More charges filed against Brownsville high school assistant principal

BROWNSVILLE — Seven new charges have been brought against a suspended Porter High School administrator involving improper activity with female students, police said.

James Camden McKinney, 48, an assistant principal at the high school, turned himself in to Brownsville Independent School District police Tuesday afternoon after finding out he was wanted on new charges, his attorney, Robert Garza, said.

McKinney had originally been arrested in November after BISD police charged him with online solicitation of a minor, after a three-week investigation into a 15-year-old student’s allegations that McKinney made sexual advances via cell phone text messages, court records show.

McKinney was arraigned Wednesday before Municipal Judge Ignacio Torteya III on four charges of improper relations between educator and student, involving four female students. The judge set bonds totaling $400,000. Later in the day, three more charges, involving another student, were brought against McKinney.

The additional charges were indecency with a child, online solicitation of a minor and improper relations between an educator and student, said Jason Moody, a spokesman for the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office. Bonds totaling $110,000 were set on those three charges.

Following the morning arraignment, McKinney was transported to the Carrizalez-Rucker Detention Center in Olmito after failing to post bond.

Prosecutors said that McKinney is accused of soliciting sex from six students via text messages.

The charges stem from a still-ongoing investigation that began in October when McKinney was accused by another student, a 15-year-old, of sending text messages soliciting sex in exchange for money, records show. McKinney was arrested in mid-November and charged with online solicitation of a minor and later released on a $40,000 bond.

In all he has been charged with eight offenses involving the six students. All the offenses were said to have occurred on the weekend of Oct. 16, court records show.

After the initial arrest, BISD police received information that McKinney had contacted other students in a similar manner and on Nov. 25 received a grand jury subpoena that allowed authorities to seize McKinney's phone records, court records show.

The search revealed that the six female students, ages 15, 16 and 17, had been contacted by McKinney on the same weekend that the first offense took place, asking them to engage in sexual intercourse with him, a criminal complaint says.

One of the students told investigators that McKinney had asked her to be his girlfriend and in return he would buy her anything she wanted, records show.

Another student claimed that the assistant principal offered to pay $100 to her if she engaged in sexual activity, the complaint said.

Some of the students stated that McKinney had also requested sexy pictures of them, records further show.

McKinney has been suspended from the school since the investigation began in October, said his defense attorney, Robert Garza.

McKinney has been employed by BISD for more than 20 years, he added.

“I think the bond was exceedingly high,” Garza said. “This is a man with deep roots; he is not a flight risk. We plan on fighting this till the end.”

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Ildefonso Ortiz is a reporter for The Brownsville Herald.