57-Year-Old Army Veteran and Palm Coast Resident Faces Charges of Raping 7-Year-Old Girl

Teron denies the accusation, saying he is physically incapable of sexual gratification.

Most of the alleged assaults took place in Massachusetts over a wider span of time, and where a parallel investigation is taking place. But some assaults are alleged to have taken place when the girl and her family visited Teron at his Palm Coast home in November 2019, when she was 7. During that visit, the girl and her older sibling spent the night at Teron’s house while the children’s parents stayed at a local hotel.

“It was explained that Teron and his wife were very close to, and trusted by,” the alleged victim and her immediate family, the investigative report conducted by detective Augustin Rodriguez states, thus “raising no concern” of the children spending the night with Teron and his wife, whom he married in 2014. “It is believed that during that evening is when [the girl] was sexually battered by Teron, who was [her] custodian for that short time frame.”

When Rodriguez questioned Teron, Teron said he was impotent and incapable of maintaining an erection, according to the investigative report, which in his opinion should eliminate him as a suspect. He was insistent. He sent a picture of his flaccid penis to the alleged victim’s parent to “prove” that he should not be a suspect, and offered to show Rodriguez and Sgt. George Hristakopoulos his penis several times. “The detectives politely declined the offer,” the investigative report states. He told the detective that he had not ejaculated in almost three years. However, a Massachusetts crime lab located Teron’s DNA in a semen stain on the bedsheets in the bedroom where the girl described one of the alleged attacks taking place.




Teron described one instance when, in Lynnfield, Mass., the girl saw him in the shower and “managed to grab his penis without him being able to stop” her. The girl, according to Teron, then became “obsessed” with his penis and would supposedly try to grab it whenever she was around him. Teron never told the girl’s parent or guardian about the girl’s obsession. He said he was nervous to do so because the parent gets “mad” whenever something critical is said of the girl or the girl’s sibling.

It is not uncommon–it is, in fact, more often the norm–that an alleged child abuser will turn the tables and place the blame for the abuse on the victim, either claiming that the victim was the one who initiated the sexual contact or claiming some form of incapacity to stop it, or both.

In Teron’s case, he claimed there’d been witnesses to her attempts to grab his penis, but could not explain why, when they were alone, she would supposedly never do so, if she was so obsessed.

Teron, for his part, said he had a perfect relationship with the girl and that she loved him very much. He said she had no reason to make up the claims. He thinks she’s telling the truth, according to the investigative report, “but that he is not the subject” of her allegations. There was no explanation in the investigative report about the DNA in the girl’s bedroom.

The girl took part in a forensic interview in Massachusetts, where she referred to Teron’s penis as a “pee-pee stick,” and described his entreaties to rub it, how he “begged” her to perform oral sex, when he allegedly was able to ejaculate–an experience the girl described with revulsion–and how he allegedly violated her with a finger.




Deputies and detectives had secured a warrant for Teron’s arrest on May 5, signed by Circuit Judge Terence Perkins. He was apparently out of town for several days since. But on Monday, a license plate reader indicated that his Mustang had been detected traveling west on State Road 100 near Bulldog Drive. Teron entered the Wawa parking lot, where a deputy pulled him over, verified his identity, and placed him under arrest.

Perkins ordered his passport seized and his booking on $250,000 bond. He is also ordered to have no contact with the alleged victim or her family. The no contact order lists two individuals as victims, suggesting that additional charges are possible. His arraignment is scheduled for June 14 before Perkins.

The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office became aware of the allegations in Massachusetts in September 2020 as the Lynnfield Police Department was investigating Teron there.

Teron faces two capital, or life, felonies for raping a child under 12 and a first-degree felony charge of molesting a child under 12.