Disturbing details emerged about the Texas middle school principal charged with soliciting a minor online. The principal purportedly texted sexually explicit messages to an 11-year-old female relative, a cousin, asking if he could sleep in her bed. He also reportedly asked if she wanted to learn what a man’s “thing” looked like.
Breitbart Texas reported that Burnet Middle School Principal David Dean, 35, was arrested Monday and charged with one count of online solicitation of a minor, a second-degree felony. He since bonded out of the Travis County Jail on $70,000 bail. The relative Dean attempted to lure in with sexually suggestive messages was his 11-year-old second cousin, the Houston area Montgomery County Courier reported Tuesday.
Dean, an Austin resident, was a first cousin of the child’s recently deceased father. He allegedly took advantage of the youngster on a cell phone belonging to her mother. The parent later turned over the text messages to law enforcement, according to the Montgomery County Police Reporter. The girl and her family live in the Houston suburb of Conroe.
Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office investigators said the texting occurred mid-April when the girl texted Dean to invite him to an April 24 family gathering where her pregnant mother planned to announce the baby’s sex. He purported responded by asking if he could come over and lay down next to her. “I’m in Austin so I’m still far but if you’re okay I can come lay next to you and give you company!”
The Montgomery County Police Reporter revealed Dean texted: “I’m comin for your needs. What are your needs right now.” He provocatively stated: “I’m definitely cumming then. Sorry I shouldn’t have said that.” Another text read: “Are you sure cause what’s best for me is to feel you see you.”
According to the Austin American-Statesman, other of Dean’s inappropriate texts read: “If I show up can I sleep in your bed?” He asked the child: “Do you know what happens to a man when he sleeps? I will try to not let it but sometimes things happen that shouldn’t. Especially with young girls.” He also allegedly wrote: “I won’t come tonight. Unless you tell me that you want to learn what a man’s thing looks like.”
Dean later purportedly texted the girl to forget about this chat and asked if she knew how to delete messages. According to the arrest affidavit, the girl got scared and gave the phone back to her mother, who read the thread. She texted Dean to stay away, then called her father-in-law who confronted Dean. However, Dean denied texting and said his “phone was possibly hacked.”
Chief of the District Attorney’s Office Special Crimes Bureau in Montgomery County, Tyler Dunman, said online solicitation of cases like these are legally similar to the stings conducted by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force but require a different approach, the Courier reported.
“When you have a live victim who is being contacted, it’s a lot more serious in some ways because we have to act a little faster and move more quickly in apprehension of that perpetrator for the safety of that victim and what other victims may be out there as well,” Dunman said. “This is exactly why we do undercover operations is because we know there are people like this who are trying to target minors like what’s occurring in this case.”
Dean is expected to appear in a Montgomery County court again soon. As reported by Breitbart Texas, this was not Dean’s first arrest. In January 2009, he got busted for driving while intoxicated, although the charge was reduced to obstructing a highway passageway, a Class B misdemeanor. The Statesman reported the charge as dismissed. Dean said he received deferred ajudication for the obstruction charge.
On Tuesday night, Austin ISD officials met with families in the school cafeteria to announce an interim principal. They also covered social media safety for children, according to KVUE 24 (ABC). The district plans to hold another meeting with parents next week. Even though there is no evidence Dean engaged in inappropriate conduct with any Burnet Middle School student, parents continue to be rattled by the news. After all, the 11-year-old girl is the same age as some of these students.
Amanda Vanhoozer with the Center for Child Protection told Austin’s Fox 7: “Social media, texting, any digital media has become the norm actually, for communications, for all of us. So I think it makes it that much easier to access a child, to access someone and do it in private and do it in a way where other people aren’t going to see it.”
Dean remains on unpaid administrative leave until Austin ISD completes its investigation. However, Wednesday, the district served him a notice of proposed termination and, at the May 23 school board meeting, trustees will consider Dean’s proposed termination.
This marks the second time in recent weeks that Breitbart Texas reported about an education professional accused of sexual misconduct with an underage relative. Previously, McAllen, authorities arrested Pharr-San Juan-Alamo (PSJA) ISD teacher’s aide, Guadalupe Castillo, Jr., 53, for alleged indecency and sexual assault of a child under the age of 14.
Follow Merrill Hope, a member of the original Breitbart Texas team, on Twitter @OutOfTheBoxMom.
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