{"id":45246,"date":"2019-11-06T22:21:57","date_gmt":"2019-11-07T03:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/?p=45246"},"modified":"2019-11-06T22:22:17","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T03:22:17","slug":"former-all-american-college-star-arrested-on-child-sexual-assault-charges-in-lehigh-acres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/2019\/11\/former-all-american-college-star-arrested-on-child-sexual-assault-charges-in-lehigh-acres\/","title":{"rendered":"Former All-American college star arrested on child sexual assault charges in Lehigh Acres"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Lunsford.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-45247\" width=\"294\" height=\"368\"\/><figcaption>LCSO Booking Photo<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>A Lehigh Acres man who played briefly in the NFL and was a three-time All-American at Liberty University has been arrested on charges of sexual assault and lewd and lascivious behavior involving two children 5 and younger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>John Donald Lunsford, 25, of Lehigh Acres, turned himself in\nat the Lee County Jail and was arrested Tuesday night. He remains in\njail&nbsp;on $60,000 bond. His arraignment is Dec. 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to court documents, Lunsford committed sexual acts\non the children between January 2017 and July 20 of this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The sexual activity was discovered by the mother of the\nchildren after one of them described seeing Lunsford naked. She also described\nother sexual acts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She also said Lunsford would take photos of her and her\nsister&#8217;s genitals with his cell phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, the 5-year-old told investigators she did not\nfeel safe at Lunsford&#8217;s home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A change in the 5-year-old&#8217;s demeanor in 2018, from outgoing\nand happy to sad&nbsp;was reported by several people interviewed during the\ninvestigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A teacher said the older sister stopped drawing colorful\npictures and instead drew black hearts and similar pictures. The teacher passed\nthe drawings to the girl&#8217;s mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The mother reported the incidents to the Florida Department\nof Children and Family Services in July and a Sheriff&#8217;s Office investigator\nfiled an additional report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Investigators collected sheets, a playpen, clothing and\nother items from Lunsford&#8217;s home.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During an interview with investigators in July, Lunsford\ndenied the sexual contact and also declined to take a polygraph test, court\ndocuments said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lunsford played football at Evangelical Christian School.\nThe 6-foot-1, 180-pound kicker signed as an undrafted free agent by the San\nFrancisco 49ers in 2016, playing in three preseason games. He was released by\nthe 49ers and picked up by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in January 2017. He was cut\nby the Bucs soon after and then picked up by the Seattle Seahawks in March\n2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lunsford next played for the Florida Tarpons in a\nsemi-professional&nbsp;arena football league.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Lehigh Acres man who played briefly in the NFL and was a three-time All-American at Liberty University has been arrested on charges of sexual assault and lewd and lascivious&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":45247,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57,32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45246"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}