DUNN - Neighbors and church leaders expressed shock and sadness Friday about the arrest of former assistant principal Larry Ray Jewell on 46 child sex offense charges even as the investigation broadened to include possible incidents in Wake County.

Jewell, 57, a top administrator at Southeast Raleigh High School until his arrest there Thursday, is charged with sex crimes against a male relative who is now an adult, whose aunt contacted Harnett County sheriff's investigators in late January, said Sheriff Larry Rollins.

Rollins said the offenses took place between 1999 and 2001, both at the boy's home and at Jewell's home in an upscale subdivision on the southwest fringes of Dunn.

Neighbor Robert West, 71, said reports of the charges against Jewell jolted the quiet Canterbury subdivision, a place where lawyers, county managers, restaurateurs and bankers live.

"Shock -- it has to be," said West, a retired international business manager for AT&T. "And disbelief."

All the charges against Jewell involve the same male relative, said Dunn police detective Sgt. David Whittenton. But Whittenton said investigators are exploring the possibility that Jewell abused two other boys -- one as young as 10 -- over a period stretching back a decade.

None of the boys were students at Southeast Raleigh High School, where Jewell, a former N.C. State University professor, had been an assistant principal since January 2005. He resigned Thursday.

Late Friday morning, Jewell, now being held in the Harnett County jail in lieu of $2.5 million bail, was led in orange jailhouse scrubs before District Judge Addie Harris Rawls, where all the charges against him were read.

Rawls quickly recited the maximum sentences for each charge, including the possibility of life without parole on one of the more serious sexual offenses. Jewell only nodded when asked whether he understood the charges.

The initial 24 counts against Jewell were for sexual offense while in a parental role and took place at the brick veneer home Jewell shares with his second wife in Dunn, said city police detective Sgt. David Whittenton.

The additional 22 charges levied Friday took place outside the city limits. They include: two counts of first-degree sexual offense with a child; 15 counts of indecent liberties with a child; three counts of statutory rape; and two counts of disseminating obscenity, according to Rollins.

Investigation widens

Rollins warned that publicity in child sex offense cases tends to prompt other victims to step forward. The sheriff also said Raleigh police investigators have been briefed on the case, though Raleigh police spokesman Jim Sughrue said the department's investigation has been routine so far.

"Since this suspect spent time in Wake County and Raleigh, we are working to determine whether he may have been involved in any criminal activities," Sughrue said.

In an interview just before Jewell's hearing, Whittenton said some of the sexual offenses against the male relative may have taken place on the grounds of a school after hours. The detective declined to name the school, saying only it was "possibly" located in Wake County and that the offenses didn't involve students at Southeast Raleigh High School.

Wife files complaint

Shortly after noon Friday, the judge also signed a protective order for Jewell's wife, Carolyn Spillers Jewell, whose domestic violence complaint against her husband was filed minutes after his court appearance began. The judge ordered Jewell evicted from the couple's house and barred him from threatening or interfering with her at work, home and elsewhere.

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