Bond has been set at $500,000 for a 26-year-old Centralia man who faces two Class X predatory criminal sexual assault charges and single counts of predatory criminal sexual assault and failure to register as a sex offender.
Thomas Smith of East Broadway is accused of committing sexual acts with a girl under the age of 13 between July and December of 2020 in the predatory criminal sexual assault charges. If found guilty, the charges require a mandatory six to 60 years in prison. Smith is also accused of one count of aggravated criminal abuse to the same alleged victim over the same time period.
The failure to register as a sex offender charge is filed as a separate case and accuses Smith of failure to register a temporary residence with the Centralia Police Department. The charge is enhanced due to conviction on another failure to register conviction in Clinton County.
If released on bond, Smith was ordered to have no unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18.
The public defender was appointed to represent him.
Centralia Police Chief Greg Dodson says a family member first reported the incident to police in early May, starting an investigation that ended in Smith’s arrest early this week. Dodson identified the victim as a six-year-old girl who was a family acquaintance of Smith.
