Bad Teachers: Texas Edition

0:24 Hey everyone, and welcome back to Exposed Scandalous Vials of the Elite. I'm your host, Jim Chapman, and I am back today in bringing you another Bad Teacher's State specific series episode, and this time we're going to Texas. Now reminder, last week we kicked off this series with the state of Arkansas, so if you haven't heard that one, go check it out. Some pretty wild stories coming out of Arkansas regarding the absolute epidemic of teacher student inappropriate relationship. So Texas definitely not without its struggles as it relates to these female teachers and students. It was a struggle, quite frankly, to pick just three to cover today. Now, all of these cases I am covering today are relatively new cases that have taken place in twenty twenty and beyond, and I'm going to start this one out with our first teacher, Brandon, and y'all, it's a female who actually spells her name brn d y n, which, hey, I love unique spellings of names and had not seen Brandon spelled that way before for a female. But back to it.

1:42 This is the story of Brandon Martin Hargrove, who is a former high school English teacher accused of assaulting a fifteen year old female student multiple times. And while the incidents allegedly occurred in two thousand and seven, it was not until twenty twenty three that these instances of sexual assault came out. So let's get into it, and as we always do here on Exposed, we start at the beginning with these bad teachers and for Brandon Hargrove. She was born in nineteen eighty in Lake Jackson, Texas, which is part of the Greater Houston, Texas area. A large city about thirty thousand residents, and it's actually known as the City of Enchantment. And Brandon is part of a very very prominent family in Lake Jackson with a lot of political power. Her dad, as a matter of fact, is a former city councilman and even former mayor of the city. So it's safe to assume that Brandon grew up rather privileged. She graduated from Brazo's Wood High School and in two thousand and two she started teaching English at the school. Now, throughout her time teaching career, she seemed to excel in teaching. She would eventually become head of the English department. Along the way, she would win Teacher of the Year honors, She would get married, she

3:12 would have a son in twenty fourteen, and life on the outside appeared just great for Brandon. Then it all came crashing down, as it so often does when I cover these cases. And in September of twenty twenty three, a then thirty two year old woman walks into the Klute Police department and she reports sexual abuse that she alleged was suffered at the hands of teacher Brandon Hargrove from the years two thousand and seven to two thousand and nine, when she was a fifteen year old freshman and sixteen year old sophomore at the school. So she details a long abusive relationship with Hargrove, her former tea, claiming it lasted about two years and involved multiple instances of sexual contact. She told police that she had lived in fear for years, replaying the trauma in questioning her own role in it, which, look y'all, it's common, especially in cases involving male teachers and female students, which is why some many go un reported. When it comes to the female victims, they seem to question things a lot.

4:31 Did I lead this teacher on? If they experienced some sort of pleasure out of it. Early on, they questioned that maybe they wanted it to happen. Whatever. Now, it's important to note that even the time between the incidents and the time in which the victim reported it was seventeen years or so, no statute of limitation applies in the state of Texas to these type of felonies, which is a good thing. So, of course, an investigation starts, and it all starts with attempting to cooperate the victim's account, which is not easy. This many years later, police would, however, manage to locate and interview several former classmates from Brizo's Wood High School who attended in two thousand and six to two thousand and eight, and they would focus on individuals the victim claim she had told about the abuse at that time. So on September twenty ninth of twenty twenty three, the school in which Hargrove was teaching, they were informed of the investigation and they place Hargrove on leave penning the results of that investigation, and on December nineteenth of twenty twenty three, a grand jury indicts Hargrove on twelve felon accounts, and I want to review those with you quickly and while they are disturbing, this is real life in these sick individuals. People need to know what they're capable of, in my opinion, so let's review the indictment quickly. And this indictment it's a little different

6:02 than an arrest affidavit, so it's not going to go into a lot of the details of the crime, but it's going to go into what the grand jury actually found that there was enough evidence to charge Brandon Hargrove with these particular counts. And the first one, I'm just going to highlight the I guess the important parts of these counts. It says, on the fourth day of December two thousand and seven, in the county and state AfOR said Brandon Hargrove did then and there intentionally or knowingly cause the mouth of let's say, victim child younger than seventeen years old, and not the defendant spouse to contact the sexual organ of the defendant of Brandon Hargrove. Count two says the same thing, except for it says did then and there intentionally or knowingly cause the sexual organ of victim a child younger than seventeen years of age to contact the sexual organ of the defendant. So the first one was in regards to the mouth of the seventeen year old, the second count as regard to one organ touching the other sexual organ. Count three says the same thing. It says, did then, in their intentionally or knowingly cause the sexual organ of victim, a child younger than seventeen years of age, to contact the mouth of the defendant in this case, Brandan Hargrove, Count four says

