Waco police investigators did not visit the Alta Vista Montessori Magnet School campus until two months after a 5-year-old girl accused her teacher of repeatedly sexually assaulting her there, school records show and police confirmed.

While 39-year-old Fernando Antonio Campos was accused of molestation Nov. 30, 2009, school records reveal other children in his kindergarten class were not interviewed by Waco police until Feb. 4.

Two days after Campos’ March 22 arrest, a 6-year-old boy told police the teacher had exposed himself to him during class, Waco police officer Steve Anderson said.

The boy was interviewed at Waco’s Advocacy Center for Crime Victims and Children, and Anderson said police Friday obtained an arrest warrant.

A new charge — indecency with a child by contact — was added to the charges he faces of continuous sexual abuse of a child and inappropriate relationship between educator and student.

In the weeks after the arrest, the Waco Independent School District has been criticized by Waco police detective Fabian Klecka, as well as parents and board members, for returning Campos to his classroom while the allegations were under criminal investigation.

The teacher was suspended with pay for 15 days in December while the principal led an inquiry that found no wrongdoing.

Waco ISD Superintendent Roland Hernandez (in white shirt) talks at a Thursday meeting about proposed new procedures for dealing with allegations of abuse. Board members pictured are (from left) President Allen Sykes, David Schleicher and Norman Manning.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald

Case inconsistencies

Eighty-five pages of school district e-mails and typed and handwritten administrative notes acquired by the Tribune-Herald through the Freedom of Information Act reveal inconsistencies between accounts by Waco police and the school district of the events leading up to Campos’ arrest.

On Dec. 15, a day before Campos was approved to return to class, a memo written by former WISD human resources chief Robbie Edwards Maness reveals school officials tried to contact Klecka and states that “they have not had a call or recommendation from the detective.”

But the Waco police detective told the Tribune-Herald March 23 that both he and attorneys with Child Protective Services told district officials not to allow Campos to continue teaching while the WPD investigation continued.

“The school district totally dropped the ball,” Klecka said at the time. “They put him back to work.”

CPS officials have declined to comment on the case.

The student’s mother reported to Alta Vista principal Rochelle Peters, who left her job this month, and to CPS on Dec. 1 that the child told her the night before that Campos had touched her in her private area daily while she was in his class. The child, who transferred to a different Waco school, underwent a forensic exam at a Waco hospital that day, and Klecka was assigned to the case.

Waco school administrators suspended Campos with pay on Dec. 2.

The Mexican national returned to class Dec. 17. Three weeks later, a CPS caseworker told administrators they had “reason to believe” the accusation, records show.

Calls to Waco Police Chief Brent Stroman, Assistant Chief Frank Gentsch, Sgt. Scott Holt and Klecka seeking comment on the investigation were not returned.

Sgt. Melvin Roseborough and Anderson, speaking on the department’s behalf, refused to meet with the Tribune-Herald to explain inconsistencies in Klecka’s account of the school district’s failures and the district’s reports that reveal school officials’ frustrations with police.

“Our stance on it is that we did an investigation, we found probable cause to further the investigation, an arrest was made, and now the case will be handled by the district attorney’s office,” Anderson said. “We are not going to comment on school district e-mails.”

The investigation

Typically, a crime that is reported to have happened on district property is investigated by Waco ISD police.

Crimes reported on campuses after 5 p.m. or crimes reported off-campus fall in the jurisdiction of Waco police.

The school records indicate Waco ISD Police Chief Gil Miller ceded the ongoing investigation to the city detective but kept tabs on it.

According to the district records:

*  In a Jan. 11 e-mail exchange with the human resources director, Miller stated he tried to reach Klecka the previous week for a status report, but the detective was off work. Miller also describes a conversation with a forensic interviewer who worked with the child.

“Kind of leaves us in a jam,” Miller’s e-mail stated. “The Advocacy Center folks feel that something happened and that the teacher was involved. Castro (sic) is willing to take a polygraph to clear himself. However, the Waco PD has not scheduled it.”

Later in the e-mail exchange, Miller said he will push further.

“Klecka is the one that should be pushing this to conclusion,” it stated. “I will get with his supervisor and light the burner.”

*  On Jan. 13, Miller e-mailed Stroman and Gentsch stating that Klecka has not been to the school to interview the other children in the class. Miller writes he has seen “no movement on the case.”

“(I) would never question another officer’s investigative techniques,” Miller wrote. “I am simply asking if there is any way that we can move this case to completion so that the teacher can be dealt with either by filing (charges) on him or clearing him.”

The next day, Gentsch returned Miller’s e-mail, telling him police “have probable cause to make an arrest; the child’s story has been corroborated.” He said Klecka and his supervisor were in the process of setting up a lie-detector test for Campos.

Campos wasn’t arrested until more than two months later.

Roseborough explained last week that the corroborating evidence Gentsch spoke of was that the alleged victim told the same story of abuse during “several days” to detectives, a forensic interviewer and a nurse trained to perform exams on sexual assault victims.

He said developing probable cause in an investigation means that officers have “enough information to convince us that a crime may have occurred.”

He said: “We investigate allegations as thoroughly as possible to ensure that evidence, statements and other components of the investigation are complete and accurate before we take away a person’s civil liberties or freedom of movement by arresting them.”

When asked whether there is a difference between “probable cause to make an arrest” and “probable cause,” police declined comment. They also refused to say how long a typical sexual assault case could take an investigator to complete or, generally, how an investigation unfolds.

According to Waco ISD documents, a Waco police investigator first visited Alta Vista on Feb. 3, taking pictures of the classroom and questioning the accused teacher.

The documents state that the detective returned the next day to speak to two students.

On March 2, a memo written by Maness states that Klecka returned to campus that day and was “very complimentary of the district’s work and cooperation.” He spoke to four children and Campos’ aide, the district documents state.

An arrest warrant affidavit states that the aide witnessed one of the instances of abuse, seeing Campos near the child.

When Campos saw her, his demeanor changed, he shoved the child away from him, and he tried to distract her, the affidavit states.

Conflicting reports

The day after Klecka arrested Campos, he told the Tribune-Herald : “(The district) knew I was actively investigating. I made several trips up there to talk to students and teachers. . . . Every witness I talked to — every student, every teacher — never talked to them (school officials).”

But district documents reveal that within two hours of hearing the abuse allegations Dec. 1, Peters talked with Campos and notified human resources, Miller and CPS.

The next day, Peters interviewed the aide, Twyla Moody, who told her that she had been uneasy about Campos’ closeness to the child, but did not see him sexually molest her, the documents state.

Two days later, district documents state that Peters interviewed each of Campos’ students and none of them told her of any abuse.

In the wake of Campos’ arrest, WISD trustees questioned the role of the district in investigating criminal allegations.

They also are considering changes to the district’s policies relating to criminal complaints against staffers and are evaluating the performance of Superintendent Roland Hernandez.

Peters and Maness took administrative leave this month and will retire at the end of the school year.

Campos, who is under contract with WISD until the end of the school year, is being held in the McLennan County Jail on $575,000 bond. He cannot be released on bond because he is not a citizen.

His attorney, Stan Schwieger, declined comment.

Staff writer Wendy Gragg contributed to this story.

equinn@wacotrib.com

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