SC: Bond set for former principal charged with sexual abuse of children

News - Breaking News
Friday, Dec. 12, 2008
http://www.thestate.com/breaking/story/619436.html

AIKEN -- A former Aiken County school administrator accused of 14 charges related to sexual abuse of children between the 1970s and 1994 had bond set in court Thursday. And it was revealed that these charges are not the last.

Stephen Coke Eubanks, 67, of Belair Road in North Augusta, was denied bond in November when the most recent nine charges -- two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor, engaging a child for sexual performance, two counts of lewd act upon a child under 16, kidnapping, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and enticing enrolled child from school -- came to light.

On Thursday, Judge Cordell Maddox rolled the former North Augusta principal's first bond of $25,000 over. He did add conditions that Eubanks would be on house arrest with a GPS monitor and can have no contact with anyone under the age of 16 without supervision.

In court, assistant solicitor Brenda Brisbin, and an agent from the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, explained that several people have come forward against Eubanks, but not all will file criminal complaints.

"Numerous others do not wish to come forward because of their position within the community," said SLED Special Agent Paul LaRosa.

Brisbin did reveal that there will "definitely" be new charges coming from a victim who has more recently contacted SLED.

These most recent charges against Eubanks come from three victims, two males and a female, who reported the abuse to the toll-free hotline established on Oct. 21, 2008, after the initial allegations surfaced.

According to the latest series of arrest warrants, Eubanks is accused of having sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old boy at the former educator's Belair Road home between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 1993.

The allegations include accusations that he and the teen watched pornography and engaged in masturbation and oral sex.

Eubanks was accused last month of plying teenagers with alcohol and drugs and sexually abusing a North Augusta High School student and Paul Knox Junior High School student in the 1970s.

In addition to working in Aiken County, Eubanks is a former school administrator with the Georgetown and Lancaster County school systems, and state agents say they are also investigating in those areas.

-- Aiken Standard, McClatchy-Tribune Regional News