SPRINGFIELD, Missouri (AP) – A Missouri A residential doctor accused of multiple child sex crimes has been taken into custody in Arkansas.

David Smock, 57, was arrested Tuesday night in Harrison, Arkansas, near the Missouri border. Authorities said they considered him a fugitive for several days.

However, Smock’s attorney said Wednesday his client was back in Missouri to surrender when he was arrested. He was visiting his son in Louisiana when he learned of the charges, lawyer Craig Heidemann said.

Smock began to feel bad upon his return to Missouri and tested positive for COVID-19 at the Arkansas jail, said Heidemann, who represented Smock on charges filed in Cedar County.

“Dr. Smock’s concern is that law enforcement has wrongly portrayed him as a fugitive when in fact he is a victim of COVID trying to return to face these charges.”

Smock is the long-time doctor at Agape Boarding School, a Christian school that remains under surveillance after five other employees were charged in September with assaulting students, for a total of 13 counts of assault in the third degree. The school is in Stockton, Cedar County.

The Missouri attorney general’s office last week filed eight felony charges against Smock in Cedar County, including four counts of legal sodomy or attempted sodomy involving a child under the age of 14; and one count of statutory second-degree sodomy or attempted sodomy. He was also charged with one count of sexual misconduct involving a child under 15, fourth degree abuse of a child under 17 and first degree criminal harassment.

Smock was also charged on December 23 in Greene County with second degree legal sodomy, third degree pedophilia on a child under 14, and seduction or attempted seduction of a child under 15, according to court records. According to a probable cause affidavit, that charge involved Smock’s alleged grooming and sexual abuse of a 13-year-old boy at a doctor-owned rental home in Springfield.

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SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri residential school doctor charged with multiple child sex crimes has been arrested in Arkansas.

David Smock, 57, was captured Tuesday night in Harrison, Arkansas, not far from the Missouri border. He had been considered a fugitive for several days.

Smock is the long-time doctor at Agape Boarding School, a Christian school that remains under surveillance after five staff members were charged in September with assaulting students.

Smock was charged on December 23 with second-degree legal sodomy, third-degree child abuse of a child under 14, and seduction or attempted seduction of a child under 15, according to reports. court records.

A phone message left with Smock’s lawyer on Wednesday was not immediately returned.