The president of Central Alabama Pride has been forced to resign after facing two charges of felony child abuse and a misdemeanor charge of sexual misconduct.
Pelham police arrested Dezmond Turner on the charges Wednesday, and jail records show he has been released on a $32,000 bond. The sexual misconduct charge stems from two alleged incidents in 2023 in which Turner is accused of groping a child’s “crotch and buttocks.”
The child abuse charges relate to alleged violent incidents while Turner worked as a school bus driver, with charging documents describing Turner slamming a child’s head against a wall and slapping another child in the face.
The Central Alabama Pride board took swift action to remove Turner from his position, although the way things unfolded did not make that immediately clear.
Turner used Central Alabama Pride social media to announce his resignation, which made no mention of the incident or his forced removal by the board. Vice President Hunter Rowe later issued a lengthy statement explaining that Turner had in fact been removed from the board and had initially been given the opportunity to announce his resignation, but had not been authorized to do so from the group’s official accounts.
“Looking back, I recognize that allowing the situation to be communicated primarily as a resignation was not the best approach,” Rowe said. “It created room for confusion and made it less clear that the board had already acted quickly and decisively once we became aware of the situation.”
