Texts called ‘sexual’; Greene woman focus of query

By Scott Shenk

Published: September 30, 2008

STANARDSVILLE - The Greene County Sheriff’s Office is investigating allegations that a 39-year-old Stanardsville woman sent cellular phone text messages with “strong sexual content” and an image of the woman including nudity to three William Monroe High School students.

The woman has not been charged with a crime, but Greene investigators cited potential felony and misdemeanor charges in a search warrant they used Thursday to seize her cell phone, from which they believe she sent the teenagers sexual text messages and the picture.

Last week, Greene County Schools Superintendent David Jeck e-mailed parents about a situation in which an adult apparently had inappropriate conduct with student athletes. In the same e-mail, he also noted that several football players had been disciplined for an unrelated “hazing” incident. One of the players was expelled.

The case with the sexual text messages also involved football players, according to Debra Brown, the school system’s assistant superintendent for human resources, and Jennifer Richter, assistant superintendent for instruction. They said Tuesday that after a recent speech about character by the head football coach, a player approached the coach about the situation. The coach then alerted school officials, who investigated the allegations and then contacted the Sheriff’s Office.

“To our knowledge, nothing’s ever happened at school,” Richter said.

They declined to talk about the case any further.

The three football players are “under the age of 18 and over the age of 15,” according to the search warrant, filed by Sgt. James Watson.

Watson wrote in the warrant that Brown contacted the Sheriff’s Office on Sept. 19 about the allegations.

The text messages sent on the woman’s phone to the teens included “indecent language,” according to the search warrant. The messages were sexual and the picture sent from the phone included nudity, the sergeant wrote in the affidavit, noting that the information “has been confirmed by this affiant’s investigation.”

Maj. Randall Snead, with the Sheriff’s Office, declined to comment Tuesday because the case is still under investigation.