7:35 the same thing, did then, in their knowingly cause the penetration of the sexual organ of victim, a child younger than seventeen years of age, by the finger of the defendant. Brandon Horgrove, Count five, did then, in their intentionally or knowingly cause the penetration of sexual organ of a child younger than seventeen years of age, and not the defendant's spouse by a cucumber Holy smokes. Count six, did then, in there or knowingly cause the penetration of the sexual organ of victim a child younger than seventeen and not the defendant spouse by a dildo. Count seven did then, in there with the intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of said defendant intentionally and knowingly engage in sexual contact with victim child younger than seventeen, and not the defendant spouse by touching the genitalia of the said child.

8:37 Count eight did then in there with the intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of said defendant intentionally knowingly calls child younger than seventeen years of age and not the defendant spouse, to engage in sexual contact by causing said child to touch the genitals of the defendant. Count nine says the same thing. Did then in there with the intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of said defendant intentionally or knowingly engage in sexual contact with victim a child younger than seventeen by touching the brust of the said child. Then Count ten says the same thing, but it says causing the said child to touch the brust of the defendant. Count eleven did then in there with the intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of said defendant, intentionally or knowingly exposed the defendant's genitals knowing that the victim was a child younger than seventeen, And Count twelve, did then and there, with the intent to arouse and gratify the sexual desire of said defendant, intentionally or knowingly calls victim a child younger than seventeen and not the defendant spouse, to expose her genitals.

9:52 So that's all twelve counts basically disgusting, right, And y'all these indictments, as I said, they're from a grand jury, meaning a jury of her peers felt enough evidence existed even seventeen years later to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hargrove did everything that I just read you. So two days later, on December twenty first, twenty twenty three, just before Christmas, Hargrove is arrested and released the same day, posting a two hundred and forty thousand dollars bond. Now a month later, on January twenty second of twenty twenty four, she has fired from the high school that she taught at.

10:36 And y'all, with these twelve counts that she's facing, she's looking at two hundred freaking years in prison. Jim, did you see what happened in Texas today? Wait before you tell me that, let me tell you what happened in New York. It cannot be as crazy as the case I told you about yesterday in Louisiana. You know what, we should do a podcast. About it, and with that we did. Crime War Weekly covers the crime news headlines that have dominated the week. We cover trending crimes from all over the country and even sprinkle in a few globally. Crime War Weekly is available now wherever you listen to your podcasts.

11:17 Simply by searching Crime wiar Weekly or clicking the link in the description of this podcast. So as they all do, Brandon Hargrove, she sees the writing on the wall and going to trial, the prosecution they're going to seek the mac sentence. Right, that's a lot to risk, So she takes the plea deal of all freaking plea deals. I have never seen such a case where you're facing two hundred years in prison and you plead to hold on to yours on this one probation, zero jail time, zero, not one freaking day. Now the details of this. For ten of the felonies that I just read you, she received what's known as deferred adjudication for ten years. Basically that means keep your nose clean, don't get in any trouble for ten years and you're home free. If you get in trouble, you're gonna have to serve your time.

12:28 For the other two charges, she received ten years in prison, but it was all suspended every day of it. As a matter of fact, the only punishment of consequence that she received was lifetime sex offender registration. That's it now. Although there was no trial at the sentencing, her victim did speak in in her victim impact statement, she said, quote, Brandon, I face you today as an adult who now protects the child you once exploited and betrayed. You didn't just break boundaries, you broke a person, and today I go from victim to survivor. And it's important to note that, according to reports, she supported the plea deal, which is her right, and she is the victim, and really her support of whatever deal they make is more important than anybody else's, including mine. But I sure don't support it personally, and it's primarily because other people see that, y'all, and they think I can do this and I won't do any prison time either, and especially the female perpetrators. Now, there are no indications that her husband divorced her, so I think it's safe to assume they're still married. There's nothing out there saying they have filed for divorce or anything.

13:57 And that's kind of bizarre to me. I mean, your wife raped allegedly a fifteen year old and sixteen year old and you know you're still married to her just seems strange to me. Two hundred freaking years y'all. She was looking at and I can't help but think did Dad's political connections play a role in this? What are your thoughts? So let's move on to our next bad teacher. And we're going to get a grape Vine, Texas for this one, which grape Vine, Texas, very large city just outside of Dallas. And I'm going to introduce you to a former English teacher at Killo High School and her name is Elainey Simonson, who in December of nineteen ninety four, was arrested at the age of twenty nine for having a sexual relationship with a sixteen year old male student over forty times. While get ready for this, he was living with her in her home. How did that happen?

