Matthew Terry
Thursday, May 9, 2019 | 8:25 p.m.
Metro Police Officer Matthew Terry saw himself as a mentor to three boys, somewhat of a father figure.
But the boys, who he’s accused of molesting, described him as manipulative, violent, “weird” and “handsy,” according to Henderson Police.
And it wasn’t like others weren't suspicious of Terry’s behavior with the alleged victims before his arrest late Tuesday, according to a probable cause affidavit.
In 2017, a relative of Terry — also a Metro employee — went to the agency to report that he’d been bringing a boy around and that the relationship didn’t appear to be fatherly. She expounded on a bizarre friendship between the man and another boy some five years before, police said.
An investigation didn’t uncover a crime then, police said.
Friends of the boy, who was around 12 at the time, were skeptical of the friendship and told him to stop seeing the man, police said. His dad also had questioned him about it, according to police.
It wasn’t clear when they had a fallout, but Terry moved on and befriended another family with two boys around 2017, police said.
A new investigation kicked off after another Metro officer reported Terry in late March, police said. A coach in the youth football league where Terry also coached confided to the officer that his colleague acted oddly when he was around boys, police said.
Henderson Police took over the probe, and soon investigators began to unravel the case of a suspect who allegedly used his position as a mentor, adult, father-figure and coach to be spend hours and overnights with the boys (under 14 years old), while paying for gifts and travel.
The victims accused Terry of behavior such as the man asking them to sleep, shower and watch pornography together, police said. Additionally, he is accused of slamming one of them against a couch.
Two boys said he’d rubbed their backs as he lay with them; the first victim told detectives of inappropriate touching during play wrestling as well other physical and visual lewd acts, police said.
To get close to the first boy, Terry befriended the boy’s father, police said. As for the other two boys, he got close to the mother of one of them.
This gave Terry access to spend multiple nights with his alleged victims. The first boy said that he’d see the man “seven days a week, day and night, even on school nights.”
After the adults’ relationship ended, the woman said Terry requested joint custody of her son, even though he wasn’t the father.
Terry — who was hired by Metro in 2014 is suspended and whose pay will be suspended once charges are formally filed — was being held at the Henderson Detention Center on 18 counts, including lewdness with a child under 14 years old, and child abuse or neglect.
Bond was set at $150,000, jail logs show.
