday for a bond hearing, Metts said. The bond hearing will be conducted at a courtroom that is adjacent to the front entrance of the Lexington County Detention Center at the Lexington County James R. Metts Law Enforcement Complex, 521 Gibson Road, Lexington.
Detectives think Vancleave might have sexually abused additional boys, Metts said. The sheriff asked anyone with information about additional incidents in which Vancleave interacted inappropriately with children to call the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department at (803) 785-8230 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting (803) 785-8230 end_of_the_skype_highlighting Citizens also can anonymously report information by accessing the Crime Tip link on the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department web site (www.lexingtonsheriff.com).
Vancleave met and befriended the four boys whom he is charged with sexually abusing while he was a member of Pavilion Ministries, an evangelical church on State Street in Cayce, Metts said. Vancleave did not maintain contact with the four boys after he moved in 2007 from Cayce to his home on Santa Barbara Court near West Columbia. Vancleave no longer is a member of Pavilion Ministries.
Lexington County School District Two employs Vancleave as a substitute teacher at elementary schools and as a worker in an afterschool program at Brookland-Cayce Grammar School #1 at 114 Hook Avenue, West Columbia, Metts said.
Lexington County School District Two administrators are aware of the charges that have been filed against Vancleave and are cooperating with investigators in the on-going investigation of Vancleave, Metts said. Questions concerning Vancleave’s employment and job status with the school district should be referred to Lexington County School District Two.
South Carolina Law Enforcement Division Director Reginald I. Lloyd said SLED agents are investigating allegations that Vancleave might have sexually abused one of more of the four boys involved in the Lexington County and Cayce cases during camping trips at a state park in Barnwell County. Those allegations remain under investigation.
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