Kamiak Coach: “What I Want to Do... Would Get Us Both in A Lot of Trouble”
Detailing five increasingly painful episodes in which a 17-year-old student is used by an adult she trusted. J425 details the events at the core of the investigation.
Editor’s Note: Investigators say Julian Willis leveraged his role as a Kamiak High School football coach to access his minor victim, increasing his attention and flirting with the girl at football events — the girl was a volunteer athletic manager — before arranging an off-campus meet-up in November. Over the next five months, Willis had at least five sexual encounters with the girl — including two on the high school campus and one during the school day. Without exception, the girl found the sexual encounters painful and uncomfortable.
Detectives tracked the matter down with increased urgency and currently hold probable cause relating at least two felony minor-involved sex crimes. Yesterday, the investigation went public —our story is now unlocked — and MSD had seen enough to fire Willis.
Now, J425 will ask you to turn your attention from the cops and bad guys… the person most irreparably harmed: a girl who showed up to Kamiak football last September in order to lend a hand to the injured players and those taking care of them.
We apologize in advance for the disturbing and graphic nature of the reporting. Wherever possible, we will directly quote investigators — investigators who refer to the girl as a sexual assault victim for reasons that will become apparent. However disturbing it is to read the material, I believe we have an obligation to NOT look away. It’s far too easy to simply table the matter, to brush it aside and forget about it. That’s the attitude that creates more victims and less convictions. And J425 is committed to change that attitude through reporting and attitude. In fact, check out our reporting on our local predator issue. - KTH
“If I Hadn’t Met My Wife First…”
From substitute to subject: of criminal investigation
HARBOUR POINTE - Initially, the girl believed the man mistook her for an adult. When she told him she was actually an underage student, he reportedly replied, “I’ll keep that in mind.”
The girl later found out that far from thinking of her as an adult, the man believed she was actually younger than her actual age.
She describes an incident at a football game where he referred to her as a sophomore and was initially unconvinced when she informed him she was a senior.
In response, he allegedly told her that she “didn’t look like a senior” before complimenting her on her appearance.
Still, the girl said she assumed his behavior was innocent: he was an adult; and an adult wouldn’t attempt a physical relationship with a student.
The victim told detectives that he began to give her "looks" and size her up during football games, as if he was "curious" and wanted to get to know her "sexually."
Eventually the looks and flirting became less subtle:
“What I want to do would get us both in a lot of trouble,” the coach reportedly told the girl, adding that he didn’t care and wanted to risk it, suggesting that they find a place outside of school to meet up.
1. Painful Attempts at Sex from the Closet Floor of an Empty House
On November 10, the educator picked the girl up near her home, took her to an empty house that he had access to through a realty business, placed her on the floor of a closet and attempted to have sex with her.
“It hurt too much,” the victim told the detectives, describing her state of mind.
She knew what was happening was wrong, she was most concerned about her mom finding out.
She said she could smell Julian's smokey musk and could smell his penis.
"I just kept on trying to look at one thing to try and distract me,” she said.
She noted a tattoo on Julian's neck that said "I love you" in French!
and she closed her eyes a lot, and "so a lot of that was all black.
As she laid on the carpet in the closet, she was too scared to say anything because he’d warned her that if she told anybody about what was happening, something bad would happen to them both, that his life would be ruined, and her reputation tarnished.
"I tried to just hold my breath in and take it,” she said to detectives.
Eventually, Julian ejaculated on her back.
She remembers being in a lot of pain and not being able to walk properly.
Julian dropped her off at home, joking about her status as a minor: "you're almost 18, a couple more months left".
The Second Time: Pulled from Class to the Portable
Detectives describe a second instance occurring during the school day in a portable classroom while Willis substituted at Kamiak.
Willis tracked down the victim at a neighboring room, interrupted the victim’s class, while signaling for her to leave class and meet him outside.
When she did, he took her to an unoccupied classroom, locked the door, closed the blinds and ….again subjected the girl to considerable pain.
Quoting directly from court files:
Julian tried unsuccessfully to insert his penis in her vagina, she said she was in a lot of pain which got worse the more Julian tried to insert his penis into her vagina.
To get him to stop, said she misled Julian into believing she was climaxing.
Julian ejaculated on the floor and cleaned up his semen shortly after, rushing her out because he had a class coming in after lunch.
The girl told detectives she experienced pain throughout the day when she sat.
The Third and Fourth Episodes
Probable cause documents detail three more painful sexual encounters between the minor student and the educator, each one increasingly aggressive and uncomfortable for the girl.