15:05 Let's get into it a little about her background before her arrest. She was born in Texas, though it's not clear where in Texas. She graduates high school in twenty thirteen, and she attended Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth and she would get her degree in education. Now, in twenty nineteen, she starts off her teaching career as a teaching assistant at Cannon Elementary School. This is in Great Vine, Texas. And in twenty twenty one she becomes a certified teacher in the state of Texas. Now, it's interesting that along the way she publishes a children's book called Wendell the Weasel, and that book actually becomes really popular among parents. It sells really well. It's on Amazon and all the places. Right. So, in August of twenty twenty two, she takes a job as an English teacher for Killo High School, where she teaches eleventh grade English. It all seems fine until twenty twenty three, and the issues kind of start off early in the year for A Laney. First, on January fourth of twenty twenty three, a restraining order is filed by the husband of A Laney and it's essentially a no contact order. Now, although I have the order in front of me, there's no mention as to what caused the restraining order. It could be something as simple as a

16:35 requirement by the court. Sometimes courts do this because if you're getting a divorce, basically they want to have something in writing saying you can't harass each other and all those sort of things. So it could have been as simple as that, or it could have been much worse, which is what I'm leaning toward, and I'll get into that in just a minute, but it's definitely worth noting. Also of note is the reference of two children. So I have seen some reports where it said her and her husband had three children, and I've seen some where it said two children. This particular restraining order says two children, So that's what I'm going with. Also, around that time, in early twenty twenty three, reports of concerning behavior were made to the school. The school infeigned police and they start investigating these initial reports, and shortly after, in February of twenty twenty three, Simonson resigns from the school. Now it's interesting to me from there that the case gets closed.

17:44 No charges were ever brought against the teacher, and later on police would say when asked about this, that there was just no evidence of any Tom Florey going on if you will, all that would change when in September of the following year, twenty twenty four, a victim who is eighteen years old at the time he reports this. He contacts police and he reports an extended period of sexual assaults that occurred from twenty twenty two to twenty twenty three when he was sixteen, some forty plus instances.

18:26 And notice the timing, y'all, just before her husband filed that restraining order that I told you about. So, according to the warrant, the then sixteen year old victim, who was from Honduras, told his teacher, Simonson, that his uncle was moving out of state and he didn't want to move, and he was kind of venting to her about this. He had a lot of friends at the school and he didn't want to leave, and he's venting to a trusted teacher about this, right so Simonson his teacher, She says, well, if your uncle's good with it, you can stay with me and my family. There's your first red flag right there.

19:09 I mean, what teacher does that You've got a minimum of two kids and a husband, and you're inviting this sixteen year old kid to stay with you. Sounds like Oh, this is a very nice and good thing. I'm sure it happens somewhere and there's nothing nefarious involved, but to me, it's a red flag. I would question that. So the teacher Simonson, she makes that suggestion, and the uncle agrees. In this sixteen year old in twenty twenty two actually moves in with Simonson and her husband and her kids, and he told police that just two weeks after moving in with her, she starts having sex with him, despite the fact that he told her he did not want to do it. And let me stop right there for a second and just say this, there's a perception out there that and some of it is true. I mean, look, when you're a sixteen year old guy, had been a sixteen year old high school guy before. Yes, our hormones raging and all of those sorts of things, and there's a perception out there that we would sleep with everything with a hole, including a tree stump. Right, It's actually not true. That is a fallacy for most people. I'm sure there's exceptions to that, but I would venture to say that most sixteen year olds are not into thirty two year old women, forty year old women. That seems

20:40 old to a sixteen year old flip that around most sixteen year old girls are not interested for the ladies listening out there in forty year old guys. So I believe him when he said I didn't want to sleep with her. He told police he had a problem though, he felt trapped because he was scared if he turned down her advances, he's going to be homeless. So he said, throughout that year of living with her, she would have sex with him over forty times. That's an average of os once a week. Police asked him, Hey, can you prove it? Do you have text or videos or anything? And get this hold on to your hat. Here, The student shows police a nude picture of Simonson that she had texted the student when she got a tattoo of the victim's name, the victim's name on her arm, an actual tattoo, not a temporary tattoo, not something she wrote with a pen. A fucking tattoo of his name. Kind of hard to deny something's going on then, right, Well, police did interview Simonson and she also confirmed, yes, I have a tattoo on my arm of the victim's name and an interesting placement. Right, She's not even trying to hide it. You wear a bathing suit and you're gonna see this sixteen year old's name. But she denied sexual

