Grand jury indicts former Liberty University professor, man accused of burning boy

A Lynchburg man accused of severely burning a young boy was indicted by a city grand jury Monday, as was a Liberty University professor accused of molesting one of his students while she slept.

Shawn Franklin, 26, was indicted on one count each of felony child abuse and aggravated malicious wounding.

At Franklin’s preliminary hearing, witnesses testified Franklin was living with the 5-year-old boy and his mother in late February when he bent the boy over backwards into a tub of scalding water.

Photos shown at the mother’s plea hearing late last month showed strips of the boy’s dark skin peeled back to expose pink, burned skin underneath.

A doctor testified at the preliminary hearing that she believed they were second-degree burns.

According to testimony at the earlier hearing, no one sought medical help for the boy until an after-school program worker visited the home and saw what she believed were burns on the boy’s neck.

Faith Loftin, 29, the boy’s mother, pleaded guilty on June 23 to one count of felony child neglect. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 14.

Franklin’s trial is scheduled for Sept. 21.

Loftin and Franklin are jailed without bond.

Joshua Young Moon, of Durham, N.C., was indicted on one count of object sexual penetration.

At his preliminary hearing late last month, the student testified Moon taught a spring-semester statistics course at Liberty University.

She testified Moon offered to give her massages after she complained about lingering pain she suffered after a September car wreck.

During the first massage at her home, she testified, Moon tried to pull down her pants. She told the court she told him that was unacceptable. She also testified she declined his offer once to meet him at his hotel room for a massage.

After several more encounters, she testified, she went to Moon’s office on April 21 to finish taking a test.

Afterward, she said, he offered to give her a brief massage and she accepted. She said she fell asleep during the massage because she had stayed up all night studying and had only slept for four hours the night before that. She awoke to find him touching her inappropriately, she testified.

During the hearing, Randy Trost, Moon’s lawyer, asked questions about the massages, extra help she was given to complete tests and the woman’s complaints about struggling with the course, which was required for her major.

Moon is free on bond pending his trial, which is scheduled for Sept. 28.