Troy Glen Jernigan, 52, is being held at the Pontotoc County Jail in Oklahoma while he awaits extradition to Texas.
Stonewall Police Chief Jason Teel said he received an anonymous phone call that Jernigan was a possible child molester from Temple living on N. Harrison Street in Stonewall. The caller said he was living under the alias George Ford.
At 10:30 a.m. on April 24, Teel said, he followed up on the tip and spoke to Jernigan at the residence.
“I could just tell from the get-go that he was lying,” Teel said. “He never did admit to who he was until I detained him. When I told him I was going to bring him down to the county jail and fingerprint him, he admitted he was Troy.”
Jernigan was living with Emma Walters and her three children. She said she had known him as George Ford for a decade and that a friend had introduced her to him.
“This is quite a shock to our whole family,” Ms. Walters said. He’s been nothing but good to us. He allowed me, as a single parent, to work. I couldn’t have made it without him.”
Ms. Walters described Jernigan as a family butler. He took care of the household chores. He cooked, cleaned and did the laundry. She said her children - she did not reveal their ages - told her that Jernigan never molested them.
“I don’t condone what he done because I think that’s the sickest thing on earth,” she said. “I wondered sometimes why he didn’t have any family members, but I pushed it out of my mind because he was so good to us. I’m just real fortunate that he never touched my kids.”
Jernigan was convicted in Tarrant County in 1978 for sexual abuse of a child and indecency with a child.
A November 1996 arrest affidavit out of Temple said an 11-year-old boy told police that Jernigan had been molesting him for years. The boy said Jernigan had assaulted him more than 20 times.
Jernigan was indicted by a Bell County grand jury for aggravated sexual assault in January 1997. He was out on a $25,000 bond when he failed to appear at a May 1997 court hearing and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Jernigan has been on the run ever since.
Teel said Jernigan told him that in the last decade he lived in Las Vegas, California and Amarillo.
“He said he didn’t drive anywhere because he was afraid to get pulled over, and he didn’t work because he was afraid to use his Social Security number,” Teel said.
Teel said there was no charges will be filed against Jernigan.
“We’re not going to charge him with anything because he’s got harsher charges to face in (Bell County). We just want to get him out of here and get him back to Texas,” he said. “He’ll be headed back your way in a day or so. He told me he wasn’t going to fight extradition.”