22:11 activity with him. Well, of course she did, But who puts a freaking tattoo of your sixteen year old student's name on your arm. Simonson also told police she had a tattoo of one of her children's name on her arm as well. Well, that is even weirder to me. Think about this. You're married and you get the name of a sixteen year old student you are having sex with tattooed on your arm. How brazen is that this chick wasn't even worried about getting caught and her husband, he's gonna see that, right. Maybe that is what led up to that restraining order. So there was also other evidence the victim turned over to police, including tons of text messages, and he also told police that Simonson would shower him with gifts, including a car. She bought him a car. Now that's grooming one on one right, and also something that these predators do to earn silence of their victims. Now, I hope here is that the victims will feel bad if they report anything, even if their feelings change, because in this case, she bought me a car, right, how can I turn her over to police when she spent all this money on me? So with all this evidence, Simonson gets arrested. This is on December thirteenth of nineteen ninety four, and she's booked into jail on charges of sexual assault of a child and improper relationship between a student and teacher, and she is released shortly thereafter on bond.

23:47 Now important to note that Simonson denies having sex with this sixteen year old though, as I said, you would expect that. And because this case is still pending, it's also important for me to say this is alleged as of this recording, she's not been found guilty. I need to do that for legal reasons. So where is this case now? Well, since her arrest in December of twenty twenty four, over a year ago, the answer is nowhere. No courtinate is set that I can find. In this case, it appears has just ran dormant. Currently sad state of affairs on this one. Now, keep you posted when and if there are any updates. And let's get to our last bad teacher in Texas today, and that is Katrina Maxwell.

24:44 And Katrina is a former teacher at a high school in Umble, Texas. And y'all, it's spelled like Humble, but it's pronounced if you're from that area, Umble, Texas. I learned that the other day on Crime Wire Weekly, which I host with Kelly Jennings. She was arrested at the age of thirty two in twenty twenty one for allegedly having sex multiple times with a sixteen year old student. And she even became jealous when this student started showing interest in his girlfriend. So let's get into it and Humble texts, y'all, smaller city than most that surrounded Houston, Texas, and that is where Katrina was a teacher. And in August of twenty twenty, she became a teacher at ce King High School. Now I have researched the heck out of this one, and there's just not a whole lot of information out there. Typically I have more background information on teachers, just not a lot on this particular teacher.

25:49 Katrina Maxwell. She wasn't very active on social media. She stayed kind of blow the radar whatever. But what I do is that in October of twenty twenty, that's when she first owner the student victim in this case, and in June of twenty twenty one, a school employee goes to the principal and she reports some strange behavior and her view that was exhibited by Katrina Maxwell as it related to this student. She tells school administrators that she witnessed a situation in which the victim in this case at school, he sat down with his girlfriend at a table and Miss Maxwell got totally pissed, almost as if she was jealous of this sixteen year old girlfriend. She then said that a few weeks later, she witnessed Maxwell throw a pair of scissors at the student's head and now she missed, but she tossed him at this student's head and at apparent jealousy incident again involving this student's girlfriend.

26:59 And I'm gonna poll youre several pictures on the Patreon of everybody we talked about today, but you got to see the booking photo of this particular teacher, Katrina Maxwell. She looks like one that would throw par of scissors at you if she's jealous. Just trust me on that one. So on June eighth of twenty twenty one, the school administrators they meet with Katrina Maxwell and they ask her about all this, and according to the affidavit, Katrina admits in this meeting that she had sex with the student on two occasions in her car. She said she was in love with this student, the sixteen year old, and made a remark that now rather than being known as a good teacher, she would be known as the teacher who quote fucked her student. Well, that's all the school need to hear. They report this to police, and police go interview the student and he not only confirms the multiple encounters in her car, but he also tells police about an incident that took place over spring break in which Maxwell picks him up from his home, brings him to a nearby hotel, and had sex with him. And he said that was the very first time, the very first encounter that they had. So armed with all this, Katrina Maxwell gets arrested on two counts of sexual assault.

28:27 Because she admitted to the two counts, I don't have to prove that. She bonds out on a twenty thousand dollars bond the next day in June of twenty twenty one, and guess what from there? Nothing not a zip, No further updates on whatever happened in this case, which either means it never got resolved or got resolved quietly and she only got probation. But I don't think the latter is the case. As a matter of fact, I'm most positive because even with probation, in almost all cases I've ever come across, and I've looked at hundreds, at the very minimum, you're placed on the sex offender registry, and she ain't on it. She's nowhere on it. I looked, so, come on, Texas. Twenty twenty one was when this arrest took place. We are now in twenty twenty six and nothing. Now, if you know anything about this case, shoot me a message.

