NEOSHO, Mo. —
A member of the Westview School Board of Education resigned Friday after being arrested and charged with having sexual relations with an underage girl and possessing nude pictures of another minor on his home computer.
Matthew A. Boyer, 35, of Neosho, was being held at the Newton County Jail on bonds totaling $125,000 after his arrest Thursday night. The Newton County prosecutor’s office charged Boyer on Friday with two counts of second-degree statutory rape and a single count of possession of child pornography.
Mark Fitch, superintendent of Westview School District, said the district received Boyer’s resignation sometime Friday.
“He has resigned, and the board has accepted the resignation,” Fitch said.
The superintendent said he was not certain how Boyer’s resignation was delivered Friday since Boyer remained in jail. But the school board met Friday and accepted the resignation, Fitch said. Westview, a kindergarten through eighth-grade elementary school, is located off of Highway 60 between Neosho and Seneca.
A Newton County Sheriff’s Department investigation began this week based on information received from a high school girl. A probable-cause affidavit states that an investigator met with the girl and school officials on Wednesday. The girl told the investigator that she had sexual intercourse with Boyer on two occasions in September of last year at his home when she was 16 years of age.
A search warrant was served Thursday at Boyer’s home at 6966 Obama Lane, Sheriff Ken Copeland said.
“We had information there were photographs of young girls on his computer,” the sheriff said.
The probable-cause affidavit states that nude pictures were found of a girl “known to be under the age of 18.” Prosecutor Jake Skouby told the Globe the pictures are of a 17-year-old girl, but she is not the alleged victim of the statutory rape allegations.
Newton County Circuit Court records show that Boyer was convicted in February of misdemeanor child endangerment and was assessed a 60-day suspended jail term and two years of unsupervised probation. As a special condition of his probation, he was ordered to complete anger-management counseling at the Ozark Center.
The conviction was for lifting a 6-year-old girl by her arm and dropping her to the ground in June 2007. The girl was left with bruises on her arm. An affidavit states that Boyer committed the offense in front of his two children and that he then spanked them and the girl because the girl had lost her shoes and they could not find them.
Boyer later denied grabbing the girl or spanking any of the children and told an investigator the girl suffered the bruises rollerskating. No bruises were found on his children, according to the affidavit.
Past convictions
Besides a misdemeanor conviction for child endangerment, Westview School Board of Education member Matthew Boyer was convicted of nonsupport in 2006 in Newton County.
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