Teens dined with molester

RALEIGH -- The N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences is severing ties with a local ecotourism company after children dined with a convicted child molester during a museum-sponsored trip to Florida in April.

The Rev. D. Dirk Davenport pleaded guilty in 1985 to fondling and showing pornography to 10 boys from a Scout troop he supervised in Connecticut. He now lives in Port Charlotte, Fla., where he is an associate pastor of a Metropolitan Community Church.

Davenport, 72, was invited to dine with the North Carolina tour group by his son, David Davenport, a former museum employee who now runs EcoQuest Travel. The business has organized trips for the museum's junior curator program since 2005.

Betsy Bennett, the museum's director, ended the institution's relationship with David Davenport's firm on Tuesday after learning the details of the elder Davenport's molestation conviction.

Bennett stressed in an interview that the meal in April occurred in a public restaurant and the children were supervised at all times by museum employees chaperoning the trip.

However, she said, David Davenport's decision to invite his father, knowing of his past, raised questions about the tour leader's judgment.

"We want to provide a safe, educational experience for our students," Bennett said. "I am concerned about that judgment call."

David Davenport, who lives in Four Oaks, said he does not condone what his father did 24 years ago, but added that he has undergone extensive counseling and is reformed.

He said in an interview Tuesday it never occurred to him that inviting his father to the dinner with the children would be a problem.

"He paid his dues to society," David Davenport said. "As far as I'm concerned, that's done and over and ancient history. It has no real bearing on who my father is today."

Museum officials received e-mails last week from a man identifying himself as a relative of one of the junior curators raising concerns about Dirk Davenport's presence at the meal.

The educational program includes about 30 children, ranging from eighth graders to high school seniors, who help care for the museum's animals and exhibits.

In April, 15 junior curators participated in a 10-day trip to Florida during which they snorkeled with manatees, visited the Everglades and hit the beach at Key West.

David Davenport, a former zoologist at the state-run museum, organized the trip. In past years, Davenport has led museum-sponsored trips to Puerto Rico and Central America.

Adrian Yirka, director of the junior curator program, said Davenport's father joined the Florida tour group for a two-hour meal at an Italian restaurant. He kept to himself and mostly talked just with his son, said Yirka, who was there.

Yirka called parents and informed them of the concerns regarding Dirk Davenport's criminal record Monday night.

Pastor to prisoner

In April 1985, the Rev. Dirk Davenport was a part-time pastor in Centerbrook, Conn., where he was also a Boy Scout troop master and Little League baseball umpire. A divorced father with three children, a local newspaper described him as a "pillar of the community."

Police arrested him on sexual assault charges after nine Boy Scouts, ranging in age from 10 to15, said he had behaved inappropriately in encounters in his car and at his home.

Three of the boys said Davenport fondled them, while the others said he had shown them pornographic magazines and videos. Authorities later arrested the minister again after another boy came forward, saying he was also molested.

Though he initially proclaimed his innocence, Davenport later pleaded guilty to two felony accounts in a deal where prosecutors dropped additional pending charges.

He served 21/2 years in prison, according to records at the Connecticut Department of Corrections.

Dirk Davenport could not be reached for comment Tuesday. He is now an associate pastor at SunCoastCathedral Metropolitan Community Church in Venice, Fla., according to the church's Web site.

Davenport is not listed in the Internet registries for sex offenders in either Connecticut or Florida. His conviction predates the creation of such online registries.

David Davenport said he believes the person who researched his father's background and informed the museum is motivated by a personal vendetta.

"There's nothing there about me, so you have to dredge up something my father did a quarter-century ago," he said. "Someone who has an agenda is trying desperately to drag my name through the muck."

News researcher Lamara Williams contributed to this report.

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