UPDATE, FRIDAY: Details from court records in this case
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Mississippi educator was arrested and charged Thursday with two counts of molestation – touching a child for lustful purposes, two counts of sexual battery and one count of unnatural intercourse.
Daniel Paul Harris, 44, of Olive Branch was given a bond of $950,000 on the charges, according to DeSoto County Jail records.
The charges involving children were added late Thursday night. Initially it was unclear whether the charges involved a minor.
Harris and his wife founded the Kaimen Center, a center that provides activities and experiences for children and adults of varying disabilities. Harris is the CEO, according to the center’s website.
The program operates at the Olive Branch Christian Church. The church declined to comment on the charges.
Olive Branch authorities released no further details about the alleged crime and said the investigation is still ongoing. Police are not commenting on what happened that led them to file charges.
Parents are concerned and they say they want to know what happened.
One Olive Branch mom, who did not want to be identified, said her daughter took guitar lessons from Harris. She was stunned, but said the news confirmed a feeling the two of them had.
“When I saw it on Facebook, I just handed my phone to my daughter and she read it and she said, ‘We called it,'” the mom said. “She always felt like he was staring at her or singling her out. She said, ‘I don’t like this, I want to leave.’ And I said okay, and so we just snuck out the door and never went back.”
She is one of hundreds of kids, many of them homeschooled, who attended extra curriculars through the Kaimen Center, which offers arts, athletics and academics for people of all abilities, according to the website.
“At first I just thought these people were nice people and they have talent, and they wanted to provide these services to the community, because in DeSoto and Marshall County, there is a large homeschool presence,” the mom said. “It’s very scary because we build a community with homeschooling and all of us know each other, we’re all close, or we’ve met at some point, and we help each other out. And it’s very scary to find out that it’s right there.”
We stopped by Harris’ house for comment but no one was home Thursday.
