Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) Officer Matthew Terry, 27, was arrested on May 7 after the Henderson Police Department in Las Vegas launched an investigation into allegations he was involved in actions with a child under the age of 14.
Terry was also a youth football coach who invited kids to play Xbox games at his home, it was there that he would pull shower curtains and look at the kids naked. Terry admitted to seeing the kids in the shower.
Henderson police started the investigation on May 2 after Terry’s fellow football coaches were concerned about his inappropriate behavior with boys on the team. The coaches originally took their complaints to the LVMPD.
But to avoid a conflict of interest, the case was turned over to the Henderson Police Department.
The coaches told police that Terry acted strangely with male players, tackling them and tickling them in a way that led people to believe that Terry is doing this in a sexual manner, The Las Vegas Review Journal reports.
Henderson police say Terry had asked two boys to shower with him on multiple occasions, touched both of them in ways detectives called sexually coercive behavior and asked them to grab him.
Terry denied the allegations but admitted the boys had walked in on him in the shower by accident and he had done the same with them as well.
Police say that Terry was abusive and controlling to the kids. An arrest report shows that Terry would push kids, scream in their face, or spit on them when things weren’t done “his way.”
There was one occasion where one of the male kids was at Terry’s home playing Xbox when Terry stopped playing and asked the boy if he wanted to go to Terry’s room. The boy declined and said he was going to call his grandma to pick him up, the arrest report said. Terry got mad, slapped the phone out of the boy’s hand, slammed him on the couch and screamed at him, “stating ‘I’ll kill you,” according to the arrest report.
Both boys reported that Terry also walked in on them in the shower multiple times. They said Terry would pull back the curtain, stand there for an estimated 10 seconds and sometimes comment on their privates.
Police say that Terry also told one of the boys that there was another boy he hung out with before who was their age and that they’d get naked and “would mess around or do stuff.”
Police say that Terry would also try to wrestle with the boys or play “truth or dare,” and would show them sexual dares on his computer and asked the boys to play with him.
Police detail that one day Terry started rubbing one of the boy’s leg, up to his upper thigh close to his stomach and genitals. It led to an argument between the boy and Terry, the argument made Terry to stop talking to the boy. Terry later asked the boy if he wanted to sleep in Terry’s bed.
Terry also reportedly asked a boy to skinny dip in a pool. Terry began taking his clothes off and asked the boy to join. The boy declined, Terry got upset and eventually took the boy home, according to police.
Terry admitted to playing the “truth or dare” game with the boys, but Terry denied showing sexual content on his computer. Terry also admitted to the shower incidents.
Terry is charged with three counts of lewdness by a person over 18 with a child under the age of 14, two counts of attempt lewdness by a person over 18 with a child under 14, one count of lure child/mentally ill person with harmful computer material and six counts of child abuse or neglect.
The police department said Terry was relieved of his duties after his arrest.
Terry, has been with LVMPD since 2014, he was involved in a shooting in 2017 and was placed on routine administrative leave while that incident was under investigation.