29:29 I mean, it's just really strange that this lady had what looks like zero consequences at least up to this point. But to recap for you, Brandon Hargrove, she faced two hundred years in prison, two hundred years, she gets probation. Elaine Simonson faced twenty years plus in prison. There's been no resolution since her arrest in twenty twenty four, and Katrina Maxwell facing years again, nothing, not even a coordinate since twenty twenty one. That's freaking ridiculous. Now, I do want to cover quickly. Texas has some pretty stringent teacher accountability laws, and a lot of people want to know what is Texas put in place to try to stave off all these bad teachers from going after these young students.

30:29 So I'm going to review with you the accountability laws, and it says Texas has robust laws addressing educator accountability, particularly in cases of misconduct involving students, such as inappropriate relationships, sexual contact, grooming, or boundary violations. They fall under both criminal and administrative statutes. And it kind of lists a few of those statutes and then it gets into the key criminal law and it says the core statute is Texas Penal Code twenty one point twelve in Proper Relationship with an Educator and Student, enacted in two thousand and three and expanded over time, notably twenty seventeen via Senate Bill seven. Now, what this statute prohibits. It says it's a crime for any employee of a public or private primary or secondary school, including teachers, coaches, administrators, custudians, et cetera, to engage in sexual contact, intercourse or deviate sexual intercourse with a student enrolled at the school where they work the same acts with a student in the same school district, even if not at the specific school. Online solicitation of a minor toward a student key points, and this is important.

31:47 The law applies regardless of the student's age, even if seventeen plus is the age of consent in Texas, or consent due to the inherent power and balance, covers both physical acts and certain online conduct. So what it's saying there is, if you're eighteen years old and you're a student, a senior in high school, and you're a teacher who is in a position of authority over that student, you can't have sex with them. It's illegal penalty second degree felony, punishable by two to twenty years in prison and fine up to ten thousand dollars. Affirmative defenses. And then it says, rarely applicable, the actor was the spouse of the student, or the actor was no more than three years older, and the relationship predated employment at the school. So what that means is, if you're a twenty one year old teacher and you were dating an eighteen year old and then you get employed at the school in which this student is at, then and only then would it not be considered illegal. The other exception is if you're married to the student. So if the student's eighteen and you're twenty five and you got married because you can get married at eighteen and then you started teaching at the school, you're okay as well. But that's rarely the occasion. Matter of fact, I've not I may research if there's a case that's been that way, because I haven't come across one.

33:16 Additional charges often layered with indecency with a child, sexual assault of a child, or other crimes if the student is under seventeen, potentially leading to sex offender registration. So if the student is under the age of seventeen, you're going to get sex offender registration status automatically. Then it goes into mandatory reporting. It says educators and school officials face strict mandatory reporting laws under the Texas Education Code. And what that means, y'all is if you know that a teacher is having sex with a student or you suspect it, it's illegal for you not to report that. Principles must report certain misconduct. So if someone comes to you and they tell you, I think XYZ teacher is having an inappropriate relationship with a student, you as a principal better report that you can't keep it under wraps or you're criminally libel in that situation. Other relevant laws.

34:18 Senate Bill seven twenty seventeen expanded the improper relationship law district wide, adding penalties for fate or report and mandated automatic revocation for many sex offenses. So if you have sex offenses on your record, Senate Bill seven in twenty seventeen said that you cannot work as a teacher in a school or janitor or anything else with sex offense status or any sexually related if you have rate charges, etc. So that's just some of the laws that exist in Texas. It seems like they have some pretty good laws to stave off this stuff. But let me I tell you, Texas, it ain't working, cause you're one of the worst states when it comes to teacher students, sexual relationships being uncovered, and people getting arrested for this shit. But that's what I have for you today for the state of Texas.

35:16 And next week I will continue this series, and I think for this one, let's get to Georgia for this one and I'll cover three bad teacher cases from that State and check out the Patreon. I'm uploading a lot of extras on this episode of Bad Teachers, including pictures and files. You'll also get early ad free releases and more patreon dot com exposed podcast files. I would love your support. I could not do this without the support of my Patreon members. Thank you so much. And check out Cozy Earth. Use my code exposed for forty one percent off at checkout look. They have the best sheet sets and comforters I have ever slept on, no shit, I have always been a bad sleeper y'all. And Cozy Earth forty one percent off. You can go there right now.

36:15 Just check it out. Check out all the things they have. It's not just sheet sets and comforters. Everything they produce is that soft bamboo fabric. They have pajama sets, they have pillows sets, you name it. Cozyearth dot com. Use my coat exposed all caps for forty one percent off your order. You can't beat that anywhere. And until next time for exposed scandalous files of the elite, I'm your host, Jim Chapman. Much love. Do you want the