Julian Willis Sex Crimes Trial Set for June 21

J425 reviews the charges, allegations, evidence, timeline and key players in the case against the former coach and teacher. Also: ten victims across three states, tracking the madness of Julian Willis

The charges filed against Willis last October. He is scheduled to stand trial on June 21, 2024.

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SNOHOMISH COUNTY COURTHOUSE — Julian Willis, former assistant football coach, substitute teacher and paraeducator at Kamiak High School is scheduled to stand trial on three felony counts of First Degree Sexual Misconduct with a Minor on June 21, 2024 at Snohomish County Superior Court. Each charge carries a possible sixty month prison term, a $10,000 fine and mandatory inclusion on the federal sex offender registry.

This disturbing story first came to light on May of 2023, when J425 revealed that Willis was under investigation for having sex with a minor student at Kamiak High School. In the months that followed, we learned that players and coaches within the Kamiak program were aware of Willis’ behavior months before reports were filed, and that the former head coach at Kamiak provided investigators and school officials with misleading information regarding the source and date of information about Willis’ sex crimes inside the Kamiak football program. Before we could dig into this evident cover up, or figure out why Willis had even been hired in the first place, given an arrest record that included domestic violence, assault and violation of no contact orders… Willis was making headlines again after he chased a Lake Stevens girl around Haggen and followed her in his car on Fathers Day. News of the Lake Stevens incident brought forward a series of new allegations, and by late June, at least ten victims had been identified across three states. Willis was arrested on June 30 and we learned that he was a match for the DNA samples pulled from the carpets of Kamiak portables. We also learned that every major point of the Kamiak victim’s narrative had been corroborated through phone evidence, employment records, geolocation data and third-party testimony. Police now could show that Willis had been present at the times and places alleged by the victim, and Willis was also linked genetically to material found on the carpet at the site of one alleged crime. However, Willis made bond and the charges were quickly dropped. That wasn’t the end though: on October 3, 2023, prosecutors filed new felony sex crime charges against Willis.

Since then, Willis has seen the conditions of his release tightened as he awaits trial by jury. That trial is now weeks away, scheduled for June 21, 2024 at Snohomish County Superior Court. We figured now is as good of a time as any to revisit the Willis matter and provide a detailed summary of the events that have occurred thus far. This report will focus on Willis specifically, our next report will focus on the disturbing questions left at Kamiak after the football coach responsible for hiring and supervising Willis misled officials and investigators regarding his knowledge about Willis’ behavior. The former coach and a player both were less than truthful in initial police interviews, and later reporting revealed that at least two other assistant coaches had involvement in the matter and that multiple players and coaches had knowledge of Willis' behavior month before anything was done to stop him. In the next report, we look at failures that occurred at Kamiak and inside the football program and what – if anything – has been done to get to the bottom of what exactly occurred and to make sure it doesn’t happen again. Today, we walk you through the precise charges Willis faces, we’ll cover what it’ll take to convict Willis, we’ll walk you through the allegations and analyze whether evidence supports the charges, and we’ll update you on the growing list of Willis victims as well as detailing the timeline from the beginning of Willis’ alleged Kamiak predations up to the current date.

Let’s go: 

What is Willis Charged with and What Does it Mean?

• Julian Willis is charged with three counts of First Degree Sexual Misconduct with a Minor, a Class C felony that comes with mandatory lifetime sex offender registry. 

• A person is guilty of sexual misconduct with a minor in the first degree when the person is a school employee who has sexual intercourse with an enrolled student of the school who is between 16 and 21-years-old, if the employee is at least five years older than the student. 

• To achieve a guilty verdict, prosecutors must prove that Willis had sexual contact with the alleged victim. The other conditions are already met: Willis was an employee, the victim was between 16 and 21 and a student at Kamiak. 

  What Exactly is Alleged? 

• Investigators say that Willis had sex at least five times with a 17-year-old Kamiak student that he met while coaching football. The girl was a volunteer manager with the football program, under then head coach Bryant Thomas. 

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Case Narrative

The victim said that Willis began “hitting on her” in September by “casually flirting” with her and complimenting her on her hair and appearance. The victim assumed that Willis thought she wasn’t a student. To clarify, she informed Willis that she was a student.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Willis replied.

Willis continued to flirt with her at practices and games, and the victim said she assumed it was innocent, as he was an adult and a coach and therefore would not entertain the thought of a romantic relationship with a student. At one game, Willis upped the level of his conversation, asking the girl many questions about her age, grade and hobbies.