Park suspect hears conditions for $500 bond

May 3, 2006

By Patti Dozier The Times Enterprise Wed May 03, 2006, 11:07 PM EDT

THOMASVILLE — A Brooks County man released from the Thomas County Jail Tuesday morning returned to Thomasville Wednesday to hear special bond conditions.

John Allen Spear, 38, 94 Cannon Road, Pavo, was charged Monday night with child molestation and spent the night in jail. Tuesday morning, the charge was reduced to reckless conduct, a misdemeanor.

The suspect was released on a $500 bond.

Spear was arrested late Monday afternoon at Remington Park after police received a complaint about Spear sitting in a truck touching his genitals near a field where young girls were practicing softball.

Officers observed the activity, but Spear was not exposing himself in public, a police officer said Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Spear appeared in Thomas County Magistrate Court to hear bond conditions.

“We requested that he have certain bond conditions,” Capt. Troy Rich, Thomasville Police Department Criminal Investigations Division commander, told the Times-Enterprise Wednesday afternoon.

Magistrate Mark Mitchell handed down the following conditions to Spear:

• Stay away from all City of Thomasville parks.

• Stay away from all schools.

• Stay away from all daycare centers.

• Stay away from any public place where children under 18 gather.

“He doesn’t need to be around or have access to any children in our community,” Rich said. “We’re putting the public interest first.”

The commander said TPD requested that Spear have certain bond conditions.

Bryant Beadle’s seven-year-old daughter was practicing softball at the field near where Spear was arrested.

Beadle, president of Balfour Lumber Co., wondered aloud Tuesday about the degree of darkness in one’s life that could lead to the activity with which Spear is charged.

“To purposefully drive from another county to here to prey at parks is frightening,” Beadle said Tuesday.