A 57-year-old man who founded a homeless shelter is accused of molesting a child.
The Miami County prosecutor has charged Jay Preston with aggravated indecent liberties with a child.
According to court records between July 7 and July 8, Preston fondled the child in a rural area of Miami County. The boy or girl is at least 7 years old.
41 Action News spoke with Preston back in 2011 when HUD gave him a $400,000 grant to expand the homeless shelter he began—My Father’s House.
No one wanted to talk at the shelter.
In a statement on the shelter's Facebook page, they named an interim CEO and said Preston has been placed on “an unpaid leave of absence due to a personal matter.”
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Drake Kalem lived at the shelter for six months.
“I was homeless, me and my baby mama were homeless and needed a place to stay,” Kalem said.
He describes Preston’s behavior as strange and unusual.
“There’s a lot of kids there and moms and dads and stuff like that,” Kalem said. “There was a girl that stayed there, he was always with her daughter and it was kind of weird.”
According to Preston’s LinkedIn profile, he dropped out of college because of depression—which led him to a life of drugs, alcohol and homelessness until he sought help.
Now he faces serious allegations. Preston is being held on a $500,000 bond. No court date has been set yet.
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Andres Gutierrez can be reached at andres.gutierrez@kshb.com
