The Collin County District Attorney’s Office dismissed felony charges against a Texas high school teacher accused of sexual misconduct with an underage female student after a grand jury failed to return an indictment. Even though jurors decided not to indict on Friday, March 18, the former government and economics teacher will likely never teach again.
Breitbart Texas reported on Darrell Glenn Whitten, 51, (pictured on right in photo above) one of two Melissa High School teachers taken into custody and charged with having an improper relationship with the same 16-year-old student in late August 2015. Whitten faced one count of indecency with a child and one count of improper relationship between educator and student for allegedly kissing and fondling a 16-year-old student at Melissa High School. These accusations surfaced against the economics and government teacher while he was employed at the school, located approximately 40 miles north of downtown Dallas.
The unidentified underage girl accused Whitten of kissing her on the side of the neck in December 2014 and then again several months later at a band competition. She said he rubbed his genitalia on her leg in one incident. Whitten, resigned from the district and turned himself into Collin County authorities. He was released shortly thereafter on bail.
The allegations against Whitten actually surfaced during the investigation into another teacher on campus, Melissa High School Band Director, Michael Eugene Reddell, 39, who was arrested days before Whitten. Authorities charged Reddell with crossing the line in an inappropriate teacher-student relationship with the same teenage girl at the same time.
The purported female high school victim told police she confided in Whitten about another “teacher’s inappropriate behavior” and that she was feeling depressed, even having “suicidal thoughts” over it. According to the court records, the teenage student told Whitten that if she “were ever to come up missing to call the police or to talk to her friend.” Because Whitten never reported whatever he may have known about Reddell’s improper relationship to authorities who could have helped the girl, he faced a failure to report child abuse misdemeanor.
In February, another Collin County grand jury indicted Reddell on two counts of improper relationship between and educator and a student, one count of sexual assault by a child, and five counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact, all second-degree felonies that carry up two to 20 years in prison, if convicted. Reddell confessed to having the inappropriate teacher-student sexual relationship which started, it said in his arrest warrant, with texting. He wrote a letter of apology to the girl.
Prior to the grand jury’s decision to no-bill the case against Whitten on March 18, clearing him of those felony charges, the Collin County district attorney’s office refused Whitten’s misdemeanor last year, the Dallas Morning News reported.
“A no-bill by a grand jury is a pretty powerful statement,” said Whitten’s attorney Alan Taggart. He called the case a sad state of affairs, according to the Dallas newspaper. “Obviously there was a mistake made, and we’ve done what we can to fix it,” he stated. “We hope that everybody gets on with their lives as best anybody can. The after-effects are going to stick with Glenn’s family for a while.”
Taggart also commented that Whitten would likely never teach again. He taught at Melissa ISD since 2006.
Grand jury deliberations are kept secret. Even Whitten’s lawyer did not know what information the jurors considered in making their decision, but whatever it was, though, it was enough to determine there was no probable cause to proceed with a criminal case, Taggart added.
Follow Merrill Hope on Twitter @OutOfTheBoxMom.
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