A New Boston VFD Fire Captain has been arrested and charged with Indecent Assault and Child Grooming following a statement made by a former fire department trainee who was only 17 at the time of the alleged assault.
Luke Stephens, a captain with the New Boston Volunteer Fire Department, turned himself in to the New Boston Police Department on Friday in relation to the two charges and was transported to the Bowie County Bi-State Jail from where he was released soon after on a $60,000 bond.
The arrest stems from a Probable Cause Affidavit that was filed after New Boston Police investigated a complaint brought by the former fire department trainee, who was a minor at the time.
The Probable Cause Affidavit states the minor trainee indicated that the assault included “explicit sexual references about her body” and escalated to forced kissing and inappropriate touching of her body.
The PCA also alleges that Stephens provided her with benefits and gifts including free meals and vapes, and also tampered with departmental logs to give the minor trainee more compensation than she had earned.
The Probable Cause Affidavits on the two charges also state that the alleged actions by Stephens began on her first day of departmental training in February of 2025 and continued until her last day of July 10,2025 when she quit the department to avoid further alleged harassment.
New Boston City Administrator Wayne Dial told the Tribune that every employee hired by the city has their references checked before employement, and that Stpehens was on administrative leave pending the investigation.
In Texas, according to state statutes, for a first-time offense, child grooming is classified as a third-degree felony, with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
If not a first time offense, the penalty for child grooming is a second-degree felony, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 2 to 20 years and a fine of up to $10,000.
This enhanced penalty is applied when the offender has prior convictions for certain child-related crimes.
The maximum penalty for indecent assault in Texas is a Class A misdemeanor, which includes up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $4,000 At press time, the case had not progressed through the Bowie County District Attorney’s office and had not been assigned to a one of the three district courts yet.