Like the 2nd incident, the fourth incident occurred in a portable classroom.
Julian texted the victim saying he was at "Coach Macs's" (the current 2023 head football coach) portable.
Julian let her in, locked the door and closed the blinds, and gave her a look she had come to recognize as him wanting to get physical.
She said she went over to him, sat on one of his thighs and they started kissing.
She said she performed oral sex on him and said Julian did not "finish" and did not want to finish as he wanted to try again for sex:
Julian put her on a student's desk, pulled down her underwear, and tried multiple times to insert his penis into her vagina. She said she felt very uncomfortable.
At one point during his attempted penetration, Julian placed his hand firmly on her throat, which surprised her a bit, but she wrote it off as him being "kinky."
She said she tried to endure a bit of pain because she knew Julian wanted to have full sexual intercourse, and she wanted to satisfy him.
She said Julian told her a few times to be quiet because he was sure there was a teacher in the adjoining portable (#3).
She was again in pain and felt uncomfortable, and so she led Julian to believe she was climaxing.
Julian ejaculated on the floor shortly after hearing that and immediately was in a rush to get to Cascade High School, where he coached Track & Field — (and he didn’t clean up).
As they were leaving the girl said a female teacher was also coming out of the next portable classroom. She said she did not know the teacher or her name.
Editor’s Note: In his rush to leave campus after this episode, Willis apparently didn’t clean up as well. This may come back to cost him. Detectives worked with the victim to recreate exactly where the sexual encounters occurred. At some point detectives realized that there was a good chance that genetic material could be located in the carpet. They took the matter to a judge who issued a warrant stating he believed a search would turn up genetic material linking Willis to the location — and the crimes. Mukilteo detectives pulled carpet from the two Kamiak portables in the last week of April. The evidence has likely been sent out to the Washington State Crime Lab for testing.
The final sexual encounter is the most disturbing
And we arrive at the fifth encounter between the teacher and the girl, occuring just eight days before a community member blew the whistle on the predatory activity.
Once again, take a deep breathe and don’t look away. From the probable cause documents
The last episode occurs in Julian’s Camaro, driven to the end of a cul-de-sac. The victim states that she felt strange and uncomfortable for some reason from the get go. Perhaps she had a sense of what was to come next. From the affadavit:
Julian told her how much he had missed her and began kissing her.
She said she saw the look on his face and recognized he wanted to get physical sexually.
She then said that 33-year-old Julian pulled his pants down, and had her — the 17-year-old student perform oral sex on him — while he began to cause her pain.
From the report:
Julian inserted his fingers in her vagina, but she told him to stop as it felt uncomfortable.
(He didn’t stop).
She said Julian ejaculated in her throat and continued "aggressively" touching her vaginal area.
Julian stopped after she told him she had climaxed.
Evidently unable to read a room, Julian began waxing romantic as soon as this disturbing sexual episode concluded.
- He told her he wished they were the same age and had gone to high school around the same time.
- He said they would have been the "best couple."
- He told her he would’ve made her think about a life with him — if he had not met his wife.
This would be the last time they met.
Eight days later an anonymous complaint was submitted to Kamiak staff.
Mukilteo Police say the complaint – which did not initially identify a victim – was made to former head football coach and current Dean of Students at Kamiak, Bryant Thomas.
From there, Thomas brought in a school resource officer (SRO), and – according to a detective’s affadavit – “directed (the SRO) to speak with another student and a football player… who would know more about the inappropriate relationship.”
Why Thomas felt a specific football player would have knowledge about an anonymous misconduct complaint that failed to identify a victim isn’t explained.
The player is then interviewed by the SRO and “other staff members” but denies direct knowledge.
Ultimately, detectives say that Thomas provides the name of the victim to the SRO– after a private discussion with the football player. Again, this isn’t explained.
Eleven days later, Mukilteo Detective Eric Ofori is assigned to “follow up allegations of an inappropriate relationship between a Kamiak High School student and a staff member.”
Ofori ultimately develops the case and the probable cause affidavit that identified Willis as the subject of a felony sexual misconduct investigation emanating from an improper relationship with a student.
More on the status of the criminal investigation, including whether Willis can expect charges in the near future and whether additional victims have surfaced — in our next report.
We will also look at what actions the district has taken — if any — to discuss the matter with students and parents - and to ensure that it’s not so easy next time for a substitute teacher to to pull a minor student from a class for the purposes of sexual interludes in another coach’s classroom.
Previously:
