Teacher-coach in court on exploitation charge

A former teacher and baseball coach accused of propositioning a person he thought was a 13-year-old girl on the Internet made his first court appearance Tuesday.

Joshua Daniel Smith, of Eastman Street, Murfreesboro, is to be represented by the public defender's office and will make his next court appearance on April 28.

Smith is charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and two counts of solicitation of a minor and is being held in Bedford County jail under a blanket bond of $60,000.

According to WSMV in Nashville, Smith was once employed by East Hickman High School to coach baseball and teach physical education.

However, Hickman County school superintendent Jerry Nash told the television station Smith wasn't re-hired "after a girl's mother complained about inappropriate e-mails that were being exchanged between Smith and her daughter."

Smith had also applied for a teaching position in Bedford County and, according to the minutes of a 2007 school board meeting in Rutherford County, was in line to be a volunteer baseball coach at a school there, WSMV said.

According to warrants filed by Detective Charles Merlo, of the Shelbyville Police Department, Smith "did solicit sex from a law enforcement officer posing as a 13-year-old female minor."

Merlo said the act was committed through Internet services and received on a computer in Shelbyville, making up the two counts of solicitation.

The two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor were allegedly committed by Smith "by displaying to a law enforcement officer posing as a 13-year-old female juvenile, a picture sent through photo share on Yahoo chat," of a sexual nature, Merlo wrote.