Former Wake teacher charged with additional sex crimes against child

Troy Logan Pickens, 26, of Raleigh, was charged with two counts of first-degree sex offense with a child and first degree rape of a child, according to online court records, for an incident alleged to have happened on Aug. 4, 2015.

Pickens was previously accused of several sex crimes involving a student in February 2015 while he was a chorus teacher at Neal Middle School in Durham. Durham Public Schools officials said Pickens resigned in March 2015, two days after he was suspended when a student alleged he had touched her inappropriately.

The new charges stem from an incident that allegedly happened while Pickens was a teacher at Durant Middle School in Wake County. He started teaching at Durant in July 2015 and resigned in January 2017 after he was arrested for having an improper relationship with a student.

When asked about the Wake County Public School's background check follow they said background checks are completed on all applicants.

"The school system conducts criminal background checks on all applicants. The outcome of those checks is strictly confidential and we cannot disclose an individual's information. However, if a background check reveals sexual misconduct, we do not hire that applicant," a Wake County Public Schools spokesperson said in a statement to WRAL.

Pickens was being held in the Wake County Justice Center.