Sheriffs issue call for potential victims of jailed Grant Parish church leader to step up

One call with a complaint against a prominent Central Louisiana ministerial leader led to the man's arrest and a plea for other potential victims to step forward.

Daryl Ray Stagg, 60, is facing charges in Grant and Union parishes on various child sex crime charges. He is being held in the Grant Parish Detention Center on a $500,000 bail.

If he was to post bond, the Union Parish Sheriff's Office has a detainer on him for the charges in that parish. Bail in Union Parish has been set at $950,000.

Stagg, a Pollock resident, is a Southern Baptist associational mission strategist for churches in North and Central Louisiana, specifically the Baptist Mission Center. It includes 87 Southern Baptist congregations under that umbrella, including the Big Creek Baptist Association in Dry Prong and the CenLa Association in Alexandria, according to the website.

According to an October 2018 Facebook post by a Louisiana Baptist-affiliated mission, Stagg began work as a strategist a few months before the post. He previously worked with missions in Minnesota, the Chicago area and in Missouri.

Stagg still is listed on the Baptist Mission Center's website as an associational mission strategist, which is described like mentors or trainers to pastors who also work in evangelism outreach, various missions and church revitalizations.

The Louisiana Baptist Convention in Alexandria told KALB on Friday that Stagg is not one of its employees.

At a Monday morning news conference, Grant Parish Sheriff Steven McCain said his office was notified about three weeks ago about a complaint of young children being raped. The original complainant reported the rapes to the Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office, but the crimes allegedly happened in the Dry Prong area.

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Stagg was arrested June 8.

"We are concerned that there are other children that have been hurt," McCain said.

The sheriff said they were sending a message to potential victims — that they now are safe with Stagg in jail and that they should reach out to them if they have been hurt by him. He said it doesn't matter where the alleged abuse might have happened.

"If you've been hurt by Daryl Stagg, you get in touch with us; we'll do the rest," he said.

McCain said his office will connect victims with the appropriate law enforcement agency. However, he was reluctant to discuss more details for fear of compromising prosecution of the case and the ages of the victims.

"I know there's gonna be a lot of curiosity and a lot of questions asked," he said. "We also have to make sure that, after the arrest is made, that we do our part to make sure that a conviction can be gotten.

"This is too serious of a case for us to jeopardize the prosecution and the court's role in this.

Stagg was arrested in Grant Parish on three counts each of first-degree rape, oral sexual battery, aggravated crimes against nature and indecent behavior with juveniles.

Union Parish Sheriff Dusty Gates said Stagg has been charged with one count each of the same charges. He said one victim was identified in the Bernice area, and warrants were issued for Stagg after an interview with the victim.

Gates called the allegations "very heinous crimes." He also believes there could be additional victims in his parish, so he asked for people to step forward.

McCain said the alleged crimes go back years, but not decades. And he said it was experience that led him to believe there are other victims.

"From my experience in law enforcement, somebody doesn't develop this behavior at the age of 60 years old," he said.

Rapides Parish Sheriff Mark Wood called the case "horrible tragedy" and said the arrest got "a bad guy off the street that needs to be off the street." He echoed McCain's call for victims to come forward and said they would be there to help them.

Contact the Grant Parish Sheriff's Detective James Watkins at 318-627-2010 or go to www.grantso.org.

This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Sheriff: 'Concerned' other kids could be victims of Daryl Ray Stagg