Ex-CISD teacher enters guilty plea for sexually assaulting student

Brandon K. Scott

A former Conroe ISD intermediate school teacher will serve 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree felony aggravated sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl who was once his student.

Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Harold Gregory Goodrum, 37, last October, after the child’s mother reported the assault to authorities.

Goodrum’s defense attorney E. Tay Bond said the plea agreement was the best possible outcome for Goodrum, based on the statement from the complaining witness about intricate details of the relationship and a thorough investigation by the Conroe Independent School District Police Department.

First-degree felonies carry a punishment range of five to 99 years in prison. Goodrum had been charged with two counts, but agreed to the 10-year prison sentence on just one charge.

“We felt it was better to reach an agreement if one could be reached, as opposed to going to trial,” Bond said. “There were some issues that the defense investigated and developed, which allowed us to reach an agreement short of trial and for only 10 years on one count.”

The warrant affidavit against Goodrum, a former social studies teacher at Cox Intermediate, states interaction with the student began when he offered to tutor her after school.

Goodrum admitted to Conroe ISD investigator Alex Hardesty in an interview October 7, 2013 that he showered the victim with gifts, including an iPad for Christmas 2010, an iPod for Christmas 2012 and $200 to by Christmas presents.

The victim, who attended the middle school from 2008 until she withdrew just one month before the school year ended in 2010, told a forensic interviewer at the Children’s Safe Harbor that she viewed Goodrum as a father figure, since her parents were divorced. But eventually they started having cookies and drinks together and she later learned Goodrum viewed her as a girlfriend, the affidavit says.

He gave her pre-paid cell phones, shoes and perfumes over a three-year period. Goodrum would also leave her love notes in her locker and through email.

Two documented assaults, ‘sexting’

The first time Goodrum brought her to his Woodlands apartment was August 18, 2010, the Wednesday before school started at Arnold Middle School in the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District, where the victim had recently enrolled.

She had been staying with her older sister at her grandmother’s house for a couple of weeks before school started. The victim told Hardesty that prior to this day, Goodrum called her continuously and dropped off money and gifts at her apartment.

But when she was staying with her sister and grandmother, Goodrum stopped by when neither was home and took her to his apartment in the 2400 block of Sawdust Road.

He told her his roommate was not home, showed her his bedroom, then “he grabbed me and put me on the bed,” the affidavit says.

The victim reported forced penetration through sexual intercourse and that two days later, “they did it again.”

She also told investigators the two exchanged nude photos of each other using cell phones, which was corroborated by evidence collected.

Reluctance, emotional issues

While Goodrum admitted to providing gifts to the victim, he told investigators that he never transported her in his vehicle, or invited her into his apartment.

He said there was no sexual relationship and that he would only drop off the gifts.

The victim’s mother reported to a Cypress-Fairbanks ISD Sgt. Carol Gray that her daughter, now 16 years old, mentioned on multiple occasions said she had a secret to tell once she turned 18.

She had been reluctant to share the abusers name with her mother and Sgt. Gray because she did not want to “ruin anybody’s life,” but eventually identified Goodrum after a counselor spoke with her about the seriousness of the situation.

The victim was experiencing emotional issues dealing with the situation, her mother said, and online communication with Goodrum did not end until 2012.

Goodrum is being held at the Montgomery County Jail awaiting to be assigned to a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison unit.

Source: yourhoustonnews