DeKalb County man arrested on sex allegation

A DeKalb County man was arrest last week on charges of lewd conduct with a child in Vermont.

Sheriff Wes Raines said his deputies arrested Paul Cool at his home on Nov. 16. Mr. Cool has waived extradition and is being held in the Daviess-DeKalb Regional Jail in Pattonsburg, Mo. Authorities in Vermont said they are coming to get him.

"All the players involved live in Missouri now," said detective Megan Sheridan of the Vermont State Police. "But the crime happened in Vermont."

Mr. Cool moved to Vermont in 2005 and had lived in Montana and Blue Springs, Mo., too.

A Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) protested outside the Independence Central Police station Monday afternoon in Independence, Mo. The group claims that Mr. Cool is the second member of the Community of Christ Church who has recently been accused of sex crimes against children. He is affiliated with the Vermont Mormon Church, law enforcement officials in Vermont said.

The Independence-based Community of Christ split from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1860 and was known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints until 2001.

SNAP members were not only outraged about Mr. Cool's case but the current Mohler case in which 40 charges have been filed against a father and his four sons in Lafayette County.

